The Woman in the Wall is a harrowing reminder of how not to do religion

The gripping BBC series may have added elements of gothic horror to the reality of life in Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries, but it tells a vital story that we must not forget, says David Greenwood

Let me get one thing straight. All the women who found themselves in Magdalene Laundries were innocent of any wrongdoing. They’d committed no crime. Most had simply fallen foul of a rule, probably dreamt up by a man, that meant unmarried mothers were shunned and treated differently to married mothers in Catholic Ireland. The Catholic Church was (and to some people still is) so powerful that its followers accepted this heart-breaking and cruel state of affairs.

The BBC drama The Woman in the Wall tells the story of Lorna, a young girl who was placed in a laundry after becoming pregnant, and whose baby was forcibly removed from her. Thirty years later, the murder of a local priest finally begins to reveal the story of what happened to her daughter.