The Irish advocacy group seeking justice for the Magdalenes (the generations of Irish women hidden away, often for life, at the Magdalene laundries) took their campaign to the United Nations Committee Against Torture this week.
Spokesperson Maeve O’Rourke from the Justice for Magdalenes group made a verbal submission to the UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva this week, where she told the panel that former Magdalene residents still alive today continue to suffer degrading treatment in violation of Article 16 of the UN Convention Against Torture (UNCAT).
Justice For the Magdalenes estimates that tens of thousands of Irish women who were pregnant out of wedlock or considered too attractive, too independent, too spirited, too sexually frank, or too otherwise challenging to the Irish society of the time were often sent to the laundries. Many of them are now dead.
O’Rourke claimed that by refusing to investigate and ensure redress for the remaining survivors, the state is disregarding its obligations under UNCAT Articles 12-14.
'They have received no apology from the state, no investigation, no redress, and no compensation for their abuse. They receive no pension for their unpaid labour,' O'Rourke told the Irish Examiner.
Between 1922 and 1996, 10 Magdalene laundries operated in Ireland, run by four Catholic orders of nuns.
Justice for the Magdalenes argues the Irish state had a role to play in the laundries as it knew children were imprisoned there and were supplying child labour.
They have also shown state policy required the transfer of 'repeat' unmarried mothers from state-funded mother and baby homes to the unregulated laundry institutions.
It has also harshly criticized the state for not forcing the religious orders to release their detailed records on Magdalene detainees.
In November 2010, the Irish Human Rights Commission released a report that said there is sufficient evidence of state responsibility for unlawful imprisonment, servitude, forced labour and cruel and degrading treatment, and called for a statutory inquiry into human rights violations at the laundries.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.seanomelbourne | May 27, 2011, 02:08 AM EDT
Kilbarry the remaining women were psychologically battered through years of incarceration with no where to go. Should I give you the benefit of the doubt and say you object to their treatment.Your posting lacks clarity.
seanomelbourne | May 26, 2011, 07:07 PM EDT
culchiewoman it was the mostly country girls who were "jailed"in these religious prisons.Young girls who were rebelling against the narrow mindedness of parents and parish priests with regressive sexual problems due mainly to religious brainwashing. Unfortunately It was not common knowledge as the system (as it stood)was secretive and people were told that they were problem children,sadly it was the church and the parents who were the problem not the children and any blogger who tries to assuage the guilt of the parents,priests and politicians involved is culpable. My heart goes out to you and your family and I hope you can have closure.
culchiewoman | May 26, 2011, 03:17 PM EDT
@katiemac: not sure if your 'what a load of BS' comment is directed at the reality of what these women suffered or previous posters' comments. At the risk of offense, I'll assume the former. BS it is not. There are living, breathing women who can (and have) attested to what life was like in a Magdalene Laundry. My mother is one of them and BS just isn't in her repertoire. Perhaps you fall into that same camp that produce Holocaust deniers? @searlit and @trealach (the latter's post just beggars belief): this was not only Irish-on-Irish abuse, it was woman-on-woman abuse. Nuns ran these gulags and after years and years spent in the same unchanging, institutional environment as their 'charges', began to see them as less than human (common in correctional professions, c.f. Stanford Prison Experiment). Ergo, it was that much easier to abuse the girls (yes, girls -- as young as 12) and women. Trealach, you can natter on as much as you want about British abuse of the Irish; but when the Irish State (and Catholic Church) can't see fit to pay its own citizens a living wage (or pension), provide safe working conditions and allow them freedom of movement and discourse, then you're damned skippy I'm not 'moving past' it. Nor is it ancient history...there are living Magdalene survivors. Get over yourself and don't worry...we won't take it out of YOUR pocket, despite that Irish society knew about these places and stood idly by allowing them to exist.
Searlit | May 24, 2011, 11:20 PM EDT
@Kilbarry, don't try to whitewash it. By the nineties, things had changed compared to the 50's thru 70's.
Kilbarry1 | May 23, 2011, 02:46 PM EDT
Is anybody aware that when the laundries closed down in the 1990s many women remained with the nuns and some are there still? The following is an extract from Irish Times article on 25 Sept 1996 on the closing of last laundry in Sean McDermott St Dublin: ... "At the height of its productivity 15O women worked in this laundry. Today 40 women are in residence at the convent, the eldest of them 79, the youngest in her 40s, all of whom will remain living there after the laundry closes on October 25th. ......A woman in her twenties with a mild mental handicap was admitted as recently as last year." .... http://irishsalem.com/irish-controversies/the-magdalene-laundries/lastdays-25sept96.php ......Should these women be "compensated"? Should the police remove them forcibly?
seanomelbourne | May 23, 2011, 04:55 AM EDT
It amazes me that a posting by pro nationalists or vilifying the church seems to get the "forget the past" tag. Collette should bear a thought for the living and the living hell they endured at the hands of the anti Christ nuns who retire to their respective convents,Jail the B!!ches I say.
Collette2 | May 22, 2011, 08:11 PM EDT
Trealach, Why bow to the past, maybe this issue will set a precedent and open, if not the gates then a window.
seanomelbourne | May 22, 2011, 06:51 PM EDT
Nuns,priest,public servants and politicians involved in this disgraceful episode should be incarcerated,starting with the bishops who allowed these reprehensible termagants called nuns to exist. A bunch of sanctimonious hypocrites the lot of them.
Searlit | May 22, 2011, 06:17 PM EDT
@ Trealach, this was state sanctioned abuse of women who became pregnant. This is Irish on Irish abuse. Please don't compare it to what the British did to The Irish.
Trealach | May 22, 2011, 03:12 PM EDT
"In November 2010, the Irish Human Rights Commission released a report that said there is sufficient evidence of state responsibility for unlawful imprisonment, servitude, forced labour and cruel and degrading treatment, ...." The same evidence exists of British treatment of the Irish People, yet we are told to "Bow to the past" and move on. Time these people did the same, or is there a different set of standards for them?
LouGuyt | May 22, 2011, 02:45 PM EDT
A terrible blot on the Irish. Of course, when the Irish catholics succumbed to Rome, everything started going downhill, especially for women!
Tomassotucson | May 22, 2011, 01:10 PM EDT
The organizations responsible must be held accountable for there to be any justice for the Magdelenes that are still alive and for the memory of those that died.
Searlit | May 22, 2011, 11:08 AM EDT
Women of the world demand justice for the Magdelenes!
Schiltax | May 22, 2011, 09:57 AM EDT
It's about time the perpetrators (ALL of them) of such inhumane treatment were brought to justice!
IAPRINCESS | May 22, 2011, 09:49 AM EDT
God bless you in your endeavors for justice from the vatican or anywhere. Such inhumane treatment needs to be punished here on earth and certainly in hell.
canadianirish | May 21, 2011, 09:23 PM EDT
Does Vatican Inc. ever take responsibility for anything!!??
Collette2 | May 21, 2011, 09:13 PM EDT
What a wonderful achievement and it hasn't been easy. State funded institutions were and still are answerable, it's a two way street. Go for it girls. I wonder if there are any connections in Australia.