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THE REMAINING SURVIVORS of the Magdalene Laundry have begun arriving in Dublin today for a two-day consultation on how the experiences of women who were housed in those institutions should be remembered.
Magdalene Laundries were institutions run by the Catholic Church which took in so-called ‘fallen women’ and gave them manual labour to do.
Many survivors said they were cruelly and brutally treated during their time there, with reports of women being beaten, put into solitary confinement, their hair cut, threatened, and verbally abused.
Businesswoman Norah Casey, who’s the ambassador of the Dublin Honours Magdalene group, which is the voluntary organisation behind the event today, told Morning Ireland that most of the women attending are in their 80s and were infirm.
I haven’t come across one woman yet who has said ‘My life was grand since’. They’ve all had really bad lives, they’re coming in today from across Britain, somebody from the States, Australia, Switzerland.
For them this is just phenomenal. It’s not a happy occasion, it’s not a celebration, how could it be with those stories… but for all those terrible memories they have it’s nice to add a memory that’s something positive.”
It’s estimated that around 430 women will attend the event, with some women travelling from abroad for events at the Mansion House, Áras an Uachtarán, and Citywest.
Casey said that the Department of Justice sent out the initial letters to women about the conference. She said that when they received phone calls from women interested in attending the event, each call could take up to an hour. Some of the women hadn’t told their families what had happened to them.
There have been many discussions around how to remember Magdalene Laundries – particularly what to do with the old buildings that still stand (like the one on Sean McDermott Street).
Suggestions on what those buildings should be used for have ranged from selling the building on, to creating a commemorative garden, to “burning the building to the ground”.
On Saturday it was announced that reparation would finally be paid to survivors by the Department of Justice (the State provided funding to the Catholic Church to house women in Magdalene Laundries).
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Third time lucky my hole.
Nothing floatable about EirCON.
If the EU imposed installation and customer care standards to Eircom this company would seize to exist in a very short timespan❗️
@antonov, cease,
Not surprised….This company is going down the tubes….customer service is almost non- existent.
Absolutely correct. If there was ever a company I’d like to see wiped off the map it’s this one. They are a pure irritant. My sister called them back in January to have broadband installed. They activated the landline, came out like 2 weeks later to install it, couldn’t install due to some problem, said they put us on the ‘priority list’ to sort the problem and get back to us within another 7-10 business days. Despite multiple calls, haven’t seen or heard from them since.
Your having a laugh!
We paid for it through our taxes initially.
It was then flogged off for privatisation and we rolled in to buy some.
They then dumped us out for a fraction of what we paid when the Banksters got together.
It has limped along as Voda shares worth now nothing.
And now they intend to go to the markets again….
Boycott this money pit.
This will be embarrassing
(BREATH HOLD)………baaaaahahahahahahahahahahaha
Congratulations you have just purchased E25,000 worth of eircom shares you should see a return… And it’s gone.
Was it not Albert Einstein who defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.
Caveat emptor.
Is like the Robbie Keane of the telco sector – had earned multiples of its intrinsic value in transfer fees alone.
I think I’ll be staying away …
Worst broadband in the country, awful customer service also. Anybody buying shares in this outfit will lose a fortune.
“Fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me fool me a third time….??… well your not going to fool me again”George w Bush
Sell the infrastructure back to the government. Even if we pay through the nose for it , at least in the long term it’ll pay off.
unless your selling copper for scrap. Fibre is were it’s at which eircom are late into the game. You’d be better starting from nothing then pay through the nose for eircom.
The company should be split in two… Eirgrid should be made managers of the cables and poles while the call service should be sold off.
Catch me once, shame on you. Catch me twice, shame on me. Catch me a third time – someone is really out to take the p1ss.
They need to just cease to exist at this stage!!
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