Random Facts About Irish Laundries Tortured Women And Separated Families (12 items)

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  (#8) Survivors Are Still Coming Forward

  While many Magdalene survivors have already gone on record and become activists, many more are still coming out of the woodwork. One such individual was Margaret Bullen, who had reportedly been forced by nuns to give her three daughters up for adoption; two of them finally tracked her down in 1995. At that time, Bullen was still institutionalized as she had been for most of her life. According to one daughter's account in The Telegraph:

  "Margaret [spent] her childhood and puberty in these institutions, without the chance to grow up. At age 16, she was transferred to the Gloucester Street Magdalene Laundry... there she toiled, unpaid for the rest of her life."

  Eventually, Margaret was entrusted to the care of the Irish state, who promptly sub-contracted that duty back to the Catholic Church.

  Margaret Bullen, who had blocked out many of her traumatic experiences, claimed to have no memory of having given birth at all, though she did manage to enjoy a relationship with her daughters for a couple of years. She died in her 40s of end-stage kidney and liver failure brought on by the chemicals she'd inhaled while working in the laundries.
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  (#2) They Operated For 231 Years & Only Closed In 1996

  The sordid history of laundries is an extraordinarily long one; the first Irish institution,  founded by philanthropist Lady Arabella Denny, opened in 1765. Known as Magdalene Asylums (after the "redeemed" Biblical prostitute Mary Magdalene), the homes purported to be sanctuaries for "fallen" women... i.e., unwed mothers, abused girls, girls who had been cast out by their families, and your run-of-the-mill freethinking feminists who were too eccentric, original, and "troublesome" to fit into the strictures of their communities. 

  Incredibly, the laundries continued to operate, in various stages of utilitarian bleakness (at best) and cruelty (at worst) until 1996. It's been estimated that over 30,000 women passed through the asylums, some staying a month and some remaining for a lifetime. Even that seems to be a conservative figure, though, when you consider that the time period in question spans over two centuries.
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  (#9) There Were Laundries In Five Countries (Including The US)

  Ireland's Magdalene Asylums may be the world's most notorious laundries, but they were by no means its only ones. According to reports, at least five countries maintained similar institutions.

  The Magdalene Laundries in Australia lasted from the early 1800s to the 1960s, while England - perhaps ahead of its time - had reportedly banned the slave-labor factory model by 1901. The US and Canada's Laundries basically ran throughout the 1800s, and many described them as being more akin to girl's schools than workhouses.

  In other words, not all Magdalene Asylums were the same abysmal snakepits. The road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions, as the saying goes, and some religious orders did appear to treat their wards far better than others.
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  (#5) Over 2,000 Children Were Illegally Adopted From Laundries

  Because so many women and girls were destitute and pregnant by the time they arrived at the laundries, many babies ended up being born in convent hospitals, where they were quickly spirited away by nuns, lest they be contaminated by their "unclean" mothers. According to reports, "up to 2,000 children were illegally exported from Magdalene laundries in Ireland to adoptive parents in the U.S., mainly wealthy families."

  This scandal has since come full circle, as many of these adult children have begun demanding justice for their birth mothers and requesting official state apologies. They represent a generation displaced by the corruption of the Magdalene asylums, even though most of them went on to lead far better lives than the slings and arrows of church-sponsored child labor could have offered.
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  (#10) The Magdalene Sisters

  • Film

  Inspired by 1998's Irish laundry documentary Sex in a Cold Climate, Peter Mullan's The Magdalene Sisters, released in 2002, was met with almost universal acclaim.

  The film chronicles the stories of four young girls who are committed to the laundries for various (highly unjust) reasons. Throughout their stay, they are routinely humiliated and abused by the diabolical Mother Superior and many of the nuns. One of the girls is eventually rescued by a relative, while two more launch a successful plan to escape. The story of the fourth, however, ends in tragedy; she spends the rest of her short life in the institution and dies of anorexia at age 24.

  The film won multiple awards and continues to be highly regarded.
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  (#12) The Last Operating Laundry Drew Controversy In 2017

  In 2017, disagreement erupted in Dublin over the potential sale of the last Magdalene laundry. The laundry – which closed in 1996 – is the battleground of competing interests. On one side, stand developers who stand to gain a sizeable profit from leveling the structure and developing something new. On the other, folks advocate for a standstill on development until the grounds can be thoroughly searched for graves. Some also believe the site should be turned into a memorial and educational center that documents the long-suppressed history of the laundries.

  As of March 2017, the Dublin City Council had put a stay on development.

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