IRELAND
The Sun
By JENNIFER TIPPETT
MORE than 10,000 women and girls were forced to do unpaid labour in workhouses run by Catholic nuns in Ireland between 1922 and 1996.
Following Irish PM Enda Kenny’s apology for the atrocity last week, hundreds of women have already come forward – each potentially due thousands of pounds in compensation.
Here one survivor tells of her harrowing life inside one of the Magdalene Laundries.
FORCED into hard labour at the tender age of 14, Kathleen Legg’s only crime was being born out of wedlock.
The Magdalene Laundries seemed the perfect solution to hide her “shameful secret”.
Kathleen, now 77, was sent to St Mary’s Training School, Stanhope Street, Dublin, where she lived and worked in horrific conditions.
Although it happened more than 60 years ago, she still can’t erase her memories of life in the laundry.
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