IRELAND
Daily Mail
‘It will be with me until the day I die’: Woman, 79, who survived Irish Magdalene Laundry reveals how she’s still haunted by the fear, back-breaking labour and loneliness she suffered in brutal workhouse 60 years ago
By NAOMI GREENAWAY FOR MAILONLINE and LUISA METCALFE FOR MAILONLINE
Worked to the bone, beaten and abused, the experiences of women held in the ‘care’ of the nuns in Ireland’s notorious Magdalene Laundries, is the stuff of nightmares.
But for one woman, Kathleen Legg, who is about to turn 80, those nightmares remain very real, 60 years after she left the horrific institution.
She said: ‘The memories are still there. There are some things you can’t block out. Until the day I die, it will be with me.’
Speaking about her time in the institution to Fiona Phillips on ITV’s Lorraine this morning, Kathleen, who was born in Lisvernane, Co Tipperary, said: ‘I used to wake up screaming.
‘I never told my husband where I’d been but he used to wonder why I had these nightmares.
‘It was the shame,’ she said, explaining why she never told her husband, who has since passed away. ‘It was kept a secret for 60 years.’
The laundries were set up in 1922 when the newly independent Irish state delegated welfare duties to the religious orders.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.