Magdalene asylum

Magdalene Laundry in Ireland, c. early 20th century

Magdalene asylums were institutions from the 18th to the late-20th centuries ostensibly for "fallen women", a term used to imply sexual promiscuity. Asylums for these girls and women (and others believed to be of poor moral character, such as prostitutes) operated throughout Europe, Britain, Ireland, Canada and the United States for much of the 19th and well into the 20th century. The first asylum in Ireland opened on Leeson Street in Dublin in 1765, founded by the Protestant Lady Arabella Denny.

In Belfast there was a Church of Ireland run Ulster Magdalene Asylum (founded in 1839) on Donegall Pass, while parallel institutions were run by Catholics on Ormeau Road and by Presbyterians on Whitehall Parade.

Initially the mission of the asylums was often to rehabilitate women back into society, but by the early 20th century the homes had become increasingly punitive and prison-like. In most of these asylums, the inmates were required to undertake hard physical labour, including laundry and needle work. They also endured a daily regime that included long periods of prayer and enforced silence. In Ireland, such asylums were known as Magdalene laundries. It has been estimated that up to 30,000 women passed through such laundries in Ireland. The last Magdalene asylum, in Waterford, Ireland, closed on September 25, 1996.

Origins

Magdalene Laundry in England, early 20th century

The Dublin Magdalen Asylum in lower Leeson Street was the first such institution in Ireland. Founded in 1765 by Lady Arabella Denny, it admitted only Protestant girls. In 1918 the home became a children's home and adoption society. Following the Leeson Street asylum's closure, the Bethany Home, founded in 1921, provided similar refuge services for Protestant "fallen women".

The first Catholic home was founded in Cork in 1809.

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.

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.

The Congregation of the Sisters of Misericorde is described by the Catholic Encyclopedia: "In receiving patients no discrimination is made in regard to religion, colour, or nationality. After their convalescence, those who desire to remain in the home are placed under a special sister and are known as "Daughters of St. Margaret". They follow a certain rule of life but contract no religious obligations. Should they desire to remain in the convent, after a period of probation, they are allowed to become Magdalens and eventually make the vows of the Magdalen order. The congregation celebrated its fiftieth anniversary 16 January 1898."

Conditions

Asylum records show that in the early history of the Magdalene movement, many women entered and left the institutions of their own accord, sometimes repeatedly. Lu Ann De Cunzo wrote in her book, Reform, Respite, Ritual: An Archaeology of Institutions; The Magdalene Society of Philadelphia, 1800-1850, that the women in Philadelphia's asylum "sought a refuge and a respite from disease, the prison or almshouse, unhappy family situations, abusive men and dire economic circumstances." Though some may have taken refuge in the institutions, the asylum environment hosted behaviour considered , to constitute physical, psychological, sexual and emotional abuse. Many women felt they needed the support of the institutions to survive, since the sisters strove to make them feel that the reasons for their refuge were their own fault.

According to Finnegan, because many had a background as prostitutes, inmates (who were called "children") were regarded as "in need of penitence," and until the 1970s they were required to address all staff members as "mother" regardless of age. To enforce order and maintain a monastic atmosphere, the inmates were required to observe strict silence for much of the day, while corporal punishment was common, and passive-aggression was ignored.

As the phenomenon became more widespread, it extended beyond prostitution to unmarried mothers, mentally retarded women, and abused girls. Even young girls who were considered too promiscuous and flirtatious, or too beautiful, were sent to an asylum by their respective families. This paralleled the practice in state-run asylums in Britain and Ireland in the same period, where many people with alleged "social dysfunction" were committed to asylums. The women were typically admitted to these institutions at the request of family members (mostly men). Without a family member on the outside who would vouch for them, many incarcerated individuals would stay in the asylums for the rest of their lives, many of them taking religious vows.

Given Ireland's (Northern Protestant and Southern Catholic) historically conservative sexual values, Magdalene asylums were a generally accepted social institution until well into the second half of the 20th century. They disappeared with the changes in sexual mores—or, as Finnegan suggests, as they ceased to be profitable: "Possibly the advent of the washing machine has been as instrumental in closing these laundries as have changing attitudes."

Public scandal

The existence of the Irish asylums was not well known until, in 1993, an order of nuns in Dublin sold part of their convent to a real-estate developer. The remains of 155 inmates who had been buried in unmarked graves on the property were exhumed and, except for one, cremated and reburied in a mass grave in Glasnevin Cemetery. This triggered a public scandal and became local and national news. In 1999, Mary Norris, Josephine McCarthy and Mary-Jo McDonagh, all asylum inmates, gave accounts of their treatment. The 1997 Channel 4 documentary Sex in a Cold Climate interviewed former inmates of Magdalene Asylums who testified to continued sexual, psychological and physical abuse while being isolated from the outside world for an indefinite amount of time. Allegations about the convents' conditions and the treatment of the Irish asylums' inmates were made into the award-winning 2002 film The Magdalene Sisters, written and directed by Peter Mullan.

In June 2011, Mary Raftery wrote in the Irish Times that in the early 1940s, some Irish state institutions, such as the Army, switched from commercial laundries to "institutional laundries" (Magdalene laundries). At the time, there was concern in the Dáil that workers in commercial laundries were losing jobs because of the switch to institutional laundries. Oscar Traynor, then Minister for Defence, said that the contracts with the Magdalene laundries “contain a fair wages clause,” though the women in those laundries did not receive wages.

Shortly afterwards, the Irish Times revealed that a ledger listed Áras an Uachtaráin, Guinness, Clerys, the Gaiety Theatre, Dr Steevens' Hospital, the Bank of Ireland, the Department of Defence, the Departments of Agriculture and Fisheries, CIÉ, Portmarnock Golf Club, Clontarf Golf Club and several leading hotels amongst those who used a Magdalene laundry. This was unearthed by Steven O' Riordan, a young Irish filmmaker who directed and produced a documentary called "The Forgotten Maggies." It is the only Irish-made documentary on the subject matter and was originally launched at The Galway Film Feladh 2009. It was also screened on TG4, an Irish television station in 2011, attracting over 360,000 viewers. The documentary's website notes that a group called Magdalene Survivors Together was set up after the release of the documentary, because so many Magdalene women came forward as a result of its airing. The women who appeared in the documentary were the first-ever Magdalene women to meet with government officials in Ireland. The women helped to bring national and international attention back to the subject matter.

Inquiry into child abuse

In May 2009, the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse released a 2000-page report recording claims from hundreds of Irish residents that they were physically, sexually, or emotionally abused as children between the 1930s and the 1990s in a network of state-administered and church-run residential schools meant to care for the poor, the vulnerable, and the unwanted. The alleged abuse was by nuns, priests and non-clerical staff and helpers. The allegations of abuse cover many Catholic (Magdalene), Protestant (Bethany) and State-run Irish Industrial schools.

The Commission stated:

There were two types of inquiry, one drawing on contested evidence (Investigation Committee) and the other on uncontested evidence (Confidential Committee), which reported to the Commission. Between them the Commission received the evidence of over 1,500 witnesses who attended or were resident as children in schools and care facilities in the State, particularly industrial and reformatory schools.

Since 2001, the Irish government has acknowledged that women in the Magdalene laundries were abuse victims. However, the Irish government has resisted calls for investigation and proposals for compensation; the government maintains that the laundries were privately run, therefore abuses at the laundries are outside of the government's remit. In contrast to these claims, evidence exists that Irish courts routinely sent women convicted of petty crimes to the laundries, the government awarded lucrative contracts to the laundries without any insistence on protection and fair treatment of its workers, and Irish state employees helped to keep laundry facilities stocked with workers by bringing women to the laundries and returning escaped workers.

Notwithstanding the investigations instigated by the government in the Republic of Ireland, similar investigations have still to be instigated in Northern Ireland and worldwide, in general.

International law

Having lobbied the Irish government (but not the British Government nor the Northern Ireland Administration) for two years to fully investigate the Magdalene laundries (ignoring the Bethany grouping), an advocacy group, Justice for Magdalenes, presented their case to the United Nations Committee Against Torture. Justice for Magdalenes allege that the conditions within the Magdalene laundries and the exploitation of their labourers amount to human-rights violations and will present the case in front of the The U.N. Committee Against Torture. On June 6, 2011, the panel urged Ireland to "investigate allegations that for decades women and girls sent to work in Catholic laundries were tortured."

Legacy

Literature and reportage

• Ireland's Magdalene Laundries and the Nation's Architecture of Containment, was written by Professor James M. Smith, Associate Professor, English Department, Boston College. The book won the 2007 Donald Murphy Prize for a Distinguished First Book from the American Conference for Irish Studies.
• Rachel Dilworth's The Wild Rose Asylum: Poems of the Magdalen Laundries of Ireland, the 2008 winner of the Akron Poetry Prize, is a collection of poems based on the Magdalene Laundries.
• In the Shadow of Eden is an award-winning short memoir by Rachael Romero. Using vintage footage and photos of what led up to her incarceration in the Convent of the Good Shepherd (Magdalene) Laundries in South Australia, Romero outlines her experience there.
• For The Love of My Mother by J.P. Rodgers tells the story of his Irish mother, born into a life of poverty and detained at the age of two for begging in the streets. Bridget Rodgers spent the next 30 years of her life locked away in one institution or another, including the Magdalen Laundries.
• The Magadalen Martyrs is a 2003 story written by Ken Bruen. In the third episode of Bruen's Jack Taylor series, Jack Taylor is given a mission: "Find the Angel of the Magdalene," actually a devil incarnate nicknamed Lucifer, a woman who "helped" the unfortunate martyrs incarcerated in the infamous laundry.
• Kathy's Story by Kathy O'Beirne alleges she suffered physical and sexual abuse in a Magdalene laundry in Ireland.
• Kathy's Real Story by journalist Hermann Kelly, published by Prefect Press in 2007, alleges that O'Beirne's allegations are false.

Film and stage

• The Forgotten Maggies is a 2009 Irish-made documentary on the subject matter with a human rights perspective. It has more than five Magdalene women contributing and presents evidence of government involvement. Directed and Producer by Steven O' Riordan.
• The Magdalene Sisters is a 2002 film written and directed by Peter Mullan.
• Sex in a Cold Climate is a 1998 documentary directed by Steve Humphries presenting interviews of four women interred in various Magdalene asylums and orphanages because of out-of-wedlock pregnancies, being sexually assaulted, or just being "too pretty."

• The Magdalen Whitewash, a play about the laundries, was written by Valerie Goodwin and performed by the Coolmine Drama group at the Draíocht Arts Centre in Dublin, in 2002.
• Eclipsed, a play about the Magdalene Laundries, was written by Patricia Burke-Brogan in the 1980s. Burke-Brogan had worked in the laundries in the 1960s. Eclipsed was first performed in 1992.

Music

• Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor spent time in a Magdalene Asylum as a teenager.

• The Mars Volta has a track titled "Asilos Magdalena" on their 2006 album Amputechture.
• Frances Black has a song titled "Magdalen Laundry" on her 2003 album How High The Moon.
• From a Distance was a charity single written by Julie Gold in aid of the Magdalene women which featured artists such as Sinéad O'Connor, Daniel O' Donnell, Brian Kennedy, Moya Brennan, Charile Landsborough, and Tommy Fleming, among others.
• A song called "Magdalene Laundry" written by J. Mulhern appears on the 1992 album Sentimental Killer by Mary Coughlan with the chorus line "Ooh Lord, won't you let me wash away the stain."
• Joni Mitchell put a song about the atrocities committed by the Magdalene Laundries on her 1994 album Turbulent Indigo. She recorded it again with The Chieftains on their 1999 album Tears of Stone. Emmylou Harris covers the song on the multi-artist album A Tribute to Joni Mitchell.

See also

• Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Ireland
• Bethany Home
• Involuntary servitude
• Magdalene Society of Philadelphia
• Stolen generations
• Tranquility Bay
• Ulster Magdalene Asylum
• Unfree labour
• Workhouse

References

General references

• Finnegan, Frances (2001). Do Penance or Perish: A Study of Magdalene Asylums in Ireland. Piltown, Co. Kilkenny: Congrave Press. ISBN 0-9540921-0-4.
• Raftery, Mary (1999). Suffer the Little Children: The Inside Story of Ireland's Industrial Schools. Dublin: New Island. ISBN 1-874597-83-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Smith, James M (2008). Ireland's Magdalen Laundries and the Nation's architecture of containment. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-7888-0.

External links

• Justice for Magdalenes, advocacy group for survivors of Magdalene Laundries (Ireland)
• The Magdalene Laundry. CBS News, August 3, 2003. (Note: The date given in this article for the mass grave discovery is incorrect.)
• Review of Academic study of prostitution reform
• Sinners at IMDb
• Sex in a Cold Climate at IMDb
• The Magdalene Sisters at IMDb
• In God's Name.
• Magdalene laundry Wikinfo article (detailed, subjective article on the abuses)
• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Last Days of a Laundry
• In the Shadow of Eden -- NOTE: this applies only to Australian laundries
• In the Shadow of Eden excerpt
• Magdalene Laundry Testimony -- NOTE: this applies only to Australian laundries
• Page for survivors of the Magdalene Laundries -- NOTE: this applies only to Australian laundries
• "Report Details Abuses in Irish Church-Run Reformatories" article by Sharon Otterman in The New York Times May 20, 2009
• Website by daughter of Magdalene survivor Website by Irish-US adopted daughter of Irish Magdalene survivor
• Report of the Child Abuse Commission HTML
• Report of the Child Abuse Commission PDF