Religious Orders Insist Their Role Was to Provide Refuge

By Ed Carty
Irish Independent
February 5, 2013

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/religious-orders-insist-their-role-was-to-provide-refuge-3377716.html

RELIGIOUS orders which operated the Magdalene laundries have insisted that they believe their role was to provide care and refuge.

The Sisters of Mercy, which ran institutions in Galway and Dun Laoghaire, said it accepts the "limitations of the care" it provided.

"Their institutional setting was far removed from the response considered appropriate to such needs today. We wish that we could have done more and that it could have been different," the order said.

"It is regrettable that the Magdalene homes had to exist at all.

"Our sisters worked in the laundries with the women and, while times and conditions were harsh and difficult, some very supportive, lifelong friendships emerged and were sustained for several decades."