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Original poster

Magdalene laundries

63 replies

hogsback · 08/06/2011 16:24

UNCAT (UN Committee Against Torture) has released a damning statement on the Irish government's investigation (or complete lack thereof) the laundries.

More information here.

Quote:

"Mary Norris ended up in a Magdalene laundry for disobeying an order. A teenage servant in Kerry, she took a forbidden night off, and was taken away to a convent where the nuns had her examined to see was she still a virgin (which she was). From there she was dispatched to the Magdalene laundry in Cork. Immediately on arrival, the nuns changed her name ? standard practice in all the Magdalene laundries. "When I went in there," recalls Mary, "my dignity, who I was, my name, everything was taken. I was a nonentity, nothing, nobody."

Angry
OP posts:
claig · 08/06/2011 17:27

yes, very good point. Doctors from the top to the bottom. Hospital chiefs as well as local village doctors. The whole society knew about it and allowed it to continue.

Fifis25StottieCakes · 08/06/2011 17:26

Ive read a few of the books and watched some documentries. Very disturbing Sad

BooyHoo · 08/06/2011 17:24

doctors aswell claig. doctors and medical staff would have had the most access to the women in the launderies.

SybilBeddows · 08/06/2011 17:20

what a sad story SunCottage.
and Angry for her

claig · 08/06/2011 17:19

It was terrible what was done. The Church was to blame, however, everybody fails to point the finger at the others responsible. It couldn't have been a secret, it must have been widely known by those in authority - by mayors, charities, politicians etc. Why did nobody step up to stop it?

BooyHoo · 08/06/2011 17:11

two very good films i have watched on this. both quite accurate. one was a BBC production (i think) called 'sinners' and the other is 'the magdalene sisters' which i think was a cinema release. i have heard from women of my motehr's generation taht what is shown in the films is mild. Sad

Original poster
hogsback · 08/06/2011 17:07

Personally I think the Catholic Church as an organisation should face criminal charges for systematic, institutionally-sanctioned abuse of women and children. It may seem far-fetched, but the history of the church demonstrates a consistent approach to those perceived as a threat, whether they be native people unwilling to convert, heretics or women.

The piecemeal approach of prosecuting individual priests is simply not working; the whole organisation needs to be treated as an organised crime syndicate and needs cross-agency and international co-operation to take it apart.

It will never happen of course, instead we'll just let them carry on running our schools and serving on government committees on sexual health.

OP posts:
Suncottage · 08/06/2011 16:56

She never knew why her aunt's couldn't have taken her or helped her father. It seems the church was very, very persuasive.

Suncottage · 08/06/2011 16:52

My Mum was a Magdalene girl - yep it is all true. Her name was changed to a 'Catholic' one, she was told she was an orphan with no family. Every year at Christmas she was shown the presents that 'kind people' had sent to the 'orphans' and then the nuns kept them.

As an adult she found out she had a father and four brothers - the presents from the 'kind people' were from her aunts, they had written to her many, many times over the years and tried to see her. The nuns blocked all communication.

The girls were beaten, abused and humiliated as a matter of routine. Her life reads like a Catherine Cookson novel.

This was in the 1930's and 1940's. Her mother died when she was a baby and the church stepped in and 'decided' her father could not care for a family and took them.

She refused point blank to have her children baptised into the Catholic faith.

Greenstocking · 08/06/2011 16:41

And children crackfox, they hate children too.

I find the catholic church one of the most repulsive institutions ever formed.

SybilBeddows · 08/06/2011 16:40

was it about keeping all the other women in line, by having the Magdalene laundries to threaten them with if they misbehaved?

the whole thing is quite appalling. Those poor women.

TheCrackFox · 08/06/2011 16:37

They changed her name? Shock

The Catholic Church (I was brought up a Catholic) actively hates women and is one of the biggest reasons that I am a Feminist.

Greenstocking · 08/06/2011 16:28

Ah, the good ole cafflic church.

I mean, really, what do we expect from institutionalised, organised religious hatred and fear of women?