IRELAND
The Guardian (United Kingdom)
Henry McDonald in Dublin
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 February 2013 11.25 EST
Ireland has officially recognised the state’s guilt in the “enslavement” of more than 30,000 women, most of whom were sent against their will into church-run institutions where they received no pay, no pension and no social protection.
Labelled the “Maggies”, the women were sent to the Magdalene laundries where they worked for nothing, serving in some cases “life sentences” simply for being unmarried mothers or regarded as morally wayward.
On Tuesday, a report headed by Irish senator Martin McAleese found that the state and the Irish police force bore a major responsibility for sending the women there and failing to protect their rights as workers. The laundries were not private and the vast majority of women and girls were sent there against their own wishes.
The McAleese report also concluded that the women were used as free labour and that Irish labour laws from the state’s foundation were continually broken inside the laundries.
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