For over eighty years, a Magdalene laundry operated on Crofton Road in Dún Laoghaire, then known as Kingstown — one of ten in the Irish Free State, and the least documented of them all. No registers survive. No plaque marks the site. Many who grew up metres from its walls never knew it was there.

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Outside Our Door retraces its history through the town that surrounded it: the slums and the summer villas, the convents and the church, the streets where women once queued for washing pickup and delivery. Along the way you'll hear testimony from an oral history archive, giving voice to a woman who worked inside the laundry — what daily life there was like, how she came to be there, and how she left. We will share research from the archives, newspapers, letters, photos and architectural drawings: the fragments from which this story has been pieced together.

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This tour is the result of six months of research, with three months undertaken in close collaboration with the Over 50s community group from Loughlinstown, several of whom grew up in Dún Laoghaire. Their own memories of the town's institutions — its schools, its homes, its streets — sit alongside the archival record throughout.

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The walk covers approximately 1.5km at a gentle pace, on paths and pavements, with a longer seated stop in a beautiful garden, and finishing at the seafront.

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This tour deals with institutional confinement, unpaid labour, and the separation of families. Anyone with a personal or family connection to these institutions is welcome. Nobody is expected to disclose anything, and support and information will be available throughout and after the tour.

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Accessibility:

The route will be across paved areas in central Dun Laoighaire. The route is mostly flat, however there are some ramps along the route, and several steps towards the end of the route. There will be a mixture of seated and standing stops. Please ensure that you wear comfortable shoes and dress for the weather.

 

Content Warning:

Please note that Outside our Door will explore the histories of the Magdalene Laundries and the testimonies of those who worked there. Discussions may include references to incareceration, labour, institutional abuse among other topics.

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This project was made possible through the support of the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Grants Scheme, and has been supported by the dlr Creative Ireland programme and the DLR Heritage Office.