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	Government Move on Magdalenes Not Enough without an Apology Kilkenny Advertiser June 17, 2011 http://www.advertiser.ie/kilkenny/article/40898/government-move-on-magdalenes-not-enough-without-an-apology The half-hearted effort by the Government to offer justice to the women who were incarcerated involuntarily between 1922 and 1996 (yes, that recently) has been welcomed by the survivor advocacy group Justice for Magdalenes this week, although they are not entirely satisfied with the effort. The move by the Government simply does not go far enough as the Government has refused to apologise to the then young girls who suffered at the hands of the religious and lay people who ran these Magdalene laundries on behalf of the State. Hundreds of Irish girls aged as young as 13 were sent to these laundries by family or clergy for becoming pregnant by men who had, often, raped the girls, or by boys who were too young and uneducated to know what they were doing. The young girls were the pawns in the game and how they did suffer the consequences.... Many girls were dropped off at these laundries and never saw their families again. They were worked to the bone, often for 18 hours a day, getting little food or nourishment to keep them going. And of course they were pregnant and this was their shame. When they had their babies, most had no choice but to give the child up for adoption. It simply was not up for discussion. This happened either immediately, giving the mother no chance to even hold her baby, or weeks after the baby was born — after the mother may have already formed a loving bond with her child. It is hard to decipher which was more cruel. The bottom line is that once again the Catholic church and the State are at fault. This was their little brainchild. One would have to wonder who came up with the wonderful idea of throwing all the young pregnant girls together in a prison-like institution, torturing them, abusing them, and working them like slaves. There were some seriously imbalanced people around in the twentieth century in this country. However, like the children who suffered in industrial schools, these women have come forward. Many are elderly and many have suffered a difficult life as a result of their horrific experiences. They now seek an apology for their treatment. For the disrespect, for the physical agony and the emotional scarring that never went away. The JFM have said that they regret that the Government is not yet prepared to issue a formal apology to the women despite the fact that an apology remains their first and foremost request. The UN Committee Against Torture has already found the State liable for the damage done to the women involved in these laundries, and therefore an apology should be fired off the tip of the tongue without further ado. Costs should be shared between the Catholic church, which clearly neglected, once again, to care for the most vulnerable in society. Instead they paraded them as pariahs in the parish by making them attend religious events and walk the streets in procession as the shameful crew. What happened seems unthinkable. But it happened as recently as 1996 when the last laundry finally closed. We lived in a country that was so backward and so concerned with what other people thought that we tortured our own children. Hopefully there isn’t a father or mother out there today who would turn away their daughter if she arrived home with the news that she was pregnant. We can only learn from the mistakes of the past and move on in a more positive manner. For those that have already suffered let’s hope that the establishment of an inter-departmental committee, chaired by an independent person, is a positive step to bringing restorative justice and reparations to all survivors of the Magdalene Laundries.
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