Magdalene Laundries

[emmie]

I have been following this story, it's appalling wherever it stems, we look at other countries treatment of women, but the powers that be, should have been ashamed of themselves. Disturbing reading and one wonders little has changed in some quarters.

http://synonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2013/02/magdalen-laundries-or-how-british-bred-eugenics-put-a-little-magdalen-all-around-the-world.html

[albaqwerty]

She writes a powerful blog. I do agree with her last sentence. 'Where was the law?'

Thank you Em, for posting the link. Very thought-provoking.

[emmie]

we talk about women in India, Pakistan, Africa as having no rights, or treated appallingly, however one should look closer to home, i remember reading a biography of a suffragette who was sent to prison, force fed and worse, so the fight goes on for justice for the women who have been treated so badly.

[mrs_overall]

Yet more abuse under the umbrella of the Catholic church.
Lovely bunch.

[albaqwerty]

That's the thing, it wasn't just and it isn't just the catholic church.
Abuse is a terrible thing whatever it's disguise.

[argorstran]

Mrs Overall did you read the whole article ?

[emmie]

Mrs O, no it isn't just the Catholic church, which is what the article though a long, is saying. That it was allowed to go on for so long is disgraceful. I was watching Enda Kenny on the news, he didn't seem comfortable at all in making an apology..

[emmie]

from the article

First, the Magdalene homes were not an invention of the Catholic Church.

Second, the Magdalene homes did not exist only in Catholic Ireland. For example, the Magdalene Society of Philadelphia was established in 1800 by, among others, the Quakers. In the north of Ireland, the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterians ran Magdalene homes.

[mrs_overall]

I stand corrected.

I saw a film about a Magdalene laundry run by Catholic nuns. The film was on TV sometime in the last 18 months. It moved me to tears.

(note to self: read the full article before opening mouth)

[emmie]

the film i watched not sure if same one way had me reaching for a brick, to throw at the telly, it was one of the most depressing films i have ever watched, almost as good as Angela's ashes.

[emmie]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318411/

[slaney]

Thanks for the link em, it made interesting reading.
No one would have forgotten that powerful film, so I was surprised on reading the report to see that the median stay was only 27 weeks.
Patsy McGarry gives a video summary of the official findings in this Irish Times link ...
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2013/0205/breaking6.html?via=rel

[mrs_overall]

Thanks for the link em - that was the very film.

[emmie]

none of those involved in the effective incarceration of these girls, come out with any credibility or honour, as to the 27 weeks that seems to have been contradicted by the women who were interviewed on last evenings news. Many died in these workhouses, and if the state was complicit in the removal of the girls from their homes for such spurious reasons, then the least they can expect is an abject apology.

[slaney]

Indeed em - but the median stay was just that - those women you refer to would have been among the 7% who stayed for more than 10 years.

[naomi24]

//it isn't just the Catholic church, which is what the article though a long, is saying.//

True - but most of it, wherever it happened, appears to have been inspired by religious principles of one flavour or another.

[argorstran]

No Naomi , it's inspired by human politics not by religious principles .
In the bible Jesus goes to the aid of the woman accused of adultery and saves her from being stoned .
"...let him who is without sin cast the first stone.......has no-one condemned you?.....neither do I condemn you...."
John chapter 8 - it's one of the best-known bible passages .

[LazyGun]

The idea that women were judged and treated this way is appalling, and deserve to be highlighted.

It also is true that the Magdalene institutions were not exclusively catholic in origin - but all such institutions grew out of the evangelical religious movements of that time in history.

A piece from wiki
"Magdalene asylums grew out of the Evangelical rescue movement in the United Kingdom during the 19th century, whose formal goal was to rehabilitate prostitutes. In Ireland, the institutions were named for St. Mary Magdalene.[3]

The Magdalene movement in Ireland was appropriated by the Catholic Church following Catholic Emancipation in 1829 and the homes, which were initially intended to be short-term refuges, increasingly turned into long-term institutions. Penitents were required to work, primarily in laundries, since the facilities were self-supporting and were not funded by either the State or the Religious denominations.

As the Magdalene movement became increasingly distant from the original idea of the Rescue Movement (finding alternative work for prostitutes who could not find regular employment because of their background), the asylums became increasingly prison-like. Supervising nuns were instructed to encourage the women into penance, rather than merely berating them and blocking their escape attempts."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_asylum

At least one commentator has suggested that the invention and mass use of a domestic washing machines had as much to do with the closure of these magdelene laundries as any change in the culture or the law - implying that the only reason they finally came to an end was that they simply became unprofitable.

Religion does not get a free pass here. Many of those who were referred to such institutions were described as "fallen women" - and that moral definition was very much influenced by the prevailing religious organisations of the time....

[naomi24]

argorstran, I refer you to LG’s post above. Regardless of what Jesus is alleged to have said, or of what you would like to believe, religion is certainly not off the hook.

[emmie]

if i had one wish in this world, it would be to banish all religions to damnation, they are a blight on people, never have i seen one that was good, truthful, helped when it was needed, nor fit for purpose.

[modeller]

Religion has a lot to answer for but what makes it worse is was/is supported by the state. If they ran away like the 23 yr old interviewed they were taken back by the police and no investigation was carried out.
This is another example of the RC cover up.