Scale of Abuse in Magdalene Laundries ‘will Never Be Known Unless State Inquiry Is Extended’

By Anna Maguire
Belfast Telegraph
May 30, 2013

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/scale-of-abuse-in-magdalene-laundries-will-never-be-known-unless-state-inquiry-is-extended-29307691.html

Excluding people who suffered clerical child abuse in Magdalene laundries and the community from a State inquiry will create “second-class victims”, it has been claimed.

Victims groups and abuse survivors have appealed to the Executive to hear their “truth” and extend the remit of the inquiry into historical institutional abuse.

In a research paper published yesterday, Amnesty International said a State inquiry into historical institutional abuse in Northern Ireland ignores people who were “molested in churches, church halls, private homes and other locations outside children’s institutions”.

It also does not take into account women who suffered abuse at the hands of religious orders in Magdalene laundry-type institutions.

There were 12 Magdalene laundries that are known of in Northern Ireland.

In December 2012 the Assembly passed legislation laying the ground for an official inquiry into historical abuse in institutions run by the State, church, or owned by private sector and voluntary bodies in Northern Ireland between 1922 and 1995.

The inquiry will start hearings at the end of the year.

The scale of clerical child abuse in the community and Magdalene laundries will never be known unless the State inquiry is extended, Amnesty said.

The body wants an independent inquiry with the legal power to compel witnesses to give evidence, release documents and produce a report with recommendations around an apology and redress for victims.

MLAs from the UUP and SDLP echoed that call yesterday.

Amnesty has sent its proposals to the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM).

However, UUP leader Mike Nesbitt, who chairs the OFMDFM committee, said he fears the political will is not there to broaden the inquiry’s parameters.

Michael Connolly, a clerical abuse campaigner who was molested by a priest as a child in Co Fermanagh, said victims should not be denied a chance to speak now. “Give us the opportunity to speak our truth,” he said in a direct appeal to the Executive.