DMB

Today I read an article in the Saturday magazine of The Times. I can't provide a link because they have recently made it very difficult to access their website.

It was about the Magdalen laundries in Ireland, which apparently existed until the 1980s. Girls and women were forced into a sort of imprisonment and slavery in these institutions, which were run by the catholic church.

Does anyone here know more about them? I didn't know they existed, although a lot has been publicised about the physical and sexual abuse of children by monks, priests and nuns. I won't go into all the horrible details. Anyone who can get hold of a copy of the mag should read the original.

A play about them is to be shown on BBC1 on Tuesday
details here

Remember, however, that this is a play and not a documentary. I gather from the article that pregnant women would not normally be allowed to give birth in the laundries. They would be sent to a church-run home, their babies would be adopted, and then they would be sent back to the laundry. From what I can gather form the description of the play, it has conflated the two types of institution.

It seems as though these laundries were part of an attempt to control women, and above all their sexuality, keeping them forever in a subordinate position. OK, they didn't have to wear burqas, but their hair was cut short, they were forced to wear horrible clothes and they were given new names. Some of them came straight from orphanages and were kept working in the laundries for life, without pay and on very poor food.