IRELAND
Justice for Magdalenes
1. The Irish State has accepted that there was abuse in the Magdalene Laundries. The abuse is documented in the report published in 2009 by the Commission established by the State to inquire into child abuse (“the Ryan Report”) – and the abuse is also fully borne out by the survivor testimonies which JFM has collected. Both the Ryan Report and the testimonies recount that the women’s labour in the Magdalene Laundries was forced and wholly unpaid, working conditions were harsh and the women were completely deprived of their liberty and suffered both physical and emotional abuse.
2. However, the State has not yet accepted responsibility for that abuse and nor has it offered any apology or redress to the survivors. The State has repeatedly denied responsibility for the treatment of women and girls in the Magdalene Laundries, distinguishing between the treatment of children in residential homes which were the responsibility of the State (the “Industrial and Reformatory Schools”) and those incarcerated in the Magdalene Laundries, which the State characterizes as private and charitable institutions in which it played no regulatory function.
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