IRELAND
Los Angeles Times
By Emily Alpert
February 19, 2013
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny offered an emotional apology Tuesday for government involvement in a harsh system of laundries run by Roman Catholic nuns, where women and girls labored long hours behind locked doors, unpaid and often bewildered about why they were there.
“As a society, for many years we failed you,” Kenny said in a televised official apology Tuesday before the Irish Parliament. “This is a national shame.”
Kenny stopped, his voice breaking, and then concluded, “Let me hope that this day and this debate heralds a new dawn for all those who feared that the dark midnight might never end.”
The apology came two weeks after a report found that the Irish government had been involved in the infamous Magdalen laundries, helping to send girls and women into the workhouses, paying them through government programs and contracts, and bringing runaways back in the hands of police.
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