Singer Sinead O’Connor has revealed she was a victim of the Magdalene Laundries scandal – and it affected her for life.
The ‘Nothing Compares 2U’ hit-maker has made the revelation in an interview with the Irish Sun newspaper.
She spoke out just 24 hours after the publication of a damning report on the Laundries which has highlighted state collusion with the Nuns who ran them.
O’Connor, now 46, has told the Irish Sun how she was just 14 when she was sent to the Sisters of
Our Lady of Charity laundry in Dublin after she was labelled a ‘problem child.’
She told the paper: “We were girls in there, not women, just children really. And the girls in there cried every day.
“It was a prison. We didn’t see our families, we were locked in, cut off from life, deprived of a normal childhood.
“We were told we were there because we were bad people. Some of the girls had been raped at home and not believed.
Read more: Pressure mounts on Government to issue formal apology to Magdalene survivors
“One girl was in because she had a bad hip and her family didn’t know what to do with her. It was a great grief to us.”
The rock star explained how her 18 months in High Park in the Drumcondra suburb of Dublin left her so angry at the injustice that it was part of the reason she caused worldwide controversy by tearing up a picture of the Pope on live television.
She added: “It wasn’t the only reason, but it was one of them.”
Lashing out at the Church’s ‘flaccid’ apology, O’Connor said she was ‘disgusted’ by it.
The mother-of-four said: “They said something like, ‘We’re sorry for the hurt.’
“The word hurt doesn’t cover it. I am disgusted that the State won’t apologise. I’m disgusted at the tone of the Church’s flaccid apology. The Church is getting away with it again.”
Sinead, who has previously claimed she suffered abuse as a child, was sent to the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity Institute after she began stealing as a teenager.
Read more: 2,000 Irish children were illegally adopted in US from Magdalene Laundries
She said: “My worried dad thought he was doing the right thing by sending me to be rehabilitated.
He told me he even paid for the privilege of doing so.
“He thought he was doing the right thing. He was convinced into it. He paid them to take me. I never told him the truth of how bad it was.
“There was no rehabilitation there and no therapy. Nothing but people telling us we were terrible people. I stopped the stealing all right. I didn’t want to be sent back there. But at what cost?
“I wouldn’t class myself as being abused while I was there. I came in at the tail end of it.
“But certainly some of the punishments were a little f***ing odd.
“As a punishment, I would be sent up to bed early to go to sleep with the dying old Magdalene ladies. There would be about six of them in the room and me and I was terrified. These women were old and dying and I was scared up there.
“The laundries were gone then, but I did see them in a big room, about 200 square feet full of laundries. And I saw the older women, shuffling along. We were not allowed to talk to them.”
51 Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Frosty38 | May 13, 2013, 08:58 AM EDT
You would not say that if you watch a very old movie. I was up to 3am ,it was long and out of the ones that were raped by the Priest, they went on to becomes nuns
falconflash | Mar 31, 2013, 09:01 PM EDT
Sinead came from a shitty family, don't blame the nuns.
Barbarossa | Mar 10, 2013, 03:10 PM EDT
Her personal vendetta against the Catholic church continues , she has serious mental health issues and should not be taken seriously .
MBarry | Feb 21, 2013, 04:03 PM EST
It disgusts me that Sinead because she is famous thinks it is ok to lie and she should be ashamed of herself right now. She was not part of magdelene laundries but was in a childrens home An Grianan separate part of the building. I never lived in fear or anything like it - I was in the home before and after her and I was not a "Maggie". I was treated very well by the Sisters of our lady of Charity in Drumcondra - I was not mistreated and got a good education and fed well and looked after. It's true what they say "paper never refuses ink". Before I left n Grianan to get a flat because I got work I stayed in the maggies dormentary and was frightened or in fear. I felt sorry for these women who had lost their whole life working in laudries for nothing and getting their babies taken off them. But just want to clarify their were children brought up in a home on the grounds called An Grianan and we were very well looked after. No the Roman Catholic Church is not perfect but because a few do wrong people choose to blacken all the Catholic Church which is wrong. Don't believe everything you read written by stars cause some of it is just lies.......................
mamaginnty | Feb 16, 2013, 11:05 AM EST
Years ago Sinead did say she was abused, it was only coming to light then on what the so called servants of god were doing to children and women. Sinead was a very troubled young girl because of the abuse she got, and most in Ireland knew who she was blaming when she tore up the picture of the pope. She is still alive, but how many commited suicide because of the treatment they got. The people who are running her down are roman catholics who just can't get in into their thick heads that servants of this church were evil and full of greed up until the early nineties. Think of the children/women decades ago who went through this, and were too afraid to mention it because priests and nuns were looked upon as saints. I blame every last one of them who entered this church, those who did not abuse knew exactly what was going on and hid it, and still are. I can not forgive this pope for turning the blame onto the children, he read out in Rome that the children enticed the poor priests into molesting them. How Sick Is That.
mamaginnty | Feb 16, 2013, 10:47 AM EST
Years ago Sinead did say she was abused, it was only coming to light then on what the so called servants of god were doing to children and women. Sinead was a very troubled young girl because of the abuse she got, and most in Ireland knew who she was blaming when she tore up the picture of the pope. She is still alive, but how many commited suicide because of the treatment they got. The people who are running her down are roman catholics who just can't get in into their thick heads that servants of this church were evil and full of greed up until the early nineties. Think of the children/women decades ago who went through this, and were too afraid to mention it because priests and nuns were looked upon as saints. I blame every last one of them who entered this church, those who did not abuse knew exactly what was going on and hid it, and still are. I can not forgive this pope for turning the blame onto the children, he read out in Rome that the children enticed the poor priest into molesting them. How Sick Is That.
bveritas | Feb 13, 2013, 01:25 AM EST
Blind faith in ridiculous clichés combined with idiocy will apparently lead some to deafness over the abortion regime’s abuse and murder of women and defenseless children and will lead them to believe unsubstantiated historical slanders.
boliath | Feb 11, 2013, 11:58 PM EST
She mentioned this before, plenty of times, here's one from 2010: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/25/AR2010032502363.html
The Commentator | Feb 11, 2013, 09:33 PM EST
Sorry about the repetition. The post didn't display so I reposted.
The Commentator | Feb 11, 2013, 09:33 PM EST
Sorry about the repetition. The post didn't display so I reposted.
The Commentator | Feb 11, 2013, 09:33 PM EST
Sorry about the repetition. The post didn't display so I reposted.
The Commentator | Feb 11, 2013, 09:27 PM EST
bveritas - Talk about mass murdering revolutionaries!!! The Roman Catholic Church is no stranger to murder, carnage, and plunder of non Catholics for treasure which they have kept to this day. What hypocrisy the hierarchy of the church demonstrate on a daily basis. Even today the Vatican bank is so corrupt that because of their money laundering for the mafia the Bank of Italy will not do business with them. It appears that the church is all about money, power, and male dominance over women and defenceless children. How anyone can defend the corrupt Roman Catholic Church is a mystery. Perhaps blind faith combined with deafness and idiocy is the answer.
The Commentator | Feb 11, 2013, 09:27 PM EST
bveritas - Talk about mass murdering revolutionaries!!! The Roman Catholic Church is no stranger to murder, carnage, and plunder of non Catholics for treasure which they have kept to this day. What hypocrisy the hierarchy of the church demonstrate on a daily basis. Even today the Vatican bank is so corrupt that because of their money laundering for the mafia the Bank of Italy will not do business with them. It appears that the church is all about money, power, and male dominance over women and defenceless children. How anyone can defend the corrupt Roman Catholic Church is a mystery. Perhaps blind faith combined with deafness and idiocy is the answer.
The Commentator | Feb 11, 2013, 09:27 PM EST
bveritas - Talk about mass murdering revolutionaries!!! The Roman Catholic Church is no stranger to murder, carnage, and plunder of non Catholics for treasure which they have kept to this day. What hypocrisy the hierarchy of the church demonstrate on a daily basis. Even today the Vatican bank is so corrupt that because of their money laundering for the mafia the Bank of Italy will not do business with them. It appears that the church is all about money, power, and male dominance over women and defenceless children. How anyone can defend the corrupt Roman Catholic Church is a mystery. Perhaps blind faith combined with deafness and idiocy is the answer.
The Commentator | Feb 11, 2013, 09:26 PM EST
bveritas - Talk about mass murdering revolutionaries!!! The Roman Catholic Church is no stranger to murder, carnage, and plunder of non Catholics for treasure which they have kept to this day. What hypocrisy the hierarchy of the church demonstrate on a daily basis. Even today the Vatican bank is so corrupt that because of their money laundering for the mafia the Bank of Italy will not do business with them. It appears that the church is all about money, power, and male dominance over women and defenceless children. How anyone can defend the corrupt Roman Catholic Church is a mystery. Perhaps blind faith combined with deafness and idiocy is the answer.
The Commentator | Feb 11, 2013, 09:04 PM EST
Some of you folks are still living in the Egyptian river. The Roman Catholic Church is still in de Nile. It wasn't that long ago a member of the church hierarchy blamed the children. I suppose you think it is Sineads' fault the children, teens, and adults were treated the way they were. Another story today in the news is the ruling a judge made to have church documents made public. After that happened, one church official was reprimanded, his assistant resigned. This only took place because it was publicized and the documents clearly showed the church officials were fully aware of the contents. How much more written information is still not destroyed that could show the church hierarchy systematically raped and molested children and covered it up. The continuing crime is that there are ranking members of the church fully aware of the documents contents and have taken no action. Just imagine how much documentation has been destroyed over the years to protect the degenerates. Scum of the earth.
The Commentator | Feb 11, 2013, 07:16 PM EST
Some of you folks are still living in the Egyptian river. The Roman Catholic Church is still in de Nile. It wasn't that long ago a member of the church hierarchy blamed the children. I suppose you think it is Sineads' fault the children, teens, and adults were treated the way they were. Another story today in the news is the ruling a judge made to have church documents made public. After that happened, one church official was reprimanded, his assistant resigned. This only took place because it was publicized and the documents clearly showed the church officials were fully aware of the contents. How much more written information is still not destroyed that could show the church hierarchy systematically raped and molested children and covered it up. The continuing crime is that there are ranking members of the church fully aware of the documents contents and have taken no action. Just imagine how much documentation has been destroyed over the years to protect the degenerates. Scum of the earth.
kittybrat | Feb 11, 2013, 03:13 PM EST
O'Connor is speaking truth about what goes on in these places. Particularly insidious is the fact that people do not believe the torment is true. As a survivor myself, it is heartbreaking that people ridicule the survivors, so.
bveritas | Feb 10, 2013, 03:10 PM EST
Never a shortage of ignorant anti-Catholic bigotry on this blog. The infantile spitefulness and cowardly act of O’Connor ripping up the JP II photo, as she made clear, had to do with his opposition to infanticide, a popular pursuit for those self-worshiping secularists interested in “revolutionary change” by exterminating inconvenient lives. Offering resistance to mass-murdering revolutionaries tends to set them off. If only it would inhibit their carnage.
noeldoyle | Feb 10, 2013, 02:26 PM EST
Are there any tragic circumstances that Sinead O Connor has not been involved in? Its amazingly unbelieveable!
noeldoyle | Feb 10, 2013, 02:26 PM EST
Are there any tragic circumstances that Sinead O Connor has not been involved in? Its amazingly unbelieveable!
noeldoyle | Feb 10, 2013, 02:26 PM EST
Are there any tragic circumstances that Sinead O Connor has not been involved in? Its amazingly unbelieveable!
nosoupforU | Feb 10, 2013, 05:00 AM EST
According to herself that would be 1981 when she went there. I can't believe it was that bad then. I think it's a cheap attempt to get some news time on the back of the children who really suffered.
seanomelb | Feb 09, 2013, 07:41 PM EST
Well said eiriamach
anglo-norman | Feb 09, 2013, 02:55 PM EST
Attention-junkie
eiriamach | Feb 09, 2013, 11:47 AM EST
In 1992, Sinead was a pioneer in exposing the criminal coverup of sexual abuse of children when she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II on SNL TV. On Feb. 1, 2013, Cardinal Mahony of L.A. was still making excuses for his aggressive role in the same coverups. He wrote on his blog, "Nothing in my own background or education equipped me to deal with this grave problem. In two years [1962—1964] spent in graduate school earning a Master’s Degree in Social Work, no textbook and no lecture ever referred to the sexual abuse of children. While there was some information dealing with child neglect, sexual abuse was never discussed." A NY Times editorial pointedly asks how much education it takes "to recognize criminal child abusers for what they are." With the mental health issues and personal traumas Sinead O'Connor has experienced, she has been accurate, to the point, and unhesitating in drawing the public's attention to the horrors of child abuse criminality, and she has done it all out of compassion for the children. I am inclined to look on her quirks and idiosyncrasies with compassion and with unstinting admiration for her moral courage.
merefalow | Feb 09, 2013, 11:08 AM EST
hope it didnt effect the rest of them as bad as her,loony tunes.
Searlit | Feb 08, 2013, 09:48 PM EST
She looks happier in the picture. I hope she's feeling better.
MontRoyalle | Feb 08, 2013, 09:32 PM EST
Niall, a few months ago you promised to leave that mad woman alone and not give her antics any more publicity. You are great at changing your mind for any expediency
misneac | Feb 08, 2013, 08:58 PM EST
This lying self promoting female can not produce any evidence she was ever in a Magdalene Laundry . For the record the Magdalene Laundries provided food , refuge ,shelter for outcasts of society not looked after by the State .They were not all abused or illtreated as consistently reported ,and it was the only refuge available to them .There is no logic or credibility in all the wild propaganda , this was Ireland of 60 years ago ! These conditions exist today in most Muslim countries ! Why we tolerate being insulted by a gobshite like OConnor I can not understand ? She would not tear up a photograph of the Pope in my presence and get away with it !This would not be a religious reaction ,but a repudiation of all she and her like represent !!!
PatriciaMarya | Feb 08, 2013, 08:09 PM EST
If only the Vatican would sell off its teasures and the Pope would stop wearing Prada, maybe then we could use that money to assist all of the children that were exposed to this Dickensian horror.
Happyhippo | Feb 08, 2013, 05:56 PM EST
Sinead is still singing and writing great songs,the last time i saw her she was wearing the priests black dress with a large crucifix,she is ordained a priest in a religious order outlawed by Rome,but she just thinks that the Roman church is is not true to its origins,i think most people just see her as a harmless troubled person who happens to write and sing great songs with soul and compassion.
cillowen | Feb 08, 2013, 04:39 PM EST
she made a name for herself - crazy soul. eerie eire.
Ms.Gail | Feb 08, 2013, 04:26 PM EST
I am sorry that she had to endure that experience. I'm sorry for all who had to endure it.
seanomelb | Feb 08, 2013, 04:00 PM EST
It's hard to understand the logic of those who hate,despise or otherwise dilike sinead. sHe may have been a troubled child and a stint with the gestapo nuns would certainly dull the senses. Sinead for pope.
pilib04 | Feb 08, 2013, 12:35 PM EST
Wounded Knee, not everyone is like you!
pilib04 | Feb 08, 2013, 12:34 PM EST
I appreciate what Sinead has shared over the years. She confronted us with the picture of the Pope and made us come to grips with Priest-child RAPE. Many Catholics are still in denial about this aspect of our Church. If we had only grasped the Misogynist practices of the Church, we might have been able to grasp the other evil aspects of our Church.
StabnSteer | Feb 08, 2013, 12:18 PM EST
Just for the record, this is not the first time O'Connor has revealed this. I've studied the Laundries for some time and it has been widely reported that O'Connor spent time there.
CavanAncestor | Feb 08, 2013, 11:15 AM EST
Sinead O'Connor is a deeply disturbed individual clever enough to seek redemption in the media easily facilitated by sycophants. Her allegations may or may not be true but their "revelation", like many, come at a time when no one is alive to refute them. What is revealing is that her parent paid for her stay, suggesting that she was very much out of control. This would all have more credibility had she brought it up when ripping up the Pope's photo. Both that act and this apologia are both mativated in economics...her's!
bunkerisland | Feb 08, 2013, 10:08 AM EST
That Sinead has a multitude of personal struggles is rather obvious. For those who doubt her description of 18 months at a Magdalene Laundry perhaps the records will show that she neither lies no exaggerates regarding this experience. I hear her expressing concern and compassion for other girls present with her, not just criticizing the institution for herself. Fine! You don't like women with shaved heads, but try to get beyond that.
SingleDonald | Feb 08, 2013, 09:49 AM EST
This article put Sinead in a different light, to me. I dislike girls who shave their heads, and tear up pictures of Pope John Paul II. Yet, this teenage experience quite likely set Sinead on her rebellious ways. As she entered Magdelene in 1980, the worst treatment there had already ended, mercifully. Yet, the indignities which Sinead did experience could have easily set her off on her negative path. Hopefully, that bitterness is behind her now.
Buffalobrave | Feb 08, 2013, 08:39 AM EST
leanne flynn: I think you should ask for your money back. That brain transplant didn't work!
WoundedKnee | Feb 08, 2013, 02:51 AM EST
I'd bet my tax rebate that Sinead is lying. This never happened. If it did, how come a woman who has been publicly talking about herself for decades never mentioned it before? Sinead does no service to those thousands of women who did truly suffer by attaching her flaky self to them.
anglo-norman | Feb 07, 2013, 07:54 PM EST
Will that silly girl ever Grow Up
Portia_O'Neill | Feb 07, 2013, 06:25 PM EST
It's great that Sinead O'Connor feels she can now disclose her sad experiences at the Magdalene Laundries. The BBC did a documentary in 1996 that presents the stories of some of the women who were in the Magdalene Laundries. It's called "Sex in a Cold Climate" and it's available on Youtube.
seanomelb | Feb 07, 2013, 06:15 PM EST
And did they sting bayirisham
bayirisham | Feb 07, 2013, 06:06 PM EST
Its hard to believe that this abuse was still happening in Ireland in 1981 when Sinead was 14. The women of Ireland were not the only ones to ones to suffer under the Catholic Church . When Woodstock was happening in America we were getting the crap beat out of us by the Irish Christian Brothers guys in black dresses with leather straps.
seanomelb | Feb 07, 2013, 05:29 PM EST
Maybe Sinead was ashamed or to embarrassed to speak out. A word or two some of those below. Do not be so quick to judge Sinead. Demeaning her is a sure sign of ignorance.
IrelandNorth | Feb 07, 2013, 02:28 PM EST
One would have though that on reaching the ripe old age of 46, that one would have resigned onesefl to the existential reality that life is no bed of roses. There's great recovery in resignation to the fact that you only get on ego on the existential misery-go-round. So try not to make it anyworse than it already is.
barnie4001 | Feb 07, 2013, 12:43 PM EST
never heard of this before ?????????????????????????????
leanne flynn | Feb 07, 2013, 10:43 AM EST
I am continually impressed with Sinead O'Connor's courage and honesty. She is an inspiration for so many people. I am very thankful, as I am sure so many people are for her important visit to the youth center that was in such a state of disrepair. She is right, as usual. The women of Ireland deserve a real and enthusiastic apology from both Ireland and Rome for injuries dealt by both church and state. She is very right about that. Reconciliation requires more honesty than that shown by the timid apology given. I was proud to learn that Sinead O'Connor was a Catholic woman. I, too, was born Catholic, and I, too, have been disappointed in the apologies offered by the Catholic church for severe injuries dealt by church affiliated staff. I am very proud of the people of my island, Cape Breton, for their resilience in overcoming the grief of a recent investigation of injuries dealt by the parishes of the Catholic church so many years ago. Investigations have dealt us more grief, and reconciliation is difficult. Sinead O'Connor deserves to have more information from Pope Benedict about the rumors related to her being "excommunicated." I hope she gets the dialogue and respect from Catholic offices, including Pope Benedict that she deserves. She is a hero world wide for her advocacy for human rights. And she is very spiritual and holy woman that guides christian and non-christian people with her grace and fine ethic. Her fierceness is a gift and blessing to all people. All hail, Sinead O'Connor.