The Magdalene Sisters

[3andnomore]

I have read a fair few books about Irelands Industrial schools and the Magdalene Laundries, so knew what to expect....but it made me so sad, upset and angry....unbelievable that the last of the Laundries closed in 1996....

The movie is totally gripping and powerful! And I can only recommend this film!

[Aero]

Oh, I loved this film. Saw it when it first came out and a few times since and makes me feel the same every time. I grew up in N Ireland and it felt very close to home. Unbelievable that girls were ever treated this way. So, so wrong.

[3andnomore]

isn't it just...think what angers me the most is, that girls were punished, whilst the blokes that usually had somehting to do with the trouble they got into were allowed off to lead their normal life.

In one book I read the saddest thing. When a Megdalene Inmate died they would have Sinner and such like on their gravestone, no name....I mean, surely if they were meant to pay penance in the Laundries for their imagined sins, than surely they have done so once they died....

it makes me sick!

What also came clear in teh film very well was, that if family wanted to help, and they were male, they could....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[chipmonkey]

3andnomore, do you know what angers me? I am Irish and living in Ireland and you know what? 1996???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

When my niece was born in 1992 to my sister who was 20 and single, there was NO BIG DEAL made by anybody!!! Why would there be? This portrayal of Ireland is completely alien to me. I know people who were raised by single mothers in Ireland since the 1970's and raised their children without anybody ever interfering.

This film is a gross, GROSS misreprentation of Ireland. You could count on the fingers of ONE HAND the number of people in Ireland who would allow this to happen to their daugher/sister in Ireland in 1996.

It is a load of SHITE!

[chipmonkey]

Loads of people in school with me had babies in their teens. And kept them. And raised them.
With Help from their Parents.

Films like this are unbelievably offensive to me.

[NickiSue]

I think I read the last laundry was closed in 1976 but that one was actually in England - Ireland are well "known" for having them, but they existed elsewhere too.

[chipmonkey]

Yes, we are "well-known" for laundries.

This it f**ing typical of anti-Irish media propoganda.

Irish girls are like British girls. Very like British girls. They drink too much, smoke too much and have sex with the wrong guy. Hell, if lucky, they might even have sex with the right guy. For the most part their parents are not heartless arseholes and let them keep the resulting baby.

[differentID]

Just so that you know, not all girls who got pregnant when single went to the laundries- even in the twenties and thirties. I know because my granny was a single mum to my dad for 12 years before she married.

[chipmonkey]

btw I have had way too much to drink. But I am heartily sick of the way we are portrayed. Diddly-idly dance-round-the-house-and-mind-the-dresser-and don't ffs get pregnant.

But we do get pregnant and we look after the babies, ta very much!!!!!!!!!!

[NickiSue]

Bless - most of my family are in Dundonald hun and Im very proud of my Irish roots so I'm not blasting the Irish my dear. Hope you don't have too much of a hangover tomorrow.

[Pruners]

Message withdrawn

[3andnomore]

wow...I don't think I ever claimed it represented all of Ireland...of course it only represents part of it...!

In the movei it said the last laundry clost in 1996...there is of course a chance that by then things weren't quite like that anymore (well, one would hop so)!

I am glad to hear that not all girls were subjected to this....but obviously a fair few were, and those suffered...

I have, btw, nothing against the Irish, have a few lovely friends in NI, even lived in Northern Ireland for a few month (dh in the Army) and I loved it there, so, wasn't having a pop at the Irish, nor the catholics...!

Tbh, I can't understand why you are getting so angry about this? I am german a, so, there is a big part in the history of the germans that I am not proud about...however, I was not involved in it (my mom was only a Baby/Toddler at the time...so, how could I have been)....but I would never be angry for people being angry at what happened...as long as they are not angry with me for being a german...iykwim...(and no I am not comparing what happened in Ireland with what happened in the Holocaust...it is just an example)

[chipmonkey]

3andnomore, I unreservedly apologise! I was very, very drunk when I posted that and am thoroughly ashamed of myself.

[3andnomore]

chipmonkey it is o.k.

I think it can be sometimes hard to hear about the bad that happened within once own nation , and it is easy to get defensive....but like I said, it's not a portrayal of all irish and Ireland

IT SEEMS TO BE TRUE THOUGH THAT THE LAST lAUNDRIE WAS CLOSED (oops caps lock)on 25th October 1996...however, by than it was not run the way anymore...but the women had no where else to go and stayed...(that is how I understood it)...I suppose to do with becoming institutionalized...so, indeed misleaading if said the last one closed than, without explaining that by then the things that used to happen didn't anymore.

Must admit, I am not a great lover of nuns...bad personal experience....but, of course it was not even representative of all nuns either...there will be good and bad, just as anywhere else...

[mamadiva]

Apparently my mum had a friend in the 80's who was sent to a home for unmarried mothers in scotland and she was scrubbing floors on her knees at 9 months pregnant, she was pregnant at the same time as my mum was with me and when her DD was about 10 days old she ran away from the hospital necause of the way they were treating her and they were telling her she had to give up her baby because she was useless and the baby would have a rubbish life with someone like her!

She lived with us when she ran away I think she went to England to live a few months later, poor girl.