My Mother Died of 'Slave Related Injuries' Says Magdalene Laundries Daughter

By Patrick Counihan
Irish Central
February 4, 2013

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/My-mother-died-of-slave-related-injuries-says-Magdalene-Laundries-daughter--189634861.html

Photo by Google Images submit to reddit We Recommend: Irish American surfer catches ‘world’s biggest wave’ off Portugal coast – VIDEO Boeing 747-8 earns FAA certification - Global Traveler (Global Traveler Magazine) China counts cost of one child policy (Financial Times) Man Faces Prison After Burying Fiancee Alive (Bangstyle) [?] A Dublin woman has succeeded in her attempts to get the media to focus on Magdalene Laundries by trending on Twitter days ahead of the publication of a government report into the scandal. Samantha Long’s mother was taken into the Laundries when she was just two years of age.The laundries were operated by religious orders and used unmarried mothers and their offspring as cheap labor. Her daughter’s tweets revealed that she left the Catholic church run Laundries 49 years later, in a coffin after dying of ‘slave related injuries.’ Read More: UN Torture Committee asks for inquiry into Magdalene Laundries Photo by Google Images

A Dublin woman has succeeded in her attempts to get the media to focus on Magdalene Laundries by trending on Twitter days ahead of the publication of a government report into the scandal.

Samantha Long’s mother was taken into the Laundries when she was just two years of age.The laundries were operated by religious orders and used unmarried mothers and their offspring as cheap labor.

Her daughter’s tweets revealed that she left the Catholic church run Laundries 49 years later, in a coffin after dying of ‘slave related injuries.’

Read More: UN Torture Committee asks for inquiry into Magdalene Laundries

Disbelief followed Samantha’s first emotive tweet which simply read: “My mother was Magdalene No. 322. Real name Margaret.”

TheJournal.ie reports that the first tweet from Samantha was met with amazement that Magdalenes were given numbers.

Speaking to the site, Samantha confirmed that numbers were issued: “Yes, I was looking over her records today and thought I’d share that. Awful.”

The report says Samantha’s late mother Margaret Bullen was taken into the Magdalene Laundries system when she was just two years old.

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Samantha decided to share her family’s story before the government publishes a detailed report on the Laundries on Tuesday.

She has also mounted a successful campaign to get the hashtag #justiceformagdalenesNOW trending on Twitter to raise awareness.

The story adds that the Dublin woman’s provocative, powerful and heartbreaking tweets have achieved that aim.

TheJournal.ie has reproduced a timeline of the tweets.

They read:

“My mother was Magdalene No. 322. Real name Margaret.

Margaret was committed to industrial school in 1954. She was 2 yrs 4 mths old. She left 49 years later in a coffin.

By the age of 5, Margaret was preparing breakfast for 70 children including herself from 4am. Child labour

Margaret was noted in her records as ‘nervous, timid, fretful, a bed-wetter’. No wonder, she was never toilet trained

Margaret didn’t know where she was from or when her birthday was. We told her when she was 42


At age 13, Margaret had her IQ measured. She was ‘certified’ as fit for work, unfit for education. Labour camps.

Margaret never lived in the outside world, although she lived just off O’Connell Street in our capital city.

Margaret didn’t know how to handle money. She had none, and no possessions.

Margaret never went on a date, Never had a boyfriend. Never fell in love. But she was impregnated in care.

Margaret’s twin daughters were taken from her 7 weeks after she gave birth. When she saw us again we were 23.