The Woman in the Wall: what were Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries, is BBC thriller based on a true story

The Magdalene Laundries, also known as the Magdalene Asylums were institutions in Ireland established in the 18th century for ‘fallen women’. This essentially meant women who had been involved in prostitution, or had a child outside of marriage, something looked upon very unfavourably by the strict Catholic society of the time.