Oral History, Restorative Justice and
the Magdalene Laundries
Dr Mary McAuliffe (UCD Women’s Studies and
Justice for Magdalenes)
June 2011
Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries
• No history of Ireland’s
Magdalene laundries can exist
until the religious congregations
release their records—
“Penitent” registers and convent
annals
• The laundries exist in the
public mind chiefly at the level
of story (cultural representation
and survivor testimony) rather
than history (archival records
and documentation)
Book’s Concluding Paragraph
“At the root of this study remains a
population of Irish women whose fate was
almost uniformly dark: some were
discarded anonymously in unmarked
graves; others, so traumatized by the
experience of incarceration, remain
dependent on religious orders for their
daily existence; still others are unable to
escape from the societal stigma attached to
their past. It is for their sakes that recent
cultural representations of Ireland’s
Magdalen laundries should be recognized
as contributing to a collective movement
forward—toward real action.”
Magdalene Laundries
Historical Context
What was a Magdalene Laundry?
• Magdalene Laundries were
institutions—originally
philanthropic but increasingly
recarceral— attached to
Convents operated by female
religious in which women,
called "penitents," worked at
laundry and other for-profit
enterprises
• The Magdalene Asylums are
neither uniquely Irish nor
Catholic
What were conditions like?
• These women were:
— denied freedom of
movement
— never paid for their labour
— denied their given names
• The daily routine emphasized
prayer, silence, and work
• Women had to be signed out
of the Magdalene
• Many remained to live, work,
and ultimately die, behind
convent walls
Religious Congregations
• After 1922, Magdalene
Laundries were operated by
— The Sisters of Mercy
— The Sisters of Our Lady of
Charity (of Refuge)
— The Sisters of Charity
— The Good Shepherd Sisters
• These orders also managed
State residential institutions
• All four are members of CORI
and party to the indemnity deal
Where were they located?
• Galway and Dun Laoghaire (Sisters
•
•
•
*
•
of Mercy)
Waterford, New Ross, Limerick, and
Cork (Good Shepherd Sisters)
Donnybrook and Cork (Sisters of
Charity)
Drumcondra and Gloucester/Sean
McDermott Streets (Sisters of Our
Lady of Charity)
Belfast (Good Shepherd Sisters,
Ormeau Rd)
The last Magdalene ceased operating
as a commercial laundry on 25
October, 1996
Magdalene Laundry Survivors: Five Groups
•
•
•
•
•
Survivors speaking out and demanding justice
Survivors living in silence (shame/stigma)
Survivors dependent on the religious congregations
Victims who have died (inside and outside the convent)
Children and families (adoption)
How many women are involved?
The Nuns will not release records
for women entering the laundries
after 1900, therefore:
•No one knows how many women
entered the laundries
•No one knows how many
survivors are still alive
•The figure of “30,000 women” is
suspect
•The figure of 200 living survivors
has no basis in fact
JFM: Background
• Founded in 2004
• Grew out of the original
Magdalene Memorial
Committee (MMC), founded
in 1993
• A survivor advocacy group
• Not-for-profit, totally
volunteer-run, organization
JFM: Mission
• to promote and represent the interests of Ireland’s
Magdalene women & their children
• to respectfully promote equality and seek justice for the
women formerly incarcerated in Magdalene laundries
• to obtain a formal apology from Church and State for
abuses in Magdalene laundries
• seek the establishment of a distinct redress scheme for
Magdalene survivors
The JFM Campaign
• The Names Project
• Political Campaign/ Human Rights
• The Catholic Church
• Oral History Project
Names Project: Creating an Archive
“It is easy to dismiss all of this as a matter of concern only to professional
historians. It actually goes to the heart of something much larger – our
collective notions of who we are. What is at stake is our ability to define
our own reality. We’ve learned in the most painful way, principally from
the Ryan report into the industrial school system, that the successful
occlusion of some of the darkest aspects of Irish life allows us to lie about
ourselves. Those lies are toxic” (Fintan, O’Toole, “Neglect of archives shows contempt for citizens,”
Irish Times, 10/4/10)
Census of Ireland, 1911
Institution/Order
Location
No. of Magdalenes
Our Lady of Charity of Refuge
Gloucester Street
83
Our Lady of Charity of Refuge
High Park, Drumcondra
214
Sisters of Mercy
Galway
109
Good Shepherd Sisters
New Ross
53
Good Shepherd Sisters
Limerick
93
Sisters of Charity
Cork
97
Sisters of Mercy
Kingstown/Dun Laoghaire
47
Sisters of Charity
Donnybrook, Dublin
111
Good Shepherd
Sunday’s Well, Cork
164
Good Shepherd
Waterford
121
Good Shepherd
Belfast
135
Total Magdalene Women Registered in 1911
1227
Alice O’Keeffe
1911-29 years
1961-79 years
At least 50
years confined
• Oral History project – rationale.
• Because of lack of access to these
formal records of the Magdalene
Institutions the history of these places in
the 20th century, told largely through
media and cultural representation and
through occasional eye-witness
testimony.
Books, plays, documentaries, TV dramas and films
rendered these institutions visible and accessible to
Irish society and questioned the silence and distortion
of the prior histories of the Magdalene’s.
Survivor testimony has also opened up new avenues
of information –most of this survivor testimony comes
indirectly from TV/Radio interviews, a few inserts in
other Reports which, while excluding the survivors of
Magdalene’s, got to hear of some survivors
experiences (e.g the Ryan Report).
Ryan Report evidence of children in the
Magdalene Laundries [1 of 3]
•
“I was being abused by my step-father. When I approached my
mother, she went to the priest and the nuns and it was decided that I
was the one to be sent off … I was put into the laundry, I was only
10.” [pg. 374]
•
“Every morning were were up at 5 o’clock in the summer, 6
o’clock in winter. We slaved all day. … They starved us and
worked us to death while they lived in luxury. The nuns … used to
shave our hair off.” [pg. 377]
•
“I did starching, I did priests’ cloaks … I did collars, you had to
keep ironing them until they become real stiff. There was a little
wooden thing you could stand on.” [pg. 381]
Ryan Report evidence of children in the
Magdalene Laundries [2 of 3]
•
“I was put in the middle of older and middle aged women, I cried
for weeks and weeks on end, I was nobody … I was 16…. I was
locked away, working 6 days a week in the laundry and in the
kitchen on Sunday.” [pg. 383]
•
“Seven female witness reports related to continuous hard physical
work in residential laundries, which was generally unpaid. Two
witnesses said that the regime was ‘like a prison’, that doors were
locked all the time and exercise was taken in an enclosed yard.
Working conditions were harsh and included standing for long
hours, constantly washing laundry in cold water, and using heavy
irons for many hours.” [pg. 377]
Ryan Report evidence of children in the
Magdalene Laundries [3 of 3]
•
Four (4) female witnesses reported that their education, social development
and emotional well being were neglected as they were constantly forced to
work without pay for long hours, with limited time for education and
recreation. The lack of safety, adequate food and a supportive educational
environment was frequently commented upon by witnesses. [pg. 381]
•
Six (6) female witnesses … reported that the loss of liberty, social isolation
and the deprivation of identity had a traumatic impact on them. Friendships
were discouraged or forbidden, communication was severely limited by the
rule of silence and doors were constantly locked. Two (2) witnesses stated
that restrictions … contributed to a feeling of being treated like a prisoner.
They described their punishment for breaking the rule of silence as having
their head shaved and being made to take meals separately from their peers.
[pg. 383]
• In order to understand the Magdalene Institutions we
need to recover all we can in terms of empirical and
archival evidence and personal memoir (from largely
an older population).
• We believe that making an analysis of the Magdalene
Institutions will allow us to gain a more
comprehensive understanding about what happened
in the past to vulnerable women and girls;
• We can then ascribe at least a general responsibility
for that. This analysis is not possible without the
recovery work that we are proposing.
The case for the Oral History Project – A
Social Justice Issue
• The critical importance of oral testimony has
been demonstrated in the histories of trauma
in the 20th century.
• Holocaust testimony
• South Africa TRC
• Northern Ireland
• As Archbishop Tutu remarked in the South
Africa case true reconciliation and justice can
never happen if we continue to deny the past.
• The meeting under the South African TRC of
survivors of the apartheid system, victims and
enforcers, allowed for forgiveness and
reconciliation and is held up as a model of
social justice in action.
• In Ireland women who were put in these Magdalene
Institutions were and continue to be among the most
marginalised and invisible of groups.
• This project will help redress an historical injustice
suffered by thousands of women on the island of
Ireland in the 20th century.
• The complicity of religious organisations, of State
bodies and of wider society in condemning these
women to a live of penury and hardship must be
acknowledged.
• Oral histories play a very important role in
documenting the lives of those which might otherwise
go undocumented.
• Oral History serves a valuable function to refute
myths of the pasts, debunk fabrications and incorrect
narratives of experiences and events.
• The voices of the women to be included in this
project have been systematically excluded from Irish
history, here their stories can be heard, their
memories allowed and their place in Irish history
acknowledged.
As the intention is to allow a full, nuanced, balanced project which
would look at the fullest possible history of the 20th century
Magdalene Laundries on the island of Ireland we would propose
the following groups for inclusion in the Oral History Project
•
•
•
•
•
•
Women who worked in the Laundries
Sisters who worked in the Magdalene Convent
Visitors to the Magdalene laundries
Children of women who worked in the laundries
Other family members –sisters, brothers, relations
People who did business with the Magdalene Laundry –
including state officials – police, probation officers, judges etc
• Church Leaders.
What is Needed
• An oral history project should be established to record and archive the
experiences of survivors, family members, female religious, and other
interested parties
An appropriate national memorial should be erected and thereby protect
against the erasure of this chapter in the nation's history. Likewise, this
chapter in the nation's history should be taught as part of the State’s
educational curriculum
• Magdalene burial plots must be properly maintained. The religious orders
should erect suitable and accurate memorial stones, and all language referring
to Magdalenes as “penitents,” "residents,” “sinners,” etc., should be amended
• Ultimately acknowledging what happened in
these Magdalene Institutions and how why it
happened allows the truth of a traumatic
period in women’s history be written
• And allows remaining survivors be supported
should they wish that support and allows Irish
society continue on the route of achieving a
more just and equal society.