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AROUND 220 WOMEN, now in their 80s, were in Dublin this week as part of the Dublin Honours Magdalenes event, which saw them attend events at Áras an Uachtarán and the Mansion House.
At a special reception President Michael D Higgins told a group of Magdalene laundry survivors that Ireland failed them:
The treatment of vulnerable citizens in our industrial and reformatory schools, in the Magdalene Laundries and in Mother and Baby Homes represents a deep stain on Ireland’s past, a stain we can only regard today with great shame, profound regret and horror.
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.
We spoke to four women who told their stories of how they came to be working in the laundries.
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We could at least make sure these women are provided for the remains of their life, they were abandoned by church and state which was the one at the time.
Is there any thing one can say other than SHAME
As Fintan O’Toole wrote over the weekend, the remaining Magdalene Laundry on Sean McDermott St. should be preserved as a National Memorial Centre.
@Ruairi Gagarin: we must never, ever forget.
Even to this day the church and the state will not admit to their collective wrongdoing it is easy to apologise but it is not sincere it is hollow, at the end of the day they Dont give two $hits to all the survivors they got away with their abuse lack of education ilegall punishment and selling babies in the past i could go on shame on them all the gates of hell is open to welcome them. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
@James Moore:
There was wrong doing on the part of the state. President Higgins has reiterated an apology. I agree with you, whatever we can do as a country to help them is a good idea. Lobby your TD.
You will note the silence from the likes of Bishop Callinan and others of his ilk, he is the moron that was so bizarrely willing to speak to the citizens of this country and tell us we should go to confession for voting our conscience, People like this are a useful example to us, to let us know that this problem has not gone away as yet. The organization is still toxic, its administration still deluded.
Also, while the State has had a hand in things, the primary and particular wrong doing was by the Catholic Church. Monstrous, incredible, unbelievable, However difficult it is, we need to face the fact that the organisation is toxic, the actions and attitudes of the administration inhuman. The need for incredible reform of the administration and self re-evaluation of how it is managed immediate. I would suggest over the coming decades they focus on reforming themselves. Something that could be helpful might be to be informed and guided by the example of Jesus.
Their pride, systematic cruelty and lack of basic humanity over long periods of time needs to be remembered and as citizens our actions need to be informed by them.
I would suggest it would be a good idea to teach our children in our schools the accurate information obtained by the state inquiries. Let them know exactly what happened.
For those who need a taste and to understand the historical context and scale of a little of what happened, a good start would be the documents freely available on http://www.childabusecommission.ie/
Having said all that, I know that their are priests all around Ireland, servants to their communities, providing services that people find valuable my thanks to them for their work.
@Brian Higgins: please stop repeating the same lie. He said that if you are a Catholic & you voted yes in the referendum then you should CONSIDER going to confession. That’s not “telling people”.
@Seamus Mac:
Let me respond to you with a link to this article.
What is particularly funny about it, given that this is a satirical website, is that in this case, unlike most satirical articles, every word of it is factually precise, accurate and true.
Hope you find it helpful. Or – if you like, you can dig a hole a little deeper and go on about lies a bit more.
@Brian Higgins: I missed that Waterford Whispers article, thank you for posting. Oh so poignant.
@Brian Higgins: deflection
@Seamus Mac:
Hmmm…
I have some Venn Diagrams here now to clarify my thinking.
I do not think you are correct in saying it was wrong of me to not actively use the bishop’s word, CONSIDER and instead use the words “willing to speak”.
However I accept the critique that my words in this comment section of the journal, could easily lead to confusion that the mere 78.3% of Irish Citizens who are Catholics, whom we agree Bishop Callinan was addressing, with him meaning all Citizens, is correct.
The larger point, which you have not addressed, the moronic delusions, stands as is of course.
Also there is a point I would address to you directly Seamus.
Are you deflecting yourself?
I mean this is an article referencing stories of the survivors who were abused by the Magdalene Nuns.
Or are you, like the bishop, like the deafening silence from the catholic church, willing to open your trap to split hairs inappropriately on one thing, but suffer a deficiency in character and courage to address the main topic of contention.
@Brian Higgins:what went on in this country was horrific. Criminal investigations & prosecutions should be made but we both know the state does not want that. I am not defending the abuse that went on. Calling people morons & institutions vile does not help anyone. Not everyone in “the church” was bad. Will we shut down the guards due to the McCabe revelations? The Church has done a lot of good in the world. It should be reformed I agree. Tone down the smugness in your comments Brian. It’s not very nice & takes from your otherwise eloquently made comments.
From listening to the stories of these women it looks like decisions were taken on the home front to have them sent to the Laundries on account of grinding poverty or other adverse family circumstances. The State provided nothing and then outsourced the problem to the Nuns who had capacity to help (at a price). The parents of these girls and the cowards who fathered the children with these women and abandoned them have a lot to answer for. There was (in the context of those times) no other place to turn to. Irish society abandoned responsibility. They are again being used by the hypocritical state today.
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: nobody asked the nuns to beat them or use them or their children as slave labour. The nuns didn’t run these places out of charity for them it was profit. By all means we need to point the finger at family members & the state but the least the church could have responded compassionately, respectfully & treated those in its care well. That is why there is so much rightful anger at the church. It showed absolutely no mercy & if it had’ve spoken up & told people not to ostracise these women then they would have been cared for in their own homes without stigmas
@Dean Anderson: These children had fathers why are they omitted from the narrative?
@Dean Anderson: I agree with the sentiments you express. However society in those days was very much a “corporal punishment” based one. Remember corporal punishment in schools was only abolished legally in 1983.
The Nuns etc were not provide with enough to run their operations by the State. At the time when children were “adopted” to families (at a price), these children had a chance of a better life and the “donation” was used to fund the institutions. It was a quid pro quo arrangement. What I write here is not a justification for what happened, it is an observation. The State and Society in general turned the blind eye and the Religious Orders took up the slack.
@marg fitzgerald: what children do you speak about? Many of the women were children having children and were indeed punished by the nuns for being in sin – The state did everything hand in glove with the church, and as you can imagine many could have been impregnated by a family member or someone with authority in their community. Many parents would have been told your daughter will be well looked after and how were family supposed to know that a baby was sold and didn’t die. Back in the good old days most son and daughters did as they were told with out question by a parent, elder, nun, priest, doctor, teacher -
you couldn’t comprehend what happened unless you were there yourself.
Child slavery and trafficking by Nuns and Priests. Is there nothing these depraved Ba&€@rds didn’t stoop to to make money off the back of the poor and needy in Ireland. They should be made pay compensation to every woman and child that suffered at their hands. It would be a small token of recompense but won’t take away the nightmares and suffering. Let the Pope meet these women on his visit. See the great work his church carried out in Ireland.
Nothing shocks me anymore about this countries past. What the church did and the state allowed to happen is shameful and scandalous. Nobody will be ever locked up for this either. No justice.
@Mark H: you are right. However State and Society of today separated by time and distance and also by the fact that most of the Nuns and Politicians of that era are dead have very few alive to punish. Our State will avoid doing much for the victims until there is only a small number left alive to benefit. The present State lacks the practical compassion to do something.
Each of their children had a father, where were they? Why did they stand by, or run away and shirk their responsibilities ? Where are they now?
In my case my father had a wife and four kids he cheated and lied to get his way with my mother when i was born in a mother and baby home i was abandoned by my mother i spent sixteen years in supposed uncaring institutions my mother uninvited then comes into my life it was not a good experience i wish i had never met her. Thats my story.
I’m in tears after watching that video of those women’s stories. They weren’t women back then they were girls and their young lives were taken away from them. Shame on the state and shame on the Church for allowing this to happen to them. It’s a pity hell doesn’t exist. I would support a special pension to be paid to these women for the rest of their lives as some kind of compensation for the horrors they were made to endure.
Heartbreaking
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