Includes bibliographical references (p. 239-260) and index.

Introduction: the politics of sexual knowledge: the origins of Ireland's containment culture and the Carrigan Report (1931) -- The Magdalen asylum and history: mining the archive -- The Magdalen in nineteenth-century Ireland -- The Magdalen asylum and the state in twentieth-century Ireland -- The Magdalen Laundry in cultural representation: memory and storytelling in contemporary Ireland -- Remembering Ireland's architecture of containment: "telling" stories on stage, Patricia Burke Brogan's Eclipsed and Stained glass at Samhain -- (Ef)facing Ireland's Magdalen survivors: visual representations and documentary testimony -- The Magdalene sisters: film, fact and fiction -- Monuments, Magdalens, memorials: art installations and cultural memory -- Conclusion: history, cultural representation, ... action? -- Appendix -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.