When the gates of the last Magdalene Laundry closed in 1996, Ireland moved on. Or so it seemed. . .

Following independence in 1922, Ireland began to chase a dream: to become the perfect Catholic nation. But purity had a price. Throughout the twentieth century, thousands of women and girls who did not conform the wayward, the poor, the disabled, the abused were sent to the Magdalene Laundries.

Each was perceived to have fallen in some way. Once locked inside, their hair was shorn off, their names were erased and then they were put to work. They washed, they scrubbed and they prayed, labouring in an attempt to salvage their souls.

This remains one of the darkest and most misunderstood periods of recent history.

Unflinching and compassionate, Louise Brangan draws on archives and survivors testimonies to dismantle long-held myths about what the Laundries were, who was sent to these places of violence and secrecy, and why. As we move from the past into the present, Brangan compels us not only to confront this shameful history, but to ask a deeper question: what do we choose to remember?

Winner of the 2024 Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award

'Enraging ...superb' JOHN BANVILLE, Guardian
'Remarkable' Sunday Times
'An extraordinary gift ... both an education and a page-turner' DOIREANN N GHR OFA
'Highly readable and intelligently engaging' FINTAN O'TOOLE, TLS
'Indispensable' ANNE ENRIGHT
'A terrific unearthing of Ireland's shadowland. A landmark book' RORY CARROLL
'Vivid, fluent and deeply compassionate' Irish Times
'Powerful ...authoritative, passionate' Mail on Sunday