IRELAND
Yahoo! News

By Padraic Halpin | Reuters

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny was criticized by his government’s junior coalition partner on Wednesday for not issuing the state apology sought by ex-inmates of the notorious Magdalene Laundries following a damning report.

More than a quarter of the women and girls subjected to harsh discipline and unpaid work at the 10 laundries, run by Catholic nuns, were sent there by the Irish state, an official report that ran to almost 1,000 pages said on Tuesday.

The laundries have been accused of treating inmates like slaves for decades of the 20th century, imposing a regime of fear and prayer on girls sometimes put in their care for falling pregnant outside wedlock. One in 10 inmates died in care, the youngest at 15.

Kenny said on Wednesday that he was sorry for the women who had to live in…