Galway Bay fm newsroom - State involvement in the Magdalene Laundries - including those in Galway - is illustrated in a new online archive that shows how thousands of women were held against their will.
The project is a collaboration between Justice for Magdalenes Research and Waterford Institute of Technology.
The searchable database contains thousands of documents.
Dr Jennifer O'Mahoney says it shows that the state was complicit in the operation of the laundries.
