An academic who had access to one diocesan archive reports accounts of physical abuse and medical neglect and argues that the files are not accurately reflected in the McAleese Report into the Laundries, writes Conall Ó Fátharta.

The UN has today called on the government to explain what further investigations it intends to carry out into the Magdalene Laundries, industrial schools and mother-and-baby homes.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter has roundly defended the McAleese Report into the Magdalene Laundries saying it was “an independent, comprehensive factual account”.

The UN committee which forced the Government to investigate the Magdalene Laundries has criticised the McAleese report into them as “incomplete” and lacking “many elements of a prompt, independent, and thorough investigation”.

Justice for Magdalenes is to submit over 500 pages of newly gathered survivor testimony to Senator Martin McAleese — testimony in which women say they were imprisoned in Magdalene laundries and had worked without pay.