Overseas Media Take Critical Line Following Publication

By Aine Mcmahon
Irish Times
February 6, 2013

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2013/0206/1224329707399.html?via=rel

The long-awaited report into the Magdalene laundries made headlines around the world when it was published yesterday afternoon.

The Financial Times reported: “No apology for Magdalene laundry inmates.” The BBC website used the headline: “Irish PM: Magdalene laundries product of harsh Ireland.”

‘Enslavement’

A tweet from the BBC breaking news Twitter account earlier that day noted: “Irish PM apologises for conditions in #Magdalene laundries, workhouses where thousands of women were locked up from 1922 to 1996.”

The Guardian’s website covered the story under the heading: “Magdalene laundries: Ireland accepts state guilt in scandal. McAleese report finds police also bore responsibility in ‘enslavement’ of more than 30,000 women in institutions.”

In the United States CBS News said: “Ireland admits involvement in Catholic laundry slavery”, while CNN said: “Irish state sent thousands of women to infamous workhouses.”

Fox News said: “Report says Ireland’s government oversaw harsh Catholic laundries.”

Some international news outlets reported that Taoiseach Enda Kenny or the Government had apologised to the victims of the Magdalene laundries.

The Daily Telegraph website in London carried a report that “survivors of the Magdalene Laundries have rejected an apology from the Irish prime minister about the conditions in the church-run laundries where women and girls toiled”.

The Daily Mail’s online coverage ran under a headline that read: “Irish government apologises to thousands of women locked up and brutalised by Catholic nuns in infamous Magdalene laundries.”

‘Compensation’

The introduction to the article said: “The Irish Government has apologised to the thousands of women who were locked-up in the infamous Magdalene laundries between 1922 and 1996, but stopped short of offering compensation for their suffering.”

Sky News’s website reported that “Ireland’s prime minister has apologised to thousands of women sent to Catholic-run workhouses where they were subjected to a regime of hard work and prayer.”

Helplines

Connect

from 6-10pm each evening for the rest of the week: 1800-477477 from the Republic of Ireland and 00800-47747777 from Northern Ireland or the UK.

Justice for Magdalenes

086-1267544 from Ireland or 0044-2083467479 from the UK.

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