A staple of extreme Protestant propaganda in the first half of the twentieth century was the accusation of ‘convent slave laundries’. Anti-Catholic organs like The Watchman and The Rock regularly alleged extremely harsh conditions in Roman Catholic convent laundries and reported stories of abductions into them and escapes from them.1
In Ireland, the scandal of Magdalen laundries has been the subject of extensive official inquiries. 2 Allegations of widespread near-slave conditions and harsh punishments turned out to be substantially true. 3 The Irish state has apologized, 4 memoirs have been written, compensation paid, a movie made. 5 Something similar occurred in England 6.