Magdalene Laundry survivor and advocate Mary Merritt has died aged 95.
Born in a workhouse, Ms Merritt was brought up by nuns at a Co Galway orphanage, before being sent to Dublin, after she was caught stealing apples from an orchard.
She was ordered by a nun to travel to Drumcondra to work at High Park Convent where she lived and worked for 14 years.
She left the Magdalene laundry in the early 1960s she went on to live a happy and successful life in England.
Curator of the Little Museum of Dublin Trevor White who worked with Mary on the project 'You Can Leave at Any Time' described her as "a truly remarkable Irishwoman".
"Outspoken, brave and gregarious, Mary was a formidable advocate for the rights of victims of abuse in Magdalene laundries," he said.
In 2015, Mary Merritt was interviewed for the BBC Panorama programme about her experience and she featured on various RTÉ programmes over the years.
In 2017, at an event to mark International Women's Day in UCD, she urged students to use their education to ensure that nothing similar ever happened in Ireland again.
In 2018, she was invited to Áras An Uachtaráin where President Michael D Higgins apologised to the Magdalene survivors.
Her funeral will take place in Tunbridge Wells in England.
