We Need to Be Honest about Our History
By Michael Kelly
The four religious congregations who ran the Magdalene laundries have set their face against contributing to the Government’s compensation scheme. It’s highly unlikely that the distressed hand-wringing from politicians will change the decision not to contribute to the Magdalene laundries redress scheme. The shameful history of our country in this regard is a call to reflection, and honesty. If we’re willing to heed that call. Of course, the fact that the sisters have maintained a steely silence on the latest controversy, choosing instead to refer to past statements, makes it largely impossible for the general public to understand where they’re coming from. And in the absence of public commentary from the nuns, a lazy narrative has taken over in the media. Most commentators have tended to fall into either of two camps: on the one hand, they argue that the nuns simply don’t want to pay the money. On the other hand, others argue that the sisters just don’t accept any responsibility for their role in running the laundries. It’s frustrating that the sisters are unwilling to engage publicly on the issues. However, in private the nuns who were involved are more than willing to share their views. The report into the laundries by Senator Martin McAleese was seen by the orders as offering a comprehensive picture of the complex involvement between Church, State and the wider society that led to an appalling situation where thousands of women were committed to these institutions. And the opening line of the McAleese Report is one frequently cited by the nuns: “there is no single or simple story of the Magdalene laundries”. This, the nuns argue, proves that the issues at stake are more nuanced than simply asking the orders to hand over half of the estimated ˆ58m cost of the Government’s redress plans. Wider context I don’t speak for the nuns, nor am I an apologist for the mistreatment suffered by the women in the laundries. But I know from talking to some of the sisters that they believe there is a wider context. They point to the fact that a quarter of women were committed by the State and a significant number were sent to the laundries by their families. The McAleese Report reveals that there were also instances when women went themselves voluntarily to the institutions, that the average stay as a laundry was seven months, and that more than 60pc of women spent a year of less there. Who should compensate women who went voluntarily or were sent by their families? Should the State? Should the religious orders? They also point to the fact that they have been supporting some of the former residents on an ongoing basis, long before the Government considered its own responsibility. In a brief statement over the weekend, the Sisters of Mercy reminded the Government that “our congregation has provided care to women who spent time with us in many different contexts throughout our history and that we will continue to do so in ways that accord with our mission”. The nuns again pointed out that “in past decades, admission to Magdalene laundries was seen as appropriate refuge”. The Sisters of Mercy are also irked at what they see as under-reporting of the amount they are contributing in terms of redress following the Ryan Report. They criticised a newspaper report last week which, they say, “reported incorrectly” on the amounts involved. “Since 2009 our congregation has contributed in excess of ˆ21.7 million in cash to the State towards the Statutory Fund, a far different sum to that of ˆ1.6 million stated by the newspaper,” the sisters said in a statement. The ˆ21.7m cash already paid is part of a larger contribution offered by the congregation and valued in December 2009 at in excess of ˆ127.5 million. Afford The question turns to whether or not the orders can actually afford to pay in to redress. There isn’t a uniform answer. It’s likely that some of the orders could afford to and others couldn’t. Many of the sisters are elderly and themselves in need of expensive nursing home care. A 2010 review found that the average age of a Sister of Mercy was 74. For the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, it was 78. But money is a secondary concern. While Ireland is in the midst of soul-searching about its past, we would do well to ask deeper questions about our country, and in particular the culture we created post-Independence. The laundries were, according to the McAleese Report, “by today’s standards, a harsh and physically demanding work environment”. Who could argue with that? Magdalene laundries were the product of a society steeped in petty snobbery. An Ireland of squinting windows where people who didn’t fit the mould of an unrealistic idyll were to be hidden from view. A glimpse into the widespread culture of the time can be gleaned from a 1921 letter by W.T. Cosgrave, then Minister for Local Government. Those in institutions, he wrote, “are no great acquisition to the community and they have no ideas whatever of civic responsibilities. As a rule their highest aim is to live at the expense of the ratepayers. Consequently, it would be a decided gain if they all took it into their heads to emigrate”. The nuns argue, rightly or wrongly, that it fell to them to pick up the pieces. The Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori) summed up the mood among many nuns responding to the McAleese Report that “it is important that we, as religious, acknowledge the part we played in the entire issue, and it is also important that a system which had the support of many sectors of our society is not now presented as a matter only for religious - if the necessary healing and reconciliation is to be found”. Learn If we’re willing to learn, we will see that what is being exposed about the recent history of Ireland says a lot about the Church we created. It also tells us a lot about the State we created, and the complicity from wider society. If we’re willing to learn we will be able to acknowledge, in the words of The Irish Times critic at the time of the 1907 Playboy Riots “as if a mirror were held up to our faces and we found ourselves hideous”. It would be easy to scapegoat the sisters and blame all the past ills of Ireland on the Church. But, it’s more complicated than that. And, if we search deeply, we all know that.
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