Throughout the 20th century in Ireland, thousands of women and girls were sent to work in Magdalene Laundries all across the country. By 1951, for every 100,000 women in Ireland, 70 were locked away in a laundry, spending their days “scrubbing and praying in an attempt to salvage their souls”. In her new book, The Fallen, academic and writer Louise Brangan uses archive material and survivor testimonies to tell the story of six women who spent years toiling away unpaid in Magdalene laundries, all of whom were brought there under false pretences. In this episode, Brangan tells Róisín Ingle what day to day life was like for these women, why their history should never be forgotten and why the laundries are so often confused with Ireland’s mother and baby homes.