Cillian Murphy: Magdalene Laundries remains collective trauma for Ireland

Cillian Murphy plays Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, who discovers the secrets of his local community in a new film (James Manning/PA)

Cillian Murphy has said that the Magdalene Laundries scandal has continued to be a “collective trauma” that is still being dealt with by the Irish public.

The Oscar and Bafta nominee, 47, is starring in Small Things Like These, based on Irish writer Claire Keegan’s Booker-shortlisted novel of the same name, which explores a father finding out how mothers and babies are being treated by a convent in New Ross, County Wexford.