Ireland to apologize to women of nun-run laundries

Ireland's prime minister is expected to issue a state apology Tuesday to the thousands of Irish women who spent years working without pay in a defunct network of prison-style laundries run by Catholic nuns.

Former residents of the Magdalene Laundries have campaigned for the past decade for the government to apologize and pay compensation to an estimated 1,000 survivors of the workhouses.

Two weeks ago the Irish government published an investigation into the state's role in overseeing the laundries. It found that more than 10,000 women worked in 10 laundries run by former orders of nuns from 1922 to 1996, when the last Dublin facility closed.

Prime Minister Enda Kenny last week met groups of former Magdalenes in Dublin and London in preparation for Tuesday's planned apology in parliament.