Hundreds of people turned out in Dublin city centre to welcome home the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries.

It was the first time survivors of the Catholic-run laundries gathered together at home, including those who emigrated to the UK, USA and Australia.

Arriving by Garda escort, the 220 women and their families were given a rapturous reception.

The atmosphere was emotional - it was a day many of the women never thought they would see.

Earlier on Tuesday, the women attended a reception hosted by President Michael D Higgins.

He apologised to the women saying they had been "failed by the state".

Theresa Ryan spent her childhood in the Good Sheppard in Limerick.

"I was three or four when they took me," she told BBC News NI.

"They changed my name, they changed my birthday, my whole childhood was gone."

Reflecting on the welcome, she said it was bittersweet.

"I'm excited but sad at the same time."

Never Again
Gabrielle O'Gorman has been living in England for almost 50 years.

She was placed in a Magdalene Laundry when she was 17 years old.

"Today has been wonderful, really amazing.

"People believe us now. They never did.

"Now it's there, it's in the history books, and I'm thrilled about that.

"I hope it will never happen again," she added.


What were the Magdalene laundries?


• Originally termed Magdalene Asylums, the first in Ireland was opened in Dublin in 1765, for Protestant girls

• First Catholic home was founded in Cork in 1809

• Envisaged as short-term refuges for "fallen women" they became long-term institutions and penitents were required to work, mostly in laundries on the premises

• They extended to take in unmarried mothers, women with learning difficulties and girls who had been abused

• Between 1922 and 1996 there were 10 such laundries in the Republic of Ireland

• The women toiled behind locked doors unable to leave after being admitted and while the laundries were paid, they received no wages

• The last Magdalene asylum in Ireland closed in Waterford in 1996

• The congregations that ran them were the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, the Religious Sisters of Charity and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd


Mairie O'Conolough spent five years in a Magdalene Laundry.

She said while it's difficult to forgive the people that put her there, seeing the support from the well-wishers was "wonderful".

"What we went through it was like prison.

"I hope no young child, girl, or baby will ever go through what we went through."

The reception in Dublin city centre was organised by the group Dublin Honours Magdalenes.

The gathering fulfils two key aspects of the Magdalene Restorative Justice Scheme, which is to bring together women who spent time in the institutions and also to gather views on how the Magdalene Laundries should be remembered by future generations.

The laundries were Catholic-run workhouses where thousands of women and girls had to do unpaid, manual labour.

In 2013 the McAleese report found that the Irish state was directly involved in the confinement and forced labour of more than 10,000 women and girls.

The then Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny apologised to the women on behalf of the state.