Apology is only the beginning

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

ENDA Kenny’s apology, on behalf of the State and the people of Ireland, to the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries, was something many of the women never thought they would live to see.

It was a moment of enormous vindication, validation and affirmation, an acknowledgement of their tortured pasts and the deep-held pain and stigma that has haunted them ever since.