The truth about Ireland’s Magdalene laundries: ‘Women are still dying there. As late as 2024, I found death notices for women whose addresses were given as former laundries’

Despite being told many times, the story of the Magdalene laundries remains mired in myth, says author Louise Brangan, whose new book uncovers what really happened in the institutions – and the forgotten women who lived there

Louise Brangan, Author of The Fallen

Brigid was 12 when she was removed from her west of Ireland home in the 1940s. She was told she was being taken away because she had been skipping school. In truth, her casual approach to class attendance was never the real reason she was cast out of society.

Brigid had been born outside of marriage – she was illegitimate. Illegitimacy is an ugly word, but it was a legal category assigned at birth until 1988 in Ireland. For much of the 20th century, the Government counted the number of illegitimate babies and tracked their year-on-year growth or decline.