State Complicit with Laundries, Irish Times, July 4, 2011

State "Complicit" with Laundries

Irish Times
July 4, 2011

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0704/breaking58.html

Senator Martin McAleese is heading a committee to clarify any State interaction with the Magdalene laundries

A group representing survivors of the Magdalene laundries has presented a report to the Government alleging widespread State involvement with the notorious institutions.

The Justice for Magdalenes study accuses seven Government departments of being complicit in keeping the Catholic Church institutions running.

The body held a two-hour meeting with Minister for Justice Alan Shatter and Kathleen Lynch, Minister of State at the departments of Justice and Health, over the planned inquiry headed up by newly appointed Senator Martin McAleese.

Report author Prof James Smith of Boston College said survivors hope the details will help move the inquiry forward. “By no means are we saying that it is comprehensive or complete, but it does document State interaction, what we might call complicity across seven government departments,” he said.

Prof Smith met Mr Shatter and Ms Lynch as part of a delegation from Justice for Magdalenes. He said the 50-page report, supported by more than 400 pages of appendices, said they have evidence of complicity by the departments concerned with justice, education, health, local government, social protection, defence, jobs, enterprise and innovation and finance.

It alleges that over decades women given suspended sentences were sent to the workhouses, while the Department of Defence allegedly contracted the laundries for the Army for around 40 years.

Mr McAleese was appointed by Mr Shatter to head up a committee to clarify any State interaction with the notorious workhouses.

Justice for Magdalenes spokeswoman Claire McGettrick said the meeting with Mr Shatter and Ms Lynch was the first step in the process. “Nothing was decided, nothing was agreed upon. It was just laying the foundations,” she said.

The four Catholic religious orders - the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Charity, and the Good Shepherd Sisters - have agreed to co-operate with any inquiry.

The last laundry, at Sean MacDermott Street in Dublin, closed in 1996.

The UN Committee Against Torture said it was gravely concerned by the failure of the state to “protect girls and women who were involuntarily confined between 1922 and 1996 in the Magdalene Laundries”. It said it let the women down by not regulating the operations and inspecting them.

It also expressed concern at what it deemed the failure of the State to undertake a prompt and thorough investigation into the allegations of mistreatment.

The body recommended the State carry out prompt, independent and thorough investigations into the allegations of torture, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.