Patricia Burke Brogan's play, "Eclipsed", tells the story of four girls sentenced to the Magdalene Laundries. Created as an institution for "fallen girls", these asylums started
as a way to keep women from becoming prostitutes. Over 30,000 girls
were put into these laundries, by their families that no longer wanted
them. The girls were told to find penitence at the local convents, the
laundries.
Told they were washing their sins away from lust, the girls were made
to wash Ireland's laundry and at the same time fattening the Catholic
Church's income. Suffering physical, emotional and mental damage, these
institutions felt like prisons but were worse--there had been no trial,
no sentence. Some of the girls were committed to the laundries for most
of their lives.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/eclipsed-the-magdalene-laundries
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/eclipsed-the-magdalene-laundries