Irish Taoiseach refuses apology for state role in Magdalen Laundries

Dublin — Taoiseach Enda Kenny has declined to apologise for the state's role in admitting women to the Magdalen Laundries, where approximately 10,000 women were held across ten institutions run by four religious congregations between 1922 and 1996.

Report Findings

The Dáil heard that a new report by former Senator Martin McAleese found the state was involved in the admission of around one quarter of the women.

Mr Kenny told the Dáil that the women had been sent into the laundries during a time when there was a "harsh, uncompromising and authoritarian Ireland." He said the branding of the women — many of whom ended up there through poverty and destitution — needed to be removed.

"I'm sorry that this release of pressure and understanding for so many of those women was not done before this because they were branded as fallen women," he said.

Call for Apology Rejected

Mr Kenny turned down a call from Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald to apologise for the state's role in admitting women to the laundries. He said there would be a full Dáil debate on the report in two weeks' time, when people had an opportunity to read it.

Ms McDonald said she wished he had "the courage of the women who were in the Magdalen laundries."

"The time for apology, Taoiseach, is now. And we shouldn't try to put a positive gloss on what happened," she said.

Survivor Reactions

Later, the Taoiseach expressed his sympathies with survivors and the families of those who have died.

"To those resident who went into the Magdalen laundries from a variety of ways, 26% from state involvement, I'm sorry for those people that they lived in that kind of environment," he said.

However, survivors described the phrase "sorry they lived that kind of environment" as "pointless."

Maureen Sullivan of Magdalene Survivors Together said: "That is not an apology. He is the Taoiseach of our country, he is the Taoiseach of the Irish people, and that is not a proper apology."

Mary Smyth said she endured inhumane conditions in a laundry, which she said was worse than being in prison.

"I will go to the grave with what happened. It will never ever leave me," said Ms Smyth, also of the group.

Campaign for Justice

The Justice for Magdalenes group, which has collected testimony from survivors attesting to severe psychological and physical suffering — even in stays of less than a year — has been leading campaigns for an apology.

"It can no longer be claimed that these institutions were private and that 'the vast majority' of the girls and women entered voluntarily as has been claimed by former minister Batt O'Keeffe and testimony before the UN Committee Against Torture given by Sean Aylward, the former secretary general of the Department of Justice," the group said.

Key Statistics

Records have confirmed that 10,012 women spent time in Magdalen laundries across the country between 1922 and 1996.

More than a quarter of all official referrals were made by the state, an 18-month inquiry chaired by Senator Martin McAleese found.

Areas of State Involvement

The inquiry identified five areas where there was direct state involvement in the detention of women in ten laundries run by nuns:

• Detention and referral: Women were detained by courts or gardaí, transferred from industrial or reform schools, rejected by foster families, orphaned, abused children, mentally or physically disabled, homeless teenagers, or simply poor
• Inspections: Inspectors, known as "the suits" by the women, routinely checked conditions complied with rules for factories
• Welfare payments: The government paid welfare to certain women in laundries, along with payments for services
• Transfers: Women were enabled to leave laundries if they moved to other state-run institutions such as psychiatric hospitals, county and city homes, and in the company of police, probation, court or prison officers
• Death registration: The state also had a role in registering the death of a woman in a laundry

Demographics and Duration

• Half of the girls and women put to work were under the age of 23
• 40% — more than 4,000 — spent more than a year incarcerated
• 15% spent more than five years
• The average stay has been calculated at seven months
• The youngest death on record was 15, and the oldest 95
• Some women were sent to laundries more than once, with records showing a total of 14,607 admissions and 8,025 known reasons for being sent

Offences

Women were forced into Magdalen laundries for a crime as minor as not paying for a train ticket, the report found. The majority of those incarcerated were there for minor offences such as theft and vagrancy, as opposed to murder and infanticide. A small number of the women were there for prostitution — this was confirmed despite the stigma attached to women who were sent to the laundries.

Data Limitations

Statistics outlined in the report are based on records of only eight of the ten laundries. The other two — both operated by the Sisters of Mercy in Dún Laoghaire and Galway — were missing substantial records.