IRELAND
Irish Independent
By Ed Carty
Monday February 04 2013
SURVIVORS of Catholic-run workhouses in Ireland are awaiting an apology from state and church over their forced detention in the institutions.
A report being published tomorrow is expected to formally reveal the extent of the Irish government’s knowledge, involvement and responsibility for what went on in Magdalene laundries.
A committee, chaired by Senator Martin McAleese who has since resigned from politics, spent 18 months establishing the role official Ireland played in the operation of the institutions between 1922 and 1996.
Over the 74 years, thousands of single mothers and other women were put to work in detention, mostly in industrial for-profit laundries run by nuns from four religious congregations.
Each woman had her Christian name changed, her surname unused and most have since died.
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