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CILLIAN MURPHY HAS said that the Magdalene Laundries scandal has continued to be a “collective trauma” that is still being dealt with by the Irish public.
The Oscar and Bafta nominee, 47, is starring in Small Things Like These, based on writer Claire Keegan’s Booker-shortlisted novel of the same name.
It explores a father finding out how mothers and babies are being treated by a convent in New Ross, Co Wexford.
Murphy, also known for Peaky Blinders and the Christopher Nolan-directed Oppenheimer, attended a press conference for the new film at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival yesterday.
When asked how he thinks Ireland is still grappling with the shame of a time – when women say they were detained by the Catholic Church against their will and forced to give up their children – he said: “I don’t know if I’m qualified enough to… speak for the nation, really.
“But I do think that it was a collective trauma, particularly for people of a certain age, and I think that we’re still processing that.
“And I also think that art can be a really useful band for that wound and I think the book certainly was, and it was a huge seller in Ireland, it seemed like everybody read it.
“And I think, the sort of irony of the book is that it’s a Christian man trying to do a Christian act in a dysfunctional Christian society.
“And it asked a lot of questions about complicity and silence and shame and all of those things.
“But I really don’t think the duty of art is to answer those questions (but) is to kind of provoke them, and maybe it’s kind of easier to absorb than an academic report, or a government report.”
Murphy, who plays Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, who in December 1985 discovers the secrets of his local community, has been vocal in the past about women’s issues in Ireland.
The Cork-born actor backed the repeal of the eighth amendment ahead of the 2018 referendum and narrated a podcast series about the survivors of the Tuam Mother and Baby homes in 2020.
Murphy is also listed as a patron of the Unesco Child and Family Research Centre at the University of Galway, who have run projects on the issue.
Producer and Hollywood star Matt Damon also told the press conference that it was a “very easy decision” for him and Ben Affleck’s production company Artists Equity to make the Keegan adaptation.
Damon said: “Just to echo what Cillian said, that was one of the one of the things that attracted us to it, were these great artists grappling with… this trauma.
“On our side of it, it was a very easy proposition. It was about facilitating an environment where they could do this, work and explore these things, and really getting out of their way.”
Damon and Murphy previously starred together in 2023’s Oppenheimer, which explores the rise and downfall of the so-called father of the atomic bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer.
The cast of Small Things Like These reportedly also includes Belfast-born Ciaran Hinds, English actress and Angela’s Ashes star Emily Watson, and The Magdalene Sisters star and Cork actress Eileen Walsh.
Since the 18th Century, nuns operated laundries across Ireland until the final institution in Sean McDermott Street in Dublin closed in 1996.
Originally aimed at “fallen women”, the laundries’ use was expanded during the 20th century to also include women who had not been pregnant or had entered from children’s homes.
The Irish institutions became notorious for the abuse many women suffered there, with unmarked graves being discovered at one site in the 1990s.
The issue prompted a formal state apology in 2013.
The Good Shepherd Magdalene Laundry in New Ross closed its doors in 1967 and a memorial for the women has been placed near the area at St Stephen’s Cemetery, Irishtown, according to Justice for Magdalenes Research organisation.
The subject was previously examined on the big screen in 2002, with Peter Mullan’s award-winning The Magdalene Sisters.
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Relevant both at home and abroad still today.
@Bong bong:
In recently prosperous Ireland the state now funds the care of what would otherwise be modern Magdalene Homes. 1 in 5 people in Ireland live in a one-parent family. 1 in 4 families with children in Ireland is a one-parent family. 86.4% of one parent families are headed by a mother, and 13.6% by a father.
@thomas molloy: I’m sorry, are you genuinely conflating the horrors of the Magdalene Laundries, where you (well not you cos ya know) didn’t have to be pregnant to end up, to single parent families?
What exactly was the point of such a ridiculous and false equivalence?
@thomas molloy: And?
Are you suggesting these people would be better off in the gutter?
@thomas molloy: And your point was s?
@William Slevin: shut up. No uterus, no opinion.
One of the great modern day leaders Navalny killed .. who will replace him .. Rest in Peace
@Noel Kelleher: Although Navalny opposed the Tyrant he, himself, was far from being a saint.
He supported russia’s barbarity in its invasion of Ukraine, as one example.
But he is another of those who oppose Putin who has had their life cut short.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: No he did not. He was opposed to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
@Noel Kelleher: Apparently felt unwell while out for a walk / I’d be guessing he fell out a window – those Russian windows be lethal.
@Annette: He supported Putin’s original invasion of Ukraine.
And the annexation of Crimea.
Very recently, he came out against that full-scale invasion as a way of garnering support from the West, and to give russian opposition to Putin something concrete to rally around.
But he was just another russian imperialist.
Navalny was in a fight for power, little more.
Maria Popova, an associate professor at McGill University who studies political development in the region perhaps put it best when she said that Navalby has a “long history of nationalism and xenophobia”.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: yes I get it. He and his supporters did a complete u turn in 2023.
Russian politics is harsh.
@Annette: No, not even close to a U-turn.
He still supported russian annexation of Crimea. And russian claims to the Donbass.
He decided to be critical of the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine though.
@Annette: he initially supported the invasion of Donbass and Crimea, plus that of Abkazia and Ossetia in Georgia, then changed his mind.
Society was complicit. Who sent off their daughters to these places? The parents, family! Easy to blame the church when everyone supported their deeds.
@smatrix mantra: And who trained – indoctrinated – that society?
Which organisation had society living in fear?
@smatrix mantra: when my uncle was a teenager he got into trouble, local priest called round and told my church fearing grandmother he was being sent to the infamous Ferryhouse in Clonmel….he came back a broken man!
@smatrix mantra: I agree,yes,the church and state were very much to blame but society as a whole shunned these poor souls.But as usual in this country,we love to blame everyone and anybody but ourselves.
@John Terry:
I fully agree
At that time Families were more than willing to put their pregnant or wayward daughter out of sight to cover up bringing shame on the Family. There was no such punishment for the fathers of the babies. Sure they could not help themselves . I lived near a County Home where pregnant girls were sent. The local people went to Mass there and the girls would arrive in like a classroom of students. They were not locked up but most did not have anywhere to go until after their confinement. Occasionally a bachelor farmer would come looking for a wife and some did take up the offer .These girls had complex needs, some had been abused ,most were facing giving up their baby for adoption.The Nuns were untrained . The State turned a blind eye. No Protest. Demonstrations were held. Get the picture.
@Aine OConnir:
Excellent comment . Their own families abandoned those poor women, but faced no criticism . All these poor babies had fathers who walked away Scot free , married , had families and moved on , not a thought given to the mother and child they abandoned . No recriminations were ever faced by parents or men !!! The nuns took the blame for everything, they
were cruel , the women suffered , the babies sold or died …. while society turned their backs ….if the nuns had not taken the girls in , where Wd they have ended up ? On the streets. ? Or gone to England pregnant and alone ? Shame on their families and those men who walked away…. We are easy to judge but we are all guilty for turning our backs …
The voluntary Nuns and other staff who provide the rescue services to these abandoned girl deserve thanks for doing the best that society at the time could come up with. Hop the book movie does well if it has truthful balance.
@thomas molloy: The same nuns that destroyed their records, lied to survivors, and refuse to pay fair compensation? Those ones?
I mean, look, we all can see you’re just hear to be contrary, that this is all a big joke. But there is a person commenting who actually suffered through one of these institutions, can you not just save you attempts at trolling to an article that isn’t causing pain to real people?
@Tricia G: Do proper research and don’t rely on anti Catholic brigade. Once the girls became pregnant without a supporting father then and now support was what was needed and those who did their best to support need recognition and thanks.
@Tricia G: “complicity and silence” don’t blame the nuns when, as a nation, we are all guilty. Look in the mirror before throwing that stone.
@thomas molloy: There is no excuse for this level of ignorance. You need to educate yourself.
“From the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 until 1996, at least 10,000 … girls and women were imprisoned, forced to carry out unpaid labour and subjected to severe psychological and physical maltreatment in Ireland’s Magdalene Institutions. These were carceral, punitive institutions that ran, commercial and for-profit businesses primarily laundries and needlework. After 1922, the Magdalene Laundries were operated by four religious orders (The Sisters of Mercy, The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Charity, and the Good Shepherd Sisters) in ten different locations around Ireland (click here for a map). The last Magdalene Laundry ceased operating on 25th October, 1996. The women and girls who suffered in the Magdalene Laundries included those who were perceived to be ‘promiscuous’, unmarried mothers, the daughters of unmarried mothers, those who were considered a burden on their families or the State, those who had been sexually abused, or had grown up in the care of the Church and State. Confined for decades on end – and isolated from their families and society at large – many of these women became institutionalised over time and therefore became utterly dependent on the relevant convents and unfit to re-enter society unaided.”
http://jfmresearch.com/home/preserving-magdalene-history/about-the-magdalene-laundries/
@thomas molloy: See the film Philomena, they were selling off the babies like cattle for profit.
@thomas molloy: Those “voluntary” nuns made a fortune from the state for imprisoning those women and using them as slave labour.
It was very profitable for them.
@Tony Harris: A bit like the SS just following orders . Certainly the whole nation was guilty…but go back to the dark ages of Church and State. Censorship and the regime of the church kept people in ignorance. The Church has not gone away you know.
@thomas molloy: lol
@Tony Harris: “as a nation, we are all guilty” – these organisations were backed up by the authorities. They were backed by successive govts. They were backed by the Church, the same Church that had the power to bring down an Govt and get a Minister for Health fired.
The People (even if they hadn’t been brainwashed by the Church etc.) had very little power to stand up to anything.
Blaming the people of Ireland is just another way to try and absolve the Church and State from their actions. THEY did this, not the people.
@Brendan O’Brien: hí Brendan,you are Pilling on the blame to church while giving a pass to society,the same people who knew and supported them in many ways,the same people who hid a claim on familly land /wealth by putting women in the darkness till they were without bump.the social history says your wrong.
@David Dineen: Very true. Though not all of us were aware of that.
@Tricia G: the people of Ireland are the state….we are a democratic Republic…. so we the people have an equal responsibility to have allowed and facilitated this monstrous behaviour of the church and our agents of the state, acting on our behalf.
@thomas molloy: Having a laugh there!
@Ronan Skelly: And which organisation indoctrinated those people of Ireland?
Which organisation did the people of Ireland live in fear of?
East Germany had the Stasi.
We had The Church.
@Jimmy Wallace: Correct Jimmy. It’s easy to forget in this information age that there was a time when an entire country genuinely believed in Heaven and Hell…! They were indeed indoctrinated/brainwashed into that cult and had no means to reasonably educate or defend themselves.. So easy to pin the blame on the populous now. .. They all lived in FEAR.. they were all abused in one way or another…
@thomas molloy: Courageous work was done by the nuns to shelter and accommodate girls that NOBODY else rushed to help. Blaming the Catholic Church for the poverty of those times is silly. The numbers seeking help obviously swamped their resources Trying to link every Catholic worker to abuse is a spent propaganda effort. People have long since seen through it.
@thomas molloy: You’re just sick in the head aren’t you? Wonder if there’s an institution we could throw you into and lock away the key.
I like my shorts double startched by the way.
That’s what happens when the keys of our country was handed over to the Vatican by Dev
Grimly hilarious that there’s the usual contingent of older edgelords out begging for attention as usual. ‘Hahaha I’m saying the opposite. That’ll show those snowflakes!’ Apply to absolutely any topic, any conversation 24/7.
So tedious this trolling Trumpian roadshow. If they felt the wind was blowing in another direction, they’d point their boring contrarian take in that direction instead. Zero substance. Just frustrated, entitled and malicious people.
Exactly the same types who will be moaning about a drop in standards and morals elsewhere while they troll away on an article about one of our most shameful moments, still destroying lives today.
Imagine this being your contribution to society today. I trolled vulnerable abuse victims. Yeah bravo.
@SerotoninWars: outstanding observation
Well done Cillian.
IT WAS A DISGRANCE ON THE TREATMENT MEETED OUT TO THE POOR CHILDERN IN THESE MAGDELAN INSTIRUTIONS.THESE CHILDERS WERE TREATED VERY BADLY WITH BEATINGS ETC.GUESS WHAT – NOBODY HAS EVER BEEN PROSCUTED BY THE STATE FOR GROSS ILLTREATMENT OF THESE POOR CHILDERN.JUST TAME ONE EXAMPLE – THE HOME IN TUAM- JUST WHEN WILL THE STATE PROSCUTE THE OWNERS ON THIS HOME.THE ANSWER IS NEVER AS ALL OF THESE ORDERS WERE EXEMPT FROM PROSCUTION.YOU COULD NEVER BRING ORDERS BEFORE THE COURTS.
“… when women say they were detained by the Catholic Church against their will…”
Sorry, is there some doubt over this? Is this not established fact?
Complicity and silence….sounds like the western world and Gaza….
I hope the film is an improvement on the book. I heard the book read on the radio recently, I thought it was very poor.
@Padraig O’Brien: I enjoyed it.
@Padraig O’Brien: You are complaining about the quality of a book you haven’t read?
@Kilkenny Proud: sounds like he listened to the audiobook which is the same as reading it
@Johanna McBride: Audio books are heavily abridged.
My work brought me in and out of Magdalene Homes and they really were homes to girls who really needed a home. The Nuns and other staff worked there backs off to do everything to keep things going. The reality has been hijacked by the usual………. “Perfection is the enemy of Good”.
Cillian Murphy is a modest man who covets his private family life. He is an expert actor and does not claim to be an expert on the topics of the movies in which he acts. He knows the power of art to provoke thought and reflection. But he says that the artist does not speak on behalf of a society.
And still it continues as report issued but nothing really happened since.
Who cares
@Midnight Mechanic: The people who were forced to live through it and are still waiting redress from Church and State. Pity you didn’t elaborate why you didn’t care .
@Midnight Mechanic: You’re one who cares only for himself, correct?
@Midnight Mechanic: I care, as a survivor of the religious and state institutional abuse, I live with the trauma and fear everyday. I and 3 of my siblings ended up in one of the listed institutions we aged from 4, 5, 7 and 10, I am now 62 and was 5 years old and we were place there because our mother became ill and hospitalised and my dad was not allowed to care for us, these abuse we suffered haunts me to this day, we were happy children entering this place and came out destroyed, we could never cope with school afterwards, and were treated like criminals in school and ostracised by the people in our community, and our state stole the compensation paid to them by the religious for the benefit of survivors and to this day we have been thrown to the wind with no help or support. It was people like you that didn’t care and closed their eyes to what was happening and of course they knew and did nothing.
@silvery moon: I’m sorry you and your family went through so much suffering. You’re absolutely correct – wider society was complicit in the Magdalene system. I hope you are healing as well as surviving.
@Helen Farrell: The officers of the state – elected and permanent – are complicit. As is wider society.
All trained by the Church.
@Midnight Mechanic: we’re not all soulless
Why are comments only permitted on things that don’t matter!
@Brendan O”Brien & Jimmy Wallace. Each to their own.
Nobody asks why these homes came to be.
Look at Jeremy Paxman ‘The Victorians’.
It’s online
The clergy is a scapegoat and lightning rod for the institutions. But nobody wants to know why these were established.
It’s made to look as if an ‘evil’ organisation was looking for market opportunity. A bit like Drug barons of today.
Does anyone make a film about drug barons and the professionals that enable them? No – too risky. But say what you like about elderly religious men and women.
My great grandmother wrote of her mother telling her of seeing people dead on the roadside during the famine, That is where the institutions for unmarried
mothers started started – to prevent another famine.
A lot of spoofers on here pontificating about who’s to blame bla bla bla usual trolls,the church ruled this country with an iron fist,it’s not too long ago Fr.Ted was banned from tv thanks to the church.people were treated like putins russia ! Cop yer selves on trolls,easy know the keyboard warriors were not here then !
@Jb Walshe: Fr Ted was NOT banned.
Mat Damon is, aware of what he’s highlighting here after his extended visit. Bravo
All through history, religion has influenced some of the most barbaric and cruel treatment of people.Only have to look at the current situation in Gaza to understand how religion blinds people to accept the atrocities perpetrated against the Palestinian people.Israel the new fascist state.
*it was a really useful balm I heard him say
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