IRELAND
The National
Omar Karmi
Feb 6, 2013
LONDON //A government panel in Ireland has found “significant” state involvement with workhouses run by the Roman Catholic church that have been singled out for mistreating tens of thousands of women over a period of 70 years.
The panel’s report yesterday prompted an immediate but qualified apology from Enda Kenny, the Irish prime minister, who said he was “sorry for the conditions” in which those women had lived.
But during an initial debate in the Irish parliament, he stopped short of offering a full official apology, as had been called for by campaigners, and cautioned against “glib” comments about a report that he said should be studied and would be debated again in two weeks.
Since 2001, the Irish government has conceded that women were abused in the Magdalene laundries but held that, since they were privately run, there was no state responsibility.
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