Magdalene Women Reject Forum Bid

By Gareth Naughton
Irish Independent
June 10, 2013

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/magdalene-women-reject-forum-bid-29332260.html

A MAGDALENE support group has rejected any attempt to set up a reconciliation forum between survivors and the religious orders.

The forum is believed to be a key plank of Justice John Quirke's recommendations to the Government on the establishment of a redress scheme for the survivors of the laundries.

However, Stephen O'Riordan, director of Magdalene Survivors Together, said that the women in his group would not be facilitating a reconciliation forum having already spoken about their time in the laundries in the McAleese report and through the media.

"The women would have no interest in participating in that process at all in any way, shape or form. They have already told their stories," he said.

Magdalene Survivors Together, which represents 80 of the remaining survivors, had previously supported the idea of a reconciliation forum to run alongside Martin McAleese's inter-departmental committee inquiry into the Magdalene Laundries.

However, Mr O'Riordan said that the religious orders and other survivor groups declined to take part in that process and, as a result, it did not come to pass. "It is three years too late now," he said.

According to an RTE report over the weekend, Justice Quirke has proposed a reconciliation forum that would give the women and the nuns who ran the laundries the opportunity to meet and discuss their experiences.