PRESS RELEASE
JFM welcomes IHRC call for statutory enquiry on the Magdalene Laundries
Survivor advocacy group Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) welcomes the Irish Human Rights Commission’s (IHRC) validation of the evidence submitted in seeking a formal inquiry into the State’s responsibility for human rights violations in the Magdalene Laundries.
JFM’s submission argues that the treatment of the women and girls in the Laundries violated their constitutional rights, including the right to bodily integrity, the right not to be tortured or ill-treated, the right to earn a livelihood, the right to communicate, the right to individual privacy, the right to travel, the right to one’s good name and the right to one’s person.
We contend moreover that the Laundries’ daily routine amounted to servitude under the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. We also maintain that the abuse met the definition of forced or compulsory labour under the 1930 International Labour Organisation Forced Labour Convention, which committed the State to criminally punish the perpetrators of slavery and forced labour and to eradicate such practices within the national territory.
The IHRC assessment validates JFM’s central arguments.
The IHRC points out that these survivors are excluded from the current Redress Scheme and that it is the State’s duty to rectify the situation. JFM is especially appreciative of the comprehensive nature of the assessment, in particular that it addresses the related issues of adoption and the vaccine trials as integral components of State responsibility.
Dr. Katherine O’Donnell, Director of UCD’s Women’s Studies Centre and member of JFM’s Advisory Committee says “In the midst of an economic crisis that seems to challenge the sovereignty of our state, Irish citizens are daily asking – what kind of social values do we want, what kind of society do we want our children to inherit? In the spirit of these concerns, JFM asks this current government to show the leadership requested by the IHRC; and to immediately apologise and begin the process of acknowledging and ultimately understanding our very recent dark history.”
Maeve O’Rourke, co-author of JFM’s submission and member of JFM’s Advisory Committee says: “As the IHRC concludes, there is far too little public information available about the Magdalene Laundries. So
far, the religious orders have refused to engage. Therefore, the State needs to lead the way. It must convince the church to acknowledge its part in this scandal and to open up its records. The state should also call upon the church to honour its moral obligation to find the money to pay its share of compensation to survivors.”
Prof. James Smith of Boston College and member of JFM’s Advisory Committee says: “The IHRC signals the urgent need to afford restorative justice to this community of women, an aging and vulnerable population at home and abroad. The time to act is now. The government must move beyond its ‘deny ‘til they die’ policy. Only then will it disprove one Magdalene survivor’s telling observation: ‘they’re hoping that in ten years we’ll all be under the sod and they can relax.’”
Ends.
For background and context of JFM’s campaign visit: www.magdalenelaundries.com
For a copy of the IHRC’s assessment visit: www.ihrc.ie
Photos available at JFM’s Flickr Page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/45626669@N04/sets/
IHRC Conclusions and Recommendation to Government
Conclusion 1
A large number of women and girls entered laundries, including Magdalen Laundries in the Twentieth Century, continuing a pre-existing practice. These laundries were run by Religious Orders, mostly Roman Catholic.
Conclusion 2
The available public records are poor and incomplete
Conclusion 3
Women and girls entered the Laundries via different routes: through the Courts system having a suspended sentence, being on remand or probation, or “informally” though referrals by families, voluntary or religious bodies, other State and non-state actors or through self-referral. Those entering were often unmarried mothers whose babies were put up for adoption but also women and girls who had committed serious crimes such as infanticide.
Conclusion 4
For those women and girls who entered following a Court process (in particular those on probation or remand) there was clear State involvement in their entry to the Laundries.
Conclusion 5
The treatment of these women and girls by the Religious Orders appears to have been harsh. They were reputedly forced to work long hours. Their names were often changed to a religious name, they were isolated from society and the girls were allegedly denied educational opportunities. The then Minister for Education and Science told the Oireachtas in 2001 that this treatment was abuse, that it involved an appalling breach of trust and that the victims suffered and continued to suffer.
Conclusion 6
There is no clear information on whether or how girls or women left the Laundries or if they had a choice in doing so.
Conclusion 7
Questions arise whether the State’s obligations to guard against arbitrary detention were met in the absence of information on whether and how women and girls under Court-processes left the laundries.
Conclusion 8
The State may have breached its obligations on forced or compulsory labour under the 1930 Forced Labour Convention from March 1931 and under the ECHR from 1953 in a) not suppressing/outlawing the practice in laundries particularly regarding women and girls in fear of penalty if they refused to work and b) in engaging in commercial trade with the convents for goods produced as a result of such forced labour.
Conclusion 9
The State may have breached its obligations to ensure that no one is held in servitude insofar as some women or girls in the laundries may have been held in conditions of servitude after the State assumed obligations under Article 4 of the EHCR in 1953.
Conclusion 10
The adult biological children of women and girls who subsequently entered the laundries had and still have limited facilities to trace their biological parents and establish their identity, including through the Adoption Act 2010. This situation contrasts with that in Northern Ireland.
Conclusion 11
That the burial, exhumation and cremation of known and unknown women and girls who resided in Magdalen Laundries in 1993 at High Park, Drumcondra, raises serious questions for the State in the absence of detailed legislation governing the area and any requirement that all bodies be identified and accounted for in such communal plots. Questions arise as to whether there are death certificates for all those buried in those locations, and whether their remains were properly preserved and reinterred. Similar questions may arise in relation to other communal plots.
Conclusion 12
That vaccine trials of children in Mother and Babies homes did occur (at least 58 cases as found by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse), but that inquiry was injuncted following judicial review proceedings in 2004 and not recommended on a proper footing.
Recommendation to Government:
That in light of its foregoing assessment of the human rights arising in this Enquiry request and in the absence of the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme including within its terms of reference the treatment of persons in laundries including Magdalene Laundries, other than those children transferred there from other institutions; that a statutory mechanism be established to investigate the matters advanced by JFM and in appropriate cases to grant redress where warranted.
Such a mechanism should first examine the extent of the State’s involvement in and responsibility for:
• The girls and women entering the laundries
• The conditions in the laundries
• The manner in which girls and women left the laundries and
• End of life issues for those who remained.
In the event of State involvement/responsibility being established, that the statutory mechanism then advance to conducting a larger-scale review of what occurred, the reasons for the occurrence, the human rights implications and the redress which should be considered, in full consultation with ex-residents and supporters’ groups.
Notes to Editor on JFM Campaign:
JFM is a survivor advocacy group working to bring about (i) an apology from Church and state, and (ii) the estab¬lishment of a distinct redress scheme for all survivors of Ireland’s Magdalene laundries.
No one has apologized for the abuse suffered in these particular institutions, not Church, not State, not families, not the wider society. Consequently, these women—the majority of whom are elderly and aging—are denied restor¬ative justice.
The Magdalene laundries were excluded from the state’s Residential Institutions Redress Act, 2002. Consequently, Magdalene survivors are denied redress when they apply to the Residential Institutions Redress Board.
Historical Context
• Magdalene Laundries were institutions operated by nuns in which women, called “penitents,” worked at laun¬dry and other for-profit enterprises
• these women were denied freedom of movement, they were never paid for their labour, and they were denied their given names and identities
• the daily routine emphasized prayer, silence, and work
• Women had to be signed out of the Magdalene or have a “position” to go to
• many remained to live, work, and ultimately die, behind convent walls
• after 1922, Magdalene Laundries were operated by The Sisters of Mercy (Galway and Dun Laoghaire), The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity (Drumcondra and Sean MacDermott Street, Dublin), the Sisters of Charity (Donnybrook and Cork), and the Good Shepherd Sisters (Limerick, Cork, Waterford and New Ross)
• these four orders also managed State residential institutions, in some cases on the same convent campus. All four are members of CORI
• the last Magdalene ceased operating as a commercial laundry on 25 October 1996
• the Nuns will not release records for women entering the laundries after 1 January 1900. Therefore there is no detailed accurate information regarding numbers involved
• JFM recognizes at least five distinct groups within the survivor community: those now speaking out and de¬manding justice, those living in silence due to the ongoing shame/stigma, those dependent on and living in the “care” of the religious congregations, victims who have died—many of whom are buried in incorrectly marked mass graves, and the adopted children/families of former Magdalene women
JFM’s Campaign to Establish State Complicity
Mr. Batt O’Keeffe, T.D., then Minister for Education and Science, rejected JFM’s proposal for an apology and dis¬tinct redress scheme on 4 September 2009. He claimed:
• the state is only liable for children transferred from residential institutions
• the laundries were privately owned and operated
• the state did not refer individuals nor was it complicit in referring individuals to the laundries
JFM does not refute the assertion that the laundries were privately owned and operated. We contend, however, that the State was always complicit in their operation. Moreover, this complicity, along with the State’s conscious failure to regulate or inspect the laundries, breached the Magdalene women’s constitutional rights and their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, and further violated the State’s obligations under several other international treaties to prevent and suppress slavery and forced labour. JFM has met with the Departments of Jus¬tice (twice), Education, and Health, and we have corresponded with the Departments of Social Protection, Finance, and Defense.
JFM asserts that the Irish State:
• was aware of the nature and function of the Magdalene laundries
• was aware that there was no statutory basis for the use of the laundries by the courts as an alternative to a prison sentence
• was aware that there was no statutory basis for the use of the laundries by the courts for placing women and young girls “On Probation”
• enacted legislation to enable the use of the Sean McDermott Street Magdalene laundry as a remand home
• was aware that children and adolescent girls were confined in the laundries as late as 1970, and that these “vol¬untary” placements were in addition to children transferred to the laundries from State residential institutions
• maintained a “special provision” whereby women giving birth to a second child outside marriage at a Mother-and-Baby or County Home could be transferred directly to a Magdalene laundry
• paid capitation grants to Magdalene Laundries and other religious convents for the confinement of “problem girls,” girls “on probation,” and girls “on remand” and yet it maintains that these were “private and charitable” institutions
• never inspected, licensed or certified these home as “Approved” institutions, rather referred women and young girls into these institutions based on the assumption that the religious congregation would care and provide for them
• has yet to produce a single record for any woman or young girl, or the children born to these women and young girls, referred to the laundries by State agencies
• refuses to admit its complicity in referring women to the Magdalene laundries
• refuses to acknowledge its failure to protect women’s constitutional rights
• refuses to apologize for its role in referring women to the laundries and therefore impedes “restorative justice” for this population of institutional survivors
• refuses to enter into discussions with the Catholic hierarchy and/or the relevant religious congregations in an effort to produce records
• refuses to establish a distinct redress scheme as outlined by JFM
JFM’s Campaign to Engage the Catholic Religious Congregations
JFM met with Cardinal Sean Brady in June 2010. Cardinal Brady characterised JFM’s presentation as “fair” and “balanced.” And, as reported by the Irish Times, he encouraged JFM to “continue its efforts to establish dialogue and a process of justice and healing for all concerned.”
On the Cardinal’s recommendation, JFM wrote to Sr. Marianne O’Connor, CORI’s Director General, on 9 July 2010 and requested the opportunity to present its campaign before CORI’s executive board.
On 1st October 2010, Sr. O’Connor informed JFM that CORI will not meet with the group. Rather, she directed the group to contact the respective religious congregations directly, explaining that “while CORI is an umbrella organisation for religious Congregations each retains its autonomy and management of its own affairs.”
JFM has written to the four religious congregations on three separate occasions in the past year (13 November 2009, 2 April 2010, and 11 June 2010). On each occasion JFM shared information related to its ongoing campaign and requested a meeting. Todate, none of the congregations are willing to meet with JFM.
Further information about our campaign can be found at www.magdalenelaundries.com.
nom de guerre, be happy to oblige you.
Angry.
Nomme de gurre, your comment made me think of a beautiful poem written by a friend of mine (now sadly passed). Gavi was a half-Jewish US adopted person, but when she and I first talked about the Magdalenes and Ireland’s adoption scandals, the following poem just poured out of her…I think it’s poignant in light of your comments:
“We are the ghosts of the children no more. We lay in the graveyard of the home for unwed mothers, next to the church with the beautiful rose window, underneath the disturbed soil of Ireland. Our mothers came here, sharing secrets, being quiet, toiling and attending Mass with each other, though they never shared their true names. There was a momentary sisterhood, it seemed, and we thought we might one day live here, and be happy.
We each knew our mothers very well, and some of them talked to us every day, in their little rooms, alone. Sometimes there was anger, sometimes crying, but we were always with them, and felt close. In our whispers to each other, underneath the grass, we’ve shared how each of our mothers grew austerely silent as the day of our birth approached.
Some of us withered from all the unhappiness, and left our mothers early, and here came to rest. Others traveled the birth canal, just like any of you living, but our mothers disappeared so suddenly, we died of fright.
But we don’t speak to frighten you. We call to you because you are our brethren. In each other, we have found comfort, but our ears are keen in the silent air, and we know many more of us lay, all over the earth, forgotten.
We never lived to understand what was so important to your ways that made our growth, our awareness, so brief. And though we are now part of the trees, the light, and the air, our spirits stay sunken, unidentified.
We understand we are bastards, and we know there are the living among our kind. You are our brethren and you can hear us in the night when you think about your own mysteries, and wonder.
Every time you speak out for the bastards, you bless another one of us with a name, another with a face. Whenever you feel isolated, you can call to us and we will hear. Use your breath, your precious life, and change the world’s ways for all of us. Know we were loved by at least one silent heart.
Be strong, and love each other, and the world will surely change.”
I hope the world will change…but we must be their voices now and continue the fight.
Angry! If I ever make a trip to Ireland will you follow me to the graveyard to listen to the children?. They are so lonely and would wellcome visitors. We have candles to light at “various spots” in Letterfrack.
And the dead children of Letterfrack seem never to be forgoten. Time and time again they appear as if they have something to say. Do you know what they say dear “Visitors”?. The children say “We were murdered by evil men in Letterfrack” Dear “Visitors” it is not the truth you are seeking but an excuse to avoid it.
Our guests fromt another jusdiction know all to well what questions not to ask and what questions not to answer. The dead children of Letterfrack demand an answer. Go there dear visitiors and stand with them and listen very hard and you will hear hundreds of crying children in the woods in and around various spots of Letterfrack.
Will the “apostolic visitors” be seeking explanation from the Christian brothers as to WHY TWENTY SIX CHILDREN are buried in “”VARIOUS SPOTS”” in and around LETTERFRACK, and WHY such burials took place outside of the environs of the CEMETERY PROPER.?? Will they visit this far flung archipelago, the scene of so much OBSCENE TORTURE AND DEGRADATION. Of course in the past there were great catastrophes, plagues, floods, barbarian invasions, wars, and the Edmund Rice foundation, not to mention WANDERING COWS INVADING THE CEMETERY IN LETTERFRACK AND EATING ALL THE LITTLE WOODEN CROSS` WHICH DENOTED THE BURIAL PLACES OF CHILDREN.
As this gang of nine embark on their paid for junket (hard hit parishoners again) around Ireland on the pretext of “talking” to victims, survivors, and the many others who suffered at the hands , feet fists and boots of our tormentors, we see once again, no provision made for former inmates of the gulags of Ireland who are spread around the globe, and in particular those in the UK who form a high percentage from the religious Institutions.
If you “want” or “need” to speak to the LAVENDAR MAFIA, you have to ring them, ain`t that grand. Cucumber sarnies and Earl Gray in the bishops office , great stuff, very civil and in keeping with social etiquette and its norms, and no doubt a little prayer from the bishop and his co-horts to start the proceedings.
The PROPER venue for these masters of deceit ought to be in the grounds of a GULAG , whats wrong with these so called “apolostic visitors” getting a feel for what we`re talking about, let the venue be Artane, Clonmel, Ferryhouse, Upton, Glin, Letterfrack or some other RELIGIOUS HOUSE OF HELL where children were brutalized, raped, buggered, sodomized, tortured, starved and helplessly beaten and left emotional wrecks.
These “apolostic ” nomads are representing a political church, not a MORAL one, damage limitation and window dressing are the order of the day here and not a “desire” to establish what “went wrong”. WE KNOW WHAT WENT WRONG.
On Sunday we heard through the media that one of these vatican reps delivered his “message” to survivors and victims from a church while saying mass, WHAT SURVIVOR OR VICTIM GOES TO THESE PLACES.?? This guy was more concerned with placating his pew potatoes with the “sorrowful” and anecdotal analogy of how HIS ancestors left Ireland during the famine and their greatest “treasure” was some sort of “religious icon”.? THE GREATER MAJORITY OF IRISH LEFT IRELAND TO ESCAPE “RELIGIOUS ICONS” and other works of plaster and concrete which still despoil the countryside.!
Victims, survivors and others affected by unhindered and brutal religious atrocities in the GULAGS of Ireland may have “warmed” to the “apolostic ” visitors had they come BEARING GIFTS, like a CHEQUE from Ratzo for some FIVE OR SIX BILLION EURO to spread a little “happiness” among us, as we were once described by some journalistic mumper in Ireland as the “”LOWER CLASS MONEY GRABBING ORDERS” .! Of course, such desire for JUSTFUL compensation may be closely connected with perhaps a physical necessity arising out of possession or deprivation , for example the satisfaction of hunger or starvation, even decent clothes, being able to pay bills which befalls many, many former inmates of the Irish GULAGS who still struggle on a daily basis to meet their needs, both family and social.
The specific intent of these wandering nomads ie, “apolostic visitors” is an essential element designed solely to buy time to ensure that the restraints of reason and conscience is held in check as the vatican plans its next move to quell the rising International call for Justice as Country after Country fall prey to the sickening CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY perpetrated through OMISSION by this catholic church, and now being exposed by its victims , YOUNG AND DEFENCLESS CHILDREN.
Europe and the United Nations are the places to bring this! The Abuse of Diplomatic Immunity in The Ryan Report and Ferns Report Needs to be Challenged at the same time; The Commission into Child Abuse needs to be concluded FULLY!
Yes the monies extracted from the religious on the basis of the horrible findings of the Ryan report should and must be dispersed to the victims in its eternity as expressed time and time again. We do not wish to be owned for what remains of our lives by being attached to this trust,the governing of which is already on shaky grounds and includes people with less than admirable performance in relation to victims. So dear religious speak out against the hi jacking of these reparation monies and call for them to be dispersed as requested by the victims, after all much if not all of these monies was earned in your labour camps by children.
Yes we are damaged, at times beyond repair. We have waged a daily battle within ourselves, spent lonely nights alone with our turmoil fighting off our demons. We have stared death in the face and at times welcomed it as a liberator. We have lived our lives on the edge of a knife and flaunted ourselves at danger. We could not be trusted and trusted no one. We bit the hand of those who loved us not feeling we were worth being loved. We screamed out our pain without moving our lips and we shunned and were shunned. We courted danger and injected pain killers be it narcotics, alcohol or sex. We let down those close to us not wanting to burden them with what we could hardly carry ourselves. We were screaming in our silence and rock bottom was a daily companion like a black dog behind us on a wet street at night in winter. We hated ourselves and feared love. We endured battle after battle but never won. We asked god for help when all hope was out although we hated God for not preventing this happening us. We left the labour camps but the labour camps camps never left us.We fought everyone without knowing why. We missed funerals of parents not knowing we had any We missed funerals of siblings who died early and who lived in other labour camps and laundries not knowing we had living siblings and not knowing they were dead until later. We were expected to fail and become outcasts and in many ways they succeeded in predicting our life pattern. The men in black with the truncheons plied their trade well and the end product was us as we are today. We are more dead than alive but the little life that is left in us causes nightmares amongst the noble gentry that speak from marble tables in ancient buildings on Sundays. If only we would go away and die like the rest of those who lye in mass graves around this green and pleasant land. But we are still standing and there is strength in that and the utter conviction that it is we who are righteous and our cause is good. It is we who were born beautiful and to that state we will return once we have faced down the demons whom we have made our own. Yes we are wounded but we are accustomed to that having lived with more wounds than Jesus could gather in his life. We are to return the demons put into us by the men and women in black to where they belong and our wounds will serve to remind us of the hell of a battle we went through. They are silent now these people in black as if they sense the oncoming retribution that awaits them. They say they have booked flights to their heaven well I have news for them. That flight will never lift and if it does then the direction is down to a place much suited for them.
the voice on the phone was the voice of a person. And the church had the power to say no to this voice. And that dues not explain the attitude of these nuns. in thier way of looking at things sex was to low for the lofty brides of Christ
(The Crusaders) said to one another, “”Behold , we travel to a distant land to do battle with the kings of that land. We take our souls in our hands in order to kill and subjugate all those kingdoms that do not believe in the Crucified””.
The GANG OF NINE have now landed in Ireland, and the JFM must now ensure that Ireland LANDS on this GANG OF NINE, big time. Such a gathering of Neanderthals to impose a foreign despots interference on a Sovereign Jurisdiction must be without parallel since the inception of this State.
What say the Attorney General and Minister for Justice to this ursurpation of the Laws of this country, constitutional, criminal and civil .??
There are three possible answers, should the State say NO to these interlopers from foreign climes who come to BURY EVIDENCE of CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, perpetrated on innocent and defenceless children. Should the State say NO to avoid answering this morally unavoidable question, or will the State resort to form and do what it does best, continue to remain a SILENT WITNESS incapable of a morally palatable answer, bearing in mind their continuing deference to a church so morally bankrupt that one must consider the BEATIFICATION of “Don Corleone” as a more suitable candidate for SAINTHOOD than those who rant for JP11 as a SAINT.
I remember some years ago making the comment that the barbaric brutalities being publicly exposed in the industrial schools of Ireland faded into obscurity when measured against the inhuman practices of the Magdalen Laundries which saw BABIES ON AN ALMOST INDUSTRIAL SCALE BEING SNATCHED FROM THEIR MOTHERS AND SOLD ABROAD. SLAVE TRADING IN BABIES. I laboured that point for sometime in “another place” and eventually drew a response from some nun who stated “” WE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT, WE GOT A PHONE CALL TO HAVE THE BABY READY AT A CERTAIN TIME, AND THE BABY WAS THEN COLLECTED””.
There can be NO PAIN which can be measured against such barbarity, and the many Mothers whose stories are in the public domain bear testimony to that.
Hopefully if the IHRC`S call for an inquiry is taken up, we can then learn WHO supplied the false papers for these children to be exported against their Mothers wishes and more importantly WHO WAS IT IN IRELAND WHO PROFITED FROM THIS INHUMAN PRACTICE.
Who do you measure “”REDRESS”” against such CRIMES.????????
Mr. Batt O’Keeffe, T.D., then Minister for Education and Science, rejected JFM’s proposal for an apology and distinct redress scheme on 4 September 2009. He claimed:
• the state is only liable for children transferred from residential institutions
• the laundries were privately owned and operated
• the state did not refer individuals nor was it complicit in referring individuals to the laundries
this is like saying the government is not responsible for crimes against its people.
they knew about the laundries just as the pope did.
denying this responsibility will not make it right.
the Roman Catholic Church will use the excuse that the beautiful women were ONLY WOMEN AND NOT WORTHY OF JUSTICE. The State puppets now back them up- colluding with criminals.
So it is up to the people themselves to call for JUSTICE and not stop until the call is heard and we see these women stand outside the Four Courts under Lady Justice with smiling faces having received justice.
No place in Ireland for JUST US anymore.!
No point in going by Law, because the word law in English means LIE.
We girls always lived in fear of the Magdalene laundries- it is how our parents and church kept control over us. That fear is ingrained in every female in ireland in the collective consciousness.
This needs to be totally cleared now with all pain and suffering sent back to its creators.
It has their DNA on it, so will find its way back and make no mistake.
Now we need ALL OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS TO SUPPORT THESE BRAVE WOMEN WHO SURVIVED AND TELL IT AS IT IS.
Where do the people of ireland stand on this issue?
Are they keeping silent and colluding with the abuers or are they standing shoulder to shoulder with the survivors?
The choice is that simple.
you need to get petitions out on the streets of europe, on how all of this is going on and now.
we need the figures behind us all the more people who sign for justice the more powerful we all are.
Justice and truth from the powers that be and the religious congregations in this country??? I won’t be holding my breath.
In fact the IHRC could request that an enquiery of the incarceration and force labour of thosands of Irish girls by the State and its theological wing the Roman Catholic Church be lifted over to Srasbourg. The State has carried out a monumental crime and can not be allowed to investigate its self.
The reason the Irish government will “LOOK” at the Magdalene Laundries and it’s victims is that the IHRC has taken this cause on board and because of the real danger of this becoming a European issue in Strasbourg. Can Ireland be trusted in handling this given the debacle of the Redress Board and the limited findings of the Ryan Report or should The IHRC request assistance from it’s counter parts in Europe. Once again we see Ireland paraded through out Europe as a key player in the violation of human rights.
yes justice for all the people who suffered in those Magdalene Laundries now we need that 500million plus for these rights and the rights of all people who suffered the same way.
human rights first, health before wealth.
health is a human need wealth is a human greed
Justice is indeed being served, and we plan to see it through to the (undoubtedly) bitter end. They cannot hide behind confusing language, finger-pointing or the skirts of Roman men any longer. We are prepared to fight and will not back down.
I wish to offer my full support to JFM. It is outrageous that so many women’s lives were destroyed, at the hands of the State.
I hope those nuns rot in hell.
I too, know what it is like to be abused, under the care of so called Nuns – I am a survivor of Symphysiotomy ( severing of the Pelvis at childbirth). If those Nuns could offer me one day without the awful pain I go through, trying to cope as a Mother, I most certainly would embrace it.!
Only the truth of course, can set us all free!
Olivia
Who are these people called nuns to dimiss any and every request for records?. In my country such a dismissive attitude from any one is met by a resoulute intervention by the authorities. These people would feel the whole weight of the law and no exeptions are made for nuns, priests or anyone. Of course their leagal eagles are whispering into their ears ” don’t admit anything”. We have seen this tactic before from the Christian Brothers who ran child gulags. I have a feeling this one is not going away and Europe will yet again be confronted by a report from Ireland that will horrorfy us.
If these ladies were condemned by the courts then its very clear that they are responsible. we were threatened with being sent to the laundries. It was clear that the reputation of these places was very bad.It caused fear in all of us . so the government in those days were also aware of what kind of life these ladies had to bear. Its a bit late to pretend.It was big business. all the places that used these laundries knew that they were unpaid.and none of them complained
I sense a whole big cover up Paddy and those involved never imagined for one moment that the truth would ever emerge.
Justice is being served on this one.
Dear Paddy,
finally!!!!
there is no point of argument. The treatment of the women and girls in the Laundries their constitutional rights,were violated.
let’s push the issue.
Sieglinde
“has yet to produce a single record for any woman or young girl, or the children born to these women and young girls, referred to the laundries by State agencies”
That is a bit silly, when all records are being with held by the criminals involved.
The women and children were abused IN CORPORATE CARE- end of.
Mr. Batt O’Keeffe, T.D., then Minister for Education and Science, rejected JFM’s proposal for an apology and dis¬tinct redress scheme on 4 September 2009. ”
The STATE HAD THE LEGAL DUTY TO PROTECT ITS CITIZENS FROM TORTURE AND ABUSE.!!!!!
Paddy, this typical playing with words on the part of the Government to deny all responsibility for their part in the abuse and torture of women and girls.
Anyone living outside ireland would think there was clear discrimination between males and females there- that females are demied justice based on their gender.
This statement also says to the world that ireland has not changed in its attitude towards women in 2010- they are still consided sub human, evil, and chattels of the system, dehumanised and ignored.
My Lady Justice shine her light of truth and wisdom upon the island of Eire and may all be revealed- as is the right of all free sovereign human beings.
To do otherwise says to the world that Ireland is an island which kept its beautiful women as slaves for failing to obey the patriarchal rules and denied them their true nature as Goddesses.
“The Nuns will not release records for women entering the laundries after 1 January 1900.”
It is this simple- the nuns are not above the law just because they belong to the Catholic cult.
The Taoiseach can simply DEMAND the files as he is supposedly the BOSS.
That is what we pay him to do.
That is what he is democratically elected to do.
For him to do otherwise is to show the world that irleand is a dictatorship run by the Vatican.
The Roman Church will fight this every inch of the way, They will use every trick in the book to avoid being revealed for what they realy are. The sharpest legal brains that can be bought will be unleashed on the IHRC and the JFM. Their absolute worst nightmare has come to pass. The state and their religious wing are now being scrutinised as to their collusion in one of the worst crimes against humanity during the better part of the 20th century in any west european country. If there is a god it is time for him to start working for the JFM.