25 Comments

• conorspillane | Feb 04, 2012, 04:22 PM EST

  There should and must be a public inquiry the idea the women,girls and babies went in of there own free will is a complete lie. My own grandmother knew of these places as my granddad had died she was left with 8 children the next door neighbor's parents had died first her then him and on his deathbed the man cried at the thought of his children being put in these hellholes but my grandmother told on his deathbed she would take the 4 children in and rear them with her own 8. The nuns chased her and hounded her over and over again but she stood firm and the 4 children were saved 3 boys and a girl. I have always been so proud of the that old girl. The government paid the laundries 3 pounds a week per person for every person sent to these places in 1979 so the knew this amount rose to 18 pounds in 1992

• oldseapines | Oct 08, 2011, 11:41 PM EDT

  I think that it is about time that they view this horror with the concern and courage that is necessary to really identify all the abusers.

• ciarajoyce | Oct 08, 2011, 01:24 PM EDT

  So if a parent hands you over to someone who will treat you like a slave and take your child from you, it's OK -- simply because a parent of yours said it was OK? Had my mother known of those laundries, she'd have put me in one as incorrigible. (As it was, she threatened me several times a week with being put into a local church-run "orphanage." I knew she hated me enough to put me away, but was mostly afraid my uncles would hear of it and hang her out to dry. They'd also make her give back the money I'd inherited from my dear Gram -- her mother-in-law.) She had no possible grounds for locking me away: I never got pregnant, never got arrested, never even got brought home by the police. The people who should have been in the laundries were the parents who saw them as a way to avoid caring for their children.

• Searlit | Jun 15, 2011, 04:30 PM EDT

  @ sirpeter, If you read my posts you would know that I frequently admonish the multi-national corporations that are responsible for exploiting workers across the world! The only thing we can do is keep a light shining on the dark error of their ways. Would you have everyone go without food, also, because some agricultural workers are treated like slaves? I want the authorities to do the right thing. Just saying that it's always been this way, doesn't cut it for me. If things have always been this way, it is because people have let it be that way. It doesn't have to be this way. Are you so jaded that you can't believe in change for the better. I'm not!

• canadianirish | Jun 09, 2011, 05:04 PM EDT

  Yet again, S-H-A-M-E on the Catholic Church!

• canadianirish | Jun 09, 2011, 05:00 PM EDT

  The time will come when all of these abusers will meet their maker. At that appointed hour, true justice will be served.

• sirpeter | Jun 09, 2011, 03:21 PM EDT

  @Searlit.Anyone who is vulnerable is open to exploitation and abuse.That's a fact of life and it's always going to be a fact of life.Searlit you talk about crimes against humanity and judge other's for their sins against humanity and yet every time you buy a new piece of clothing or footwear chances are you are supporting slave labour and people who are abused.Your whole standard of living and the good public services you enjoy is founded and supported by slavery and abuse of people who live in impoverished nations. The Magdalene laundries were run by the church and state who in turn were supported by the people.The quality of a society is determined by how we treat our most vulnerable.So who is guilty? The nuns who were also abused?Because the fact's are most abusers have also been abused in some way.Searlit you obviously don't read many of my comments on these very complex issues otherwise you would know my opinion on blatant injustice.I just don't think lots of issues of this nature are black or white.That's all.When you think about it wrongs were done to us all that continue to effect us all our life's.It's not what was done.it's how you cope with it.

• Searlit | Jun 08, 2011, 03:17 PM EDT

  @sirpeter, you think if they have nowhere to go it's alright to make slaves out of people and abuse them?

• sirpeter | Jun 07, 2011, 03:29 PM EDT

  @mamaginnty.Yeah!! No one knew what was happening.You couldn't say a word against the church in those days.I know there was a stigma to have a child and not be married.But most just went and had their babies adopted and came home after the "holiday" with the imaginary aunt in England. I don't believe that "normal" girls were kept there by force.I think alot of girls must of had nowhere to go home to "family problems ect" and alot of them could have been mildly retarded.That woman you talk about how long did she leave her daughter in the Magdalene laundries?

• Trealach | Jun 06, 2011, 09:16 PM EDT

  @Searlit - you missed my point completely. The crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Crown cost the lives of 1.5million through Famine, and increased over the years up to recent times - yet we are now expected to simply "bow to the past". Where is the justice for those people? Not even as much as an apology came from the Crown during her visit.

• Searlit | Jun 06, 2011, 08:12 PM EDT

  @ Trealach, this crime against humanity involved tens of thousands of women. This is not ancient history. It took place in the twentieth century. Many women still living, who were imprisoned and had their babies kidnapped deserve justice. So too, all those who were abused at this laundry. How do you justify your cold feelings toward these women? They are your fellow human beings! They are your Irish citizens!

• seanomelbourne | Jun 06, 2011, 06:42 PM EDT

  About time these termagants were brought to justice. Successive Irish governments failed to protect these young ladies therefore they are as culpable as the sanctimonious hypocrites who perpetrated these acts of torture(nuns/priests/bishops).

• mamaginnty | Jun 06, 2011, 05:14 PM EDT

  Sirpeter, to say it seems the families did not want them, up until the 60s it was an awful stigma to have a child and not married. Like your dear grandmother, the families did not know what was going on, looking on the nuns as almost saintly for taking in thier daughters. As I mentioned before, I know one of the women involved, her family did not know what she was suffering, her mother had a breakdown when she found out and commited suicide, blaming herself. The woman and family members are still trying to trace her missing child. To BRONXJAMES a lot of these poor women are still alive, these workhouses were a going concern up until the 60s.

• feliciamaisey | Jun 06, 2011, 04:19 PM EDT

  I don't agree that this should be ignored or "just let it go" mentality, because it is a part of history that shaped several decades worth of young women, many of whom, never breathed a bit of air beyond the laundry gates. Their lives were permanently altered and ended, without their even having a choice. It was a form of slavery, and certainly a disgrace to women everywhere. Bearing children is a special gift and no-one should be forced to make decisions under duress, be shut out form their families or locked away in this manner. It is time that the sins of the past be looked at with a very precise set of eyes. If not, there is always the propensity for the worst components of history tot repeat itself.

• sirpeter | Jun 06, 2011, 03:29 PM EDT

  My grandmother must be turning in her grave.She always got her bed linen washed and pressed by the Magdalene laundries.She said they always did an excellent job and wanted to support the nuns who looked after these poor unfortunate girls who had no where else to go.Little did she know they were slave labour camps.I wonder where these women with new born babies would have went at the time if they were left on the streets.If they were kept there it seems none of them had any families that wanted them.

• IAPRINCESS | Jun 06, 2011, 01:47 PM EDT

  They may not be in existance any more but their decendents are alive and bearing scars that will never head. God Help Tham

• Trealach | Jun 06, 2011, 01:31 PM EDT

  As the Queen said in her speech concerning the history between "our two countries" - "We must not be bound by the past, but we must bow to the past". IF that's good enough for the genocide which her family members perpetrated on an entire nation, then is must also apply in this case.

• islenita | Jun 06, 2011, 01:07 PM EDT

  Abhorrent that it would take this long! Unfortunately Justice may not come to them may may bring solace to their heirs but at least someone needs to be accountable.

• snakehips | Jun 06, 2011, 11:51 AM EDT

  You know there is never any excuse for this awful part of history.Apologies from the Government and the Church would probably be appropriate but there is never a chance at making things right with the victims. Having said that, however, the people in charge now;Government & Church are historically detached from these atrocities and restitution is economic and really doesn't do the trick. Any Government, i.e, the US with the imprisonment of Japanese Americans and Slavery or Germany with the extermination of European Jews or Cambodia as respects the Pol Pot Regime can never remedy crimes against humanity with a few bucks per victim. We must resolve, as a human race, never to allow these type of things to occur again. Finally, there were such bizarre reasons why these young women were sent to these laundries that you could never lump this all into one crime with only one or two perpetrators.

• maryjeandc | Jun 06, 2011, 10:40 AM EDT

  Justice is never too late

• Springfield9 | Jun 06, 2011, 10:35 AM EDT

  I'm unsure of the "restitution" side of the argument. Though, one must admit that the "laundry" was very near slavery. However, there is the question of citizenship for babies given up for adoption to the U.S. while their mothers were under duress.

• bronxjames | Jun 06, 2011, 10:10 AM EDT

  lIKE CLOSING THE BARN DOOR AFTER THE HORSES GOT OUT....LET IT GO THERE NOT IN EXISTENCE ANYMORE

• Chiefjustice | Jun 06, 2011, 10:01 AM EDT

  It's the Church and it's close assoc. with the Govt. that allowed it... Another shame on Ireland

• mocmanic | Jun 06, 2011, 09:47 AM EDT

  This way overdue. Why has it taken so long to address such blatant abuse? Why did it take a UN committee to deal with this issue?

• smithsligo | Jun 06, 2011, 09:24 AM EDT

  I am a faculty member at Boston College, not as reported, at Boston University (with all due respect to that august institution). Please follow breaking developments with the JFM Campaign at our Website (www.magdalenelaundries.com) and FB pages, and thank you for your support, Jim Smith