Only 67 British-based Magdalene survivors seek redress despite ‘majority’ claim

By Niall O Sullivan
Irish Post
July 21, 2014

http://www.irishpost.co.uk/news/only-67-british-based-magdalene-survivors-seek-redress-despite-majority-claim

Campaign groups in Britain believe the majority of Magdalene survivors are based in Britain

ONLY 67 Magdalene Laundry survivors based in Britain have come forward for compensation despite claims that the “vast majority” of abuse survivors are based here.

Figures released last month show that £10.2m has been paid out in compensation to 357 Magdalene Laundry survivors. Of those survivors, just 67 – or one-in-five – are British-based, accounting for £1.7m in compensation.

Campaign groups in Britain believe that that figure should be nearer 500 given the number of survivors they claim are based here.

Last year Sally Mulready, of the Irish Women Survivors Support Network (IWSSN), told The Irish Post that the “vast majority” of the 10,000 Magdalene women left Ireland for new lives in Britain.

Separately, she told The Irish Examiner that two-thirds of survivors of the laundries and industrial schools are based here.

The IWSSN – which last year received a £200,000 grant to support Survivors in Britain – claim that hundreds of Irish women in Britain are choosing not to seek redress because they have not told their families about their time in a laundry.

Phyllis Morgan, a campaigner with the IWSSN, said: “I am dealing with 85 women, but we should be looking at between 300 and 500.”

“The problem is that they are too afraid. I know some women from the Magdalene Laundries who say they do not even want to discuss it because if their family found out they would be kicked out.”

Ms Morgan added that her view was based on conversations with several Magdalene women who are refusing to claim compensation.

She also said that although most of her 40 clients who have received redress so far are “extremely happy” with the speed of the service, most have received less than they think they deserve because the records kept by nuns do not reflect accurately how long they were in a laundry.

Around 10 of her clients have received the maximum £40,000 lump sum given to those who were in a laundry for four years or more.