Magdalene: Kenny Declines to Apologise for State Role

By Michael Brennan Deputy
Irish Independent
February 5, 2013

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/magdalene-kenny-declines-to-apologise-for-state-role-3377634.html

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny has declined to apologise for the state's role in admitting women to the Magdalene Laundries.

Around 10,000 women were kept in the ten laundries run by four religious congregations between 1922 and 1996.

The Dail has heard that a new report by former Senator Martin McAleese that the state was involved in the admittance of around one quarter of the women.

Mr Kenny told the Dail that the women had been sent into the laundries during a time when there was a harsh, uncompromising and authoritarian Ireland.