As Silent Night turns 200, Barbara Scully unwraps the story behind the Christmas carol in Austria.

Dr Scally has produced a report that sets a standard. It is most unIrish in that it does not obfuscate, writes Alison O’Connor

The silence of the Church was deafening as 230 beautiful, brave, and resilient Magdalene women came to town this past week, writes Joyce Fegan

Your morning headlines ...

Women placed in industrial schools and Magdalene laundries speak out about their experiences.

Society shunned them, the State abused them, and the Church exploited them but Ireland has finally laid a welcome mat for the women of the Magdalene laundries.

The focus on one institution — Tuam — and one issue — baby deaths — has proved to be convenient for the Government but the spotlight needs to shift to the glaring elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about. The issue will simply not go away, writes Conall Ó Fátharta.

Evidence of multiple illegal adoptions — with at least one child sold to the US from the Tuam mother and baby home — was uncovered by the HSE as early as 2012.

Three-year-old plans to reform the Seanad by allowing all citizens to vote on who should be elected are set to be examined by a 26-person political committee amid fresh claims the changes are being deliberately delayed.

For generations in Ireland, women’s sexuality has been seen as a dangerous force that needed to be controlled, says Louise O’Neill

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan is to meet with the Ombudsman “in the coming weeks” to discuss the findings of his scathing report into the administration of the Magdalene Laundries redress scheme.

Let down yet again, ageing survivors of the Magdalene laundries have suffered unnecessary pain in the past few years, writes Claire McGettrick.

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.

Wow, exciting! An episode of The Handmaid’s Tale is being filmed outside the Dail! Oh hang on. 

The HSE has refused to say why concerns about infant deaths and possible trafficking from Bessborough in Cork and the Tuam Mother and Baby Home were not reported to the then health minister.

The McAleese inquiry into Magdalene laundries was informed in 2012 about “disturbing” infant death rates in excess of 50% at the Tuam Mother and Baby Home.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald and her department have been accused of misleading the UN by claiming the McAleese report made “no finding” in relation to State liability with regard to Magdalene Laundries.

We need a truth commission to enable survivors to tell their stories, in whatever way they want to, writes Fergus Finlay.

A religious order that ran two Magdalene Laundries told the Government that its decision not to contribute any money to the redress scheme for survivors was based on the findings of the McAleese Report.

The Irish public are understandably seeking to apportion blame for Tuam and many other such cases in “Mother & Child Homes” and “Magdalene Laundries” throughout the country. 

UPDATE 10.25pm:  The United Nation’s latest condemnation of Ireland’s abortion laws are “bordering on the ridiculous” according to the Pro Life Campaign.

Magdalene laundry survivors have been told they can still apply for redress and avail of special medical cards.

Renua Ireland has denied claims by Magdalene Laundry survivors campaigner Steven O’Riordan that the new party asked him to run as their candidate in the next general election.

Last summer, the chair of the UN Human Rights Committee described Ireland’s human rights record, particularly in relation to women and children, as ‘quite a collection’.

CATHY Belton is having a ball playing Patricia Hennessy in new TV3 soap Red Rock.

What makes me maddest is that caring for a seven-year-old child isn’t work any more. 

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has been told to apologise to Magdalene laundry victims for a second time in just two years, after failing to live up to promises to women who were effectively forced into State “slavery”.

When will it be Christmas night? ”He looks up at me with such innocent excitement in his sapphire-blue eyes that I just have to hug him. I love his excitement, though I know it’s a symptom of his intellectual disability. He shouldn’t be that excited at 13.

This week, I visited a grave at Glasnevin Cemetery, which is maintained by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the order that ran Magdalene Laundries at High Park and Gloucester/Sean McDermott St. For 11 years I have made this journey, but this occasion was different, because I witnessed the grave being opened by the grounds staff. This shock was followed by the realisation another former Magdalene woman had died while in the care of the nuns.

"We want to see as many of them as possible." This was the one-line response from Enda Kenny when he was asked — at the launch of his party’s election campaign in 2011 — if female representation would increase under a Fine Gael government.

Given this country’s abysmal record on human rights, it is not surprising that Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald is facing a baptism of fire while a bevy of civil servants are subjected to a barrage of penetrating questions from members of the UN committee on human rights in Geneva.

WHEN well-known scandals, like that of the mother-and-baby homes or the Magdalene Laundries, finally hit the public consciousness — we often hear a common refrain: "Oh it was a different time."

Survivors of the Magdalene Laundries who now live abroad are to have their medical insurance paid for by the State.

OVER the past few weeks we have all been flabbergasted by the Tuam Mother and Child Home controversy.

More health insurance hikes; Neil Francis to review ballet; Shatter slammed and Coppers: The Musical, in the Lunchtime Report.

For many years one of the greatest ways to relax was a visit to the cinema.

Justice For Magdalenes (JFM) Research has hit out at the Government’s response to UN criticism’s of the McAleese report as “an outrage” which “beggars belief”.

A group representing survivors of symphysiotomy say they will not accept Magdalene-style compensation.

It is hard to believe that the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, instructed his ministers to deal impartially and fairly with the issue of the Bethany Homes.

I cannot believe the Government can do nothing about the refusal of religious orders to compensate the victims of the dreadful Magdalene Laundries.

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”.

A FEW weeks ago, I wrote here that the Taoiseach’s apology to the women who had survived the hardship and abuse of the Magdalene Laundries represented significant social progress, for which he deserved a lot of congratulations.

Diarmaid MacCulloch has written a book about silence — contemplative or evasive — in Christianity. Mark Patrick Hederman considers the evidence

April 6-12