Steve Humphries Miriam Akhtar

The Magdalene laundries in Ireland, also known as Magdalene asylums, were institutions usually run by Roman Catholic orders, which 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. In 1993, unmarked graves of 155 women were uncovered in the convent grounds of one of the laundries. This led to…