Didn't the Magdalen Laundries Exist?

Magdalen laundries were set up in the lay to give women homes during famine. Women who went into sex work at the time used to live in hedges around garrisons, making their money services and soldiers. The official kind of reason for being was to rescue women from famine and infamy. But juring the famine, pretty much all the internal function of these places, in a lot of cases, just collapsed - it was just a place full of people.