Having just finished watching TG4’s Documentary The Magdalene Laundries – The Forgotten Maggies, I was, needless to say, even more ashamed to be Irish than I ever thought was possible.
For those of you who weren’t watching, it chronicled the lives of survivors of these institutions and the suffering that they lived through. We now live in a country where we can say that our ancestors allowed religious institutions to take their family members away – lock them away for life, merely because they had a baby out of wedlock. Or even worse, were “insane”, which was just an excuse to get a child off the streets.
Many institutions even claimed that they were getting jobs in these institutions. Would you work in a job where you weren’t getting paid? Where you were forced to work long hours, knowing that Nuns of the Roman Catholic Church – Nuns who claim to believe in Jesus’ ways – were earning a small fortune from your labour? Of course you wouldn’t. These women were violated in the worst way possible. Religious people, in their vanity and ignorance, felt that it was their duty to “cleanse” these women of their crimes, of their past. Or maybe even cleanse them of the fact that they were a bastard child, as was often the case.
The last of these institutions was closed in 1996. While everybody lived in happiness – many of them independent of the church – there were still women, suffering in their old age after years of torture and slavery. Many murderers don’t even get life. But these women? They got more than a life sentence for something that isn’t a crime. Having a baby is not a crime.
If you too feel affected by these brave women’s stories, or want to find out more about this documentary, visit:
http://www.magdalenesurvivorstogether.com/#!the-women
http://www.youtube.com/gerboland2003?gl=IE&hl=en-GB#p/u/5/EWbj-ofjFok
Sir Patrick Of Ireland 
Well written. Watching that documentary made me emotional. It’s devastating to think it happened for so long. Also, I think that many of the family members who put their relatives into it were not aware of what actually went on behind closed doors. It’s yet another example of how our beautiful country has been marred and the proud people of Ireland have been tortured and punished by the Catholic Church. It’s absolutely disgusting, and it’s no wonder that so many Irish people have deserted them.
Thanks Louise, and yes, I do believe that many of them didn’t know what went on in the institutions. It made me very emotional too. It’s an absolute disgrace, and those involved should be ashamed of themselves.
Agreed!
Thanks for your blog. A quick relpy with new links – http://www.magdalenesurvivorstogether.com and http://www.youtube.ie/magdalenesurvivors
Thanks for reading and giving the new links!
“Religious people, in their vanity and ignorance, felt that it was their duty to “cleanse” these women of their crimes, of their past. Or maybe even cleanse them of the fact that they were a bastard child, as was often the case.”
Wise words darling, and I know, the stories that came from those slave houses are heartbreaking…once again organised religion has failed us 😦 x
Your post is not just interesting but it is very mind-opening. I didn’t know this sort of thing happened in Ireland.
Yes, unfortunately it did! The country was very church run for quite a number of years. But change is in the air now so it’s not all bad 🙂 Thanks for checking out my blog!