Magdalene laundries in Ireland

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The Magdalene laundries in Ireland, also known as Magdalene asylums, were institutions run by a broad range of Protestant and Catholic individuals and groups. Over the years they came to be run primarily by Roman Catholic orders, and operated from the 18th to the late 20th century. They were run ostensibly to house "fallen women", an estimated 30,000 of whom were confined in these institutions in Ireland. They functioned as penitentiary workhouses in which women did laundry for income for the religious individuals and groups who ran them. In 1993, unmarked graves of 155 women were uncovered in the convent grounds of one of the laundries. This led to media revelations about the operations of the secretive institutions. A formal state apology was issued in 2014, and a compensation scheme for survivors was set up by the Irish Government, which by 2022 and after an extension of the scheme had paid out €32.8 million to 814 survivors. The religious orders and churches which operated the laundries...

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