Investigate Magdalene abuses: UN

JUSTICE Minister Alan Shatter is under pressure to announce an inquiry into the detention and abuse of women at the Magdalene Laundries after the UN criticised the state’s failure to protect the women and called for a thorough investigation and compensation scheme.

The remarks by the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT), which has released a damning report on Ireland, follow similar observations last year by the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC), which said a statutory investigation should take place.

Estimates put the number of women and girls who passed through the laundries from 1922 to 1996 at 30,000 but the religious orders involved — the Sisters of Mercy, Good Shepherd Sisters, Sisters of Charity and Sisters of Our Lady of Charity — have refused to open their archives.