Magdalene Laundries

[CatOne]

I'm reading a book by a man whose mother was brought up in an institution by nuns, then ended up being sent to a Magdalene Laundry, after she became pregnant (raped) by another employee in the household the nuns found her a job.

I've looked at a few websites on these laundries and what I can't understand is, why these women stayed in the laundries. I'm talking about the 20th century, 1940s onwards. Surely a woman over the age of 21, unless she has been committed, should be free to come and go as she pleases. Why couldn't they just leave and get a job somewhere?

In one interview, a nun says "there was no one from the family willing to vouch for them" as if that was a reason why they had to remain in those "prisons". When the rest of the world was enjoying the Elvis Presley/Rock and Roll era, these poor women were locked up in institutions like something from the 1800s.

Why couldn't they have found them respectable jobs in the outside world? Why lock them up and, sometimes, treat them very cruelly? And why, in the 1900s couldn't the women just leave? I can understand why they couldn't in the 1800's, it wasn't as easy for a woman to support herself, but after the War when it became more acceptable for women to work, why were they made to stay in those places? What right did the nuns have to make them stay there? Surely, unless they'd been committed, keeping someone against their will was an offence?

ps, I havent got to the end of the book yet, so I don't know how his mum gets out, but I just can't believe that in the mid 1900s women were still allowed to be imprisoned, for life sometimes! 

[MarieC]

There was a movie about this, too - the title of it escapes me - but it was quite an eye-opener for me and very powerful.

MarieC

[Scottiedog]

The movie was the Magdalene Sisters IIRC




Moderator Comment:
http://www.miramax.com/the_magdalene_sisters/

[Berlin-Bob]

More on this subject on the internet, try Magdalene Laundries in a search engine.

The more you see, the more horrifying it becomes 

for instance:

Magdalene Asylums were institutions for so-called "fallen" women, most of them operated by different orders of the Roman Catholic Church. In most asylums, the inmates were required to undertake hard physical labour such as laundry work. In Ireland, such asylums were known as Magdalene Laundries. It has been estimated that 30,000 women were admitted during the 150-year history of these institutions, often against their will. The last Magdalene Asylum in Ireland closed on September 25, 1996.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_Asylum

The Magdalene Story:

It was discovered at that time that some 133 graves existed, unmarked, in a cemetery on the convent grounds. The graves belonged to women who had worked in the service of the convent all their lives, buried without notification to possible family...unmarked, unremembered.[...] an initial exhumation order was given for 133 bodies, yet at time of exhumation, another 22 bodies were discovered.[...] there were no death certificates extant for many of these women (and their children, some of whom were also found buried on the High Park grounds). It is and has been illegal in many countries, including Ireland, to fail to report a death. One must wonder why—what has the Church to hide regarding these deaths?

http://www.netreach.net/~steed/magdalen.html

A CBS reportage:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/08/sunday/main567365.shtml

There is also a song from Joni Mitchell:

I was an unmarried girl
I'd just turned twenty-seven
When they sent me to the sisters
For the way men looked at me
Branded as a jezebel
I knew I was not bound for Heaven
I'd be cast in shame
Into the Magdalene laundries

http://www.jonimitchell.com/research/g_entry.cfm?id=25

Bob

[Arranroots]

There is also a Rootschat thread on the subject somewhere.

Will see if I can find it!

Edit: http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,116917.0.html


A 

[liverpool lass]

I remember I was incensed when I saw the film. I couldn't believe it either. What a horrible thing to do to anyone! They were treated like crimminals by people who were supposed to be Christians!!

[CatOne]

What I cant understand is how they were allowed to get away with it?? In the 1900s too?! In the book, (I presume its pretty much how his mum told him, so true not fiction) one of the girls escapes but is brought back by the police as if she was a criminal! Why couldn't she have said she didn't want to go back there, that she'd committed no crime? The police should have helped her, not assisted in their wrongful imprisonment of these poor women!

Its unbelievable that this went on so late into the 20th century 

[suey]

What I cant understand is how they were allowed to get away with it?? In the 1900s too?! In the book, (I presume its pretty much how his mum told him, so true not fiction) one of the girls escapes but is brought back by the police as if she was a criminal! Why couldn't she have said she didn't want to go back there, that she'd committed no crime? The police should have helped her, not assisted in their wrongful imprisonment of these poor women!

Its unbelievable that this went on so late into the 20th century 

It does seem unbeleivable in our modern times but just think for a moment.

Where would a young woman with a 'reputation', deserved or not go, if her family would not vouch for her or take her back?   Without references no-one would have taken her in service.  These girls had no money to speak of.  They would have found it nigh on impossible to find let alone pay for somewhere to live.

How did they get away with it?  I'm pretty sure that the majority of the outside world never knew nor cared how these poor women were treated..."out of sight and out of mind" 

Suey

[Taidquest]

hi all,
         this thread reminds me of a story I grew up with.
my mother was once asked by her friend in the mid to late 1940s
 to take in a girl for a couple of weeks until her baby was born.
this took place in Dublin,my dad was away with the british army at the time
and my mam  was expecting a baby (number four) and lived in one big room over a shop.
when the young woman(nancy) went into labour,mother brought her to the old coombe maternity hospital. a few days later she was sent for and when she arrived at the hospital she was handed the baby(ann) in a hospital blanket and handed an envelope and told to give it to the priest
in francis st church,she stood while the baby was baptised and when she returned the baby to the hospital she told them what she thought of them because she had no prior warning and said she had a christening robe which she could have put on little ann. instead the parents of the other babies being baptised that day stared at my mother and the poor little mite in her arms.
nancy had no family to claim her and was sent to one of these 'homes' she was not a single mother by choice,she had been married with 2 other children and while she was pregnant with ann (in england) the police came to the door and took her husband away and he was later charged with bigamyand jailed for 2 years ,which of course left her to fend for herself.my mam, who died in june last year always wondered how she got on in the years afterwards,she also wondered if ann grew up and wondered who the stranger was who was named on her baptism cert.or if her mother brought her up and explained the story to her.
                                              sorry for the 'novel'
                                                                               anne