Justice for Magdalenes Ireland: Submission to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review

Abstract

Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries were residential, commercial and for-profit laundries operated in Catholic convents by four orders of nuns: The Sisters of Mercyi , The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, ii the Sisters of Charity,iii and the Good Shepherd Sisters.iv Between the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922v and 1996, when the last institution closed, an as yet unknown number of Irish girls and women, estimated to be in the tens of thousands, were incarcerated in Magdalene Laundries and forced to carry out unpaid labour because they were perceived to be “promiscuous”, were unmarried mothers, were the daughters of unmarried mothers, had grown up in the care of the Church and State, or were otherwise in vulnerable situations.non-peer-reviewe