Survivors of Catholic-run workhouses in Ireland have rejected a Government apology for the incarceration of thousands of women in the Magdalene laundries.
As an inquiry found 2,124 of those detained in the institutions were sent there by the state, campaigners accused Taoiseach Enda Kenny of a “cop out”.
Records have confirmed that 10,012 women spent time in the laundries between 1922 and 1996.
Justice for Magdalenes and Magdalene Survivors Together claimed thousands of women forced into slavery and torture deserved a full state apology and compensation.
Mari Steed, whose mother Josephine Murphy was in a laundry in Sunday’s Well, Cork, when she was adopted by a family in America, described the Government’s response as horrifying.
“What we witnessed today was absolutely shameful. I can’t recall ever been so angry,” she said.
The committee investigating the state’s involvement in Magdalene laundries identified five areas of direct involvement in the detention of women in 10 institutions run by nuns.
The Taoiseach’s apology stated: “I’m sorry that this release of pressure and understanding of so many of those women was not done before this, because they were branded as being the fallen women, as they were referred to in this state.”
No compensation package for the surviving women, or relatives, has been finalised but it is understood a redress is being put in place.
Maureen Sullivan, of Magdalene Survivors Together, rejected Mr Kenny’s apology and demanded an apology from the state and religious orders for taking her education, name and childhood from her.
“He is the Taoiseach of our country, he is the Taoiseach of the Irish people, and that is not a proper apology,” she said.
The 18-month inquiry, headed by out-going Senator Martin McAleese, husband of former president Mary McAleese, interviewed a little more than 100 surviving women about 1% of the official total.