WUNRN
http://edition.cnn.com/video/?hpt=wo_mid#/video/world/2013/02/18/shubert-ire-magdalene-survivors.cnn
IRELAND - MAGDALENE LAUNDRIES
SURVIVORS DEMAND APOLOGY - VIDEO
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IRELAND - THE FORGOTTEN WOMEN OF THE
IRISH MAGDALENE LAUNDRIES
They have been described as
'Ireland’s disappeared'.
Thousands of women are
thought to have passed through the gates of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries, some
of them never to emerge again and others to leave with deep emotional scars.
The women - some of whom
had fallen pregnant outside marriage, or were the daughters of unmarried women
- worked for years in church-run laundries, at times allegedly enduring both
mental and physical abuse.
Campaigners have long been
calling for justice for the Magdalene women and this week, it could finally
come.
The Irish government will tomorrow present a report
into the laundries, which supporters hope could be the
catalyst for an apology and compensation.
“It’s time that everybody
acknowledges that they were innocent victims of a system that included society,
state and church.
“They were sacrificed for
the sake of an ideal - and it was only an ideal - of a pure society.”
From the early 1920s, it is
estimated that tens of thousands of women worked in the laundries, which were
run as businesses while the women were said to go unpaid.
Women worked in the
laundries sometimes for years. On arrival at the laundry, they were said to
have been given a different name by which they would be known.
Those who have spoken about
their experiences talk of constantly washing laundry in cold water, of using
heavy irons for hours, of close friendships being forbidden, and of never
feeling free to leave.
Named after the Bible’s
redeemed prostitute, Mary Magdalene, the laundries were first used to reform
so-called ‘fallen women’.
But, they then expanded.
Justice for Magdalenes says the laundries took in girls who were considered
‘promiscuous’, those who were unmarried mothers or were considered a burden on
their families.
Ireland’s last Magdalene
Laundry closed in 1996. Three years earlier, the laundries were brought to
light when a convent sold off part of its land and the remains of 155 inmates
who had been buried in unmarked graves on the property were exhumed.
“I was horrified that I’d
known [about the laundries] and not understood,” says Dublin-born O’Rourke.
“I’d been to a Catholic
girls school, been very well educated, studied history, was interested in human
rights. And yet, I hadn’t come across this. It was a history that remained to
be told.”
O’Rourke took her chance to
tell that history when she went to Harvard after doing a law degree in Dublin.
While in America, she studied children’s law, reproductive health and women’s
rights.
She was drawn to these
topics partly because of her upbringing, which instilled in O’Rourke a
commitment to equality. “My mum is a feminist - she was the first female sports
broadcaster in Ireland. I grew up, whether I knew it or not, with a real sense
of feminism.”
Given this background and
her study of human rights, particularly women’s rights, O’Rourke was shocked
when she read the Irish government’s investigation into abuse in industrial
schools - published in 2009 - and found no mention of the Magdalene Laundries.
She went to her lecturer,
Catharine MacKinnon, telling her of her concerns. “It represents continuing
discrimination against women on the basis of sexuality,” O’Rourke told her.
“She said: ‘What are you going to do about it?’”
O’Rourke answered the call
to arms and decided to write her Masters thesis at Harvard about the laundries.
In the course of her
research, she discovered the Justice for Magdalenes campaign and has been
working for them - for free, and in her own time - ever since. Last month,
O’Rourke received an award from the Ireland Fund of Great Britain,
recognising her work.
Following her year at
Harvard, she worked in London for year on a fellowship, spending time with the
women’s rights organisation Equality Now and still working on the Magdalenes
campaign.
While in the capital, she
took the opportunity to interview women who had been detained in the laundries.
“When I spoke to women in
London, what really gets me is, I think 'that could have been me'. Had I been
born a few decades earlier, had I lost my parents for example, that could have
been me.
“It really hit home then.
It really horrifies you and you think this is something we’ve got to put
right.”
While the Irish government
has acknowledged that women in the laundries were victims of abuse, it
maintained that because they were privately run, they lay outside the state’s
remit.
But, the premise of
O’Rourke’s research was to demonstrate that the state had been complicit in the
incarceration of women and girls and had dealt commercially with the laundries
without ever subjecting them to official regulation or inspection.
The research claims that
laundries were used as remand institutions and that government departments may
have held contracts with the laundries. Testimony from women claims that police
would return girls who had escaped to the laundry.
O’Rourke and her fellow
campaigners compiled a submission to the Ireland Human Rights Commission, which
led to the commission calling on the Irish government to initiate an inquiry.
“I remember feeling this
overwhelming sense of vindication for the women, that someone was listening,”
recalls O’Rourke.
But, with no inquiry
forthcoming, the campaign decided to take their cause to the UN Committee
Against Torture.
They submitted a dossier to the
committee, detailing what they believed “constituted a more
than 70-year system of torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of women
and girls”.
“I went to Geneva in May
2011,” says O’Rourke. “It was scary. I was 24. I’d read about these committees
in college, studied what they do. You don’t really think you’d actually do it.
“I just remember this giant
conference room, six translators behind a big glass wall and ten experts from
around the world. You get your five minutes and I made my case for the women.”
Subsequently, the UN
committee said it was “gravely concerned at the failure by the State party to
protect girls and women who were involuntarily confined” in the laundries.
It recommended that the
state instigate an inquiry into complaints of torture and other degrading
treatments that were allegedly committed in the laundries, and ensure that
victims had a right to compensation.
In response, the Government
said it was “essential to fully establish the true facts and circumstances
relating to the Magdalene Laundries as a first step”.
The Government therefore
proposed setting up a committee that would clarify any state interaction with
the laundries and address issues such as putting in place a “restorative and
reconciliation process”.
Representatives of the
congregations of nuns who ran the laundries said they would be willing to
participate in any inquiry that would serve the interests of current and former
residents.
At the time, they said that
the the Magdalene homes issue is “a sad, complex and dark story of Irish
society that extends over 150 years”.
They added that acting in
good faith, the nuns had taken over and run the ten homes during most or part
of that time.
Also, they noted that they
were still “in relationship” with many current and former residents and the
four groups of sisters were willing to participate in any inquiry that would
bring greater clarity, understanding, healing and justice in the interests of
all the women involved.
The state’s report, which
has been prepared by officials from five government departments and chaired by
Senator Martin McAleese - the husband of former Irish president Mary McAleese -
is due on Tuesday.
Senator McAleese, who is resigning from the upper
house of the Irish parliament, said on Friday that he had
completed the report after spending 18 months of putting it together.
“It is my fervent hope that
it will be of real public service most especially to the women concerned,” he
said.
Justice for Magdalenes has
submitted 3,500 pages of evidence to the inquiry, including 700 pages of
testimony from women who worked in the laundries, as well as people who visited
them, such as delivery men.
“I know that we have
submitted what I would call a watertight case,” says O’Rourke.
What will be of utmost
importance to O’Rourke is the government response to the report and whether the
women receive an apology.
“I’m really proud to be
Irish. I’d be even more proud if we could deal with this in an open and honest
fashion.”
She is also keen to see
that the government do not distinguish between those women who entered the
laundries at the hands of state actors and those who were sent there by their
families.
O’Rourke trusts too that
the report will provide some clarity on just how many women spent time in the
laundries: “That is the question that everyone’s asking.”
If an apology materialises,
she hopes that this will give more women the courage to tell their stories of
what they experienced in the laundries.
“They just feel let down
and they feel abandoned by the Irish state and society. They still carry a lot
of trauma,” says O’Rourke.
“It’s stayed with them
throughout their entire lives, they speak about having nightmares, flashbacks,
crying for no reason.”
“You can’t underestimate
the sense of the stigma and the sense of shame attached to having been in one
of these laundries,” she adds.
But with this week’s
report, there is hope that more women will finally come out of the shadows.
“Women need a chance to
tell their own stories now,” says O’Rourke.
“We’ve got to know our
history, even the bad bits,” she adds. “Only by knowing and recognising what
happened, can you make sure it doesn’t happen in future.”
_____________________________________________
By
Juno McEnroe and Conall Ó Fátharta - February 19, 2013
The
Cabinet is scheduled to discuss the wording of an apology and a compensation
package for survivors before a statement by Taoiseach Enda Kenny to the Dáil
later in the day.
Mr Kenny is scheduled to make a 15-minute speech shortly before 6pm, in which
he will address demands by survivors. Two hours of statements by TDs, including
party leaders, will then be made on the McAleese report on the institutions.
A Government spokesman said the Coalition leaders had undertaken to hear from
former residents and this would help inform how the State would respond.
Specific requirements of survivors were being listened to and “a process was
being put in place”.
Magdalene Survivors Together said the women had been adamant they wanted an
apology during talks with departments officials and Mr Kenny in recent days.
Group representative Steven O’Riordan said survivors wanted the experiences of
women held in Stanhope Street, Dublin, and Summerhill, Wexford, to be examined.
There have been negotiations in recent days on the choreography of today’s
expected apology, as well as what can help survivors through compensation or
services. A compensation scheme incorporating a lump sum payment, as well as
loss of wages, will be examined. Questions remain over what role or
contribution religious orders may play in any scheme.
Health minister of state Kathleen Lynch said on Sunday that compensation would
be provided to survivors on an individual basis. Some women would not need help
in relation to housing but others may have health and financial needs, she
said. The Labour TD said the Government had decided on a chairperson with
“competence and compassion and the expertise” to examine compensation.
The Labour party earlier this month released a statement calling for a State
apology.
Magdalene Survivors Together wants a €50,000 lump sum payment for women sent to
a laundry and €20,000 per year’s detention for loss of wages.
Estimates suggest the compensation bill for survivors could reach €100m, while
between 700 and 1,000 survivors may still be alive.
A separate group, Justice For Magdalene, wants a package for women that
includes pensions, healthcare, counselling, and housing services. The group has
not met with Mr Kenny.
It proposes a €100,000 payment for survivors, support services, pensions, and
lost wages and points out that women are prepared to forego their right to go
before the courts.