The Department of Justice accused the BBC of damaging the reputation of Martin McAleese in an 11-page complaint about its “seriously flawed” documentary on the Magdalene laundries broadcast last summer.

Perhaps an acute apprehension prompted former President Mary McAleese to disclose her intended vote in the marriage referendum, notwithstanding the consistent backing for this proposition in opinion polls (‘We must back marriage equality poll’, Irish Examiner, April 14).

Brian Cody showed his conciliatory side yesterday as he accepted an honorary doctorate of philosophy from Dublin City University.

Fire safety issues are not the only problem that residents have encountered at Longboat Quay.

The Government was “conscious of the danger” of offering redress for Magdalene survivors just months before setting up the McAleese inquiry to investigate the issue.

For this week’s Q&A, Kehlan talks with Peter O’Mahoney from Linked Finance, which is looking to be the leading force in Ireland when it comes to peer-to-peer lending.

Half of the women at one Magdalene laundry in the 1950s and 1960s never left the institution again but died years later behind the convent walls, according to research which strongly contradicts the Martin McAleese report.

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."

THE Ryan and Cloyne reports into child abuse in the Catholic Church could be seen in simple black and white terms: It was easy to loathe the abusers and the parish priests and bishops who colluded to protect them, to shudder at how bereft and powerless the child victims were, and at the torment of parents when they learned what had gone on around them.

Survivors of Magdalene laundries will begin to receive enhanced pensions and weekly top-up payments from the Department of Social Protection in the coming week, as part of the redress package designed by Mr Justice John Quirke.

HAVE you ever heard The Football Association of Ireland described as the greatest organisation in the country? Me neither.

Former GAA PRO Danny Lynch claims the Sky media rights deal will do “irreparable damage” to the organisation.

Two of the four Orders which ran the Magdalene laundries have reaffirmed their refusal to offer any financial contribution to the compensation fund for survivors.

Another long trip to the Irish Parliament in Kildare Street, in a last-gasp bid to save the rural post office.

Given the chance to highlight victims’ stories, the McAleese committee sided with powerful institutions once more, writes Simon McGarr

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has described a deal struck with families who bought apartments in the condemned Priory Hall development as a good and fair outcome.

Gold-plated severance pay packages amounting to nearly €5m will be dispensed to senators — even before their pensions kick in — if the electorate vote to abolish the Seanad.

At home his kids called him head-the-ball, their fondness for Seamus Heaney the father more than a match for their awe of him as artist.

A teenager shot in the head by the Taliban has been awarded the prestigious Tipperary International Peace Award and plans to join a campaign led by Plan Ireland.

The Mahon Tribunal cost the State some €200m. The State gave €30bn to save bankrupt banks.

The country's newest senator has taken her seat in the Seanad this afternoon.

The Government’s recent tough talk that religious orders should pay compensation to Magdalene survivors is at odds with its stance on the McAleese report, writes Conall Ó Fátharta

The Leveson probe in the UK shows a determined chairman can make an enormous difference to an inquiry, writes Dan Buckley

The details of the compensation scheme for the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries will be published today.

A commission of inquiry into State involvement in the Magdalene Laundries should still be established by the Government because the focus of the McAleese report was too narrow, a leading human rights group has claimed.

Comprehensive compensation is needed for survivors of Magdalene laundries including unpaid wages and pensions and rehab for forced labour, a watchdog has claimed.

The group Magdelene Survivors Together is calling for the urgent publication of a report commissioned to examine possible supports for the women.

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”.

Orders of nuns involved in the operation of the Magdalene Laundries have been urged by TDs to make a contribution to a survivors’ compensation fund.

The Government is refusing to say what contributions it will seek from religious orders for a fund being established for victims of the Magdalene laundries.

Following the Taoiseach’s apology this week, the Government is to make €250,000 immediately available to UK-based survivors of Magdalene laundries and industrial schools.

A campaigning lawyer has described part of the report into the Magdalene Laundries as a hotchpotch of guesses and omissions presented as scholarly work.

Redress should not be on an ex gratia basis. Religious orders should be made to pay and apologise for their treatment of the women, writes Claire O’Sullivan

The Taoiseach has said the Government will consider including the women who worked at Summerhill in Co Wexford under a new redress scheme for the women of the Magdalene laundries.

The Taoiseach broke into tears as he made an historic and emotionally-charged state apology to survivors of the Magdalene laundries.

The women of the Magdalene laundries have been giving their reaction to this evening's

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This is the full text of Enda Kenny's apology to the women who were sent to the Magdalene laundries:

Girls abused in residential homes often returned to “slave labour” situations at religious institutions to avoid more exploitative lives on work placement.

Conall Ó Fátharta asks if we can expect more than just ‘sorry’

Survivors of the Magdalene laundries have said they expect to be told details of a compensation scheme alongside an anticipated state apology by the Government.

Former residents of Magdalene laundries said that a process of compensation amounting to more than €100m should be set up within a month and wound up by August, so as not to allow the issue drag on any longer.

An apology to the victims of Magdalene Laundries was at the centre of a bitter political row last night as the Government accused the opposition of “breathtaking opportunism” for tabling a Dáil motion on the issue.

The Taoiseach is expected to travel to England over the coming days to hold further meetings with survivors of the Magdalene Laundries.