I'm just catching up on the news of the recently released report on the Magdalene laundries. Frankly I'd never heard of them until Peter Mullan's film The Magdalene Sisters was released a while back, and The Washington Post religion section profiled a survivor who'd been reunited with the daughter she'd given up for adoption.
A bit of background from the BBC:
Taoiseach to meet with survivors of the Magdalene laundries: