The Remnants of the Magdalene Laundries

Sunday World
May 25, 2013

http://www.sundayworld.com/top-stories/news/the-remnants-of-the-magdalene-laundries

According to Dublin City Council the last Magdalene Laundry to close will soon become housing.

The building on Sean McDermott street in Dublin city is derelict but will be renovated and converted into housing.

The laundry was the last one in the country to close in 1996.

The malpractice that went on behind the closed doors of the Magdalene Laundries has been brought to light in recent years following a number of reports and investigations.

Thousands of women have come forward over the years and made complaints about the treatment of women in the Laundries.

But the remnants of the Laundries and the women who were imprisoned in them are slowly dissipating.

The last known survivor of the Magdalene institutions, Madge O'Connell, died 10 days ago at the age of 97.

She had been born in 1916 and spent much of her life as a slave of the Laundries.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny recently apologized on behalf of the state for the suffering that women endured under the care of the Magdalene Laundries.

He said, "I, as Taoiseach, on behalf of the State, the government and our citizens deeply regret and apologise unreservedly to all those women for the hurt that was done to them, and for any stigma they suffered, as a result of the time they spent in a Magdalene Laundry."