Monday 11 June 2018

"The nightmares will always be there": These Magdalene survivors tell their personal stories

Journal.ie



We spoke to four survivors who told us their personal stories of their time in the laundries.

AROUND 220 WOMEN, now in their 80s, were in Dublin this week as part of the Dublin Honours Magdalenes event, which saw them attend events at รras an Uachtarรกn and the Mansion House.
At a special reception President Michael D Higgins told a group of Magdalene laundry survivors that Ireland failed them:
The treatment of vulnerable citizens in our industrial and reformatory schools, in the Magdalene Laundries and in Mother and Baby Homes represents a deep stain on Ireland’s past, a stain we can only regard today with great shame, profound regret and horror.


Magdalene Laundries were institutions run by the Catholic Church which took in so-called ‘fallen women’ and gave them manual labour to do. Many survivors said they were cruelly and brutally treated during their time there, with reports of women being beaten, put into solitary confinement, their hair cut, threatened, and verbally abused.



We spoke to four women who told their stories of how they came to be working in the laundries.




QUOTE FROM NEW YORK TIMES

"In recent decades, the power of the church in Ireland has dwindled, in part because of a number of abuse scandals, not least among them the revelations of the suffering in the Magdalene laundries".


PAT SAYS:

The Magdalen Laundries were the Auschwitz and Belsen of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

10,000 women were incarcerated in these concentration camps by wicked and frustrated nuns because of the Roman Catholic preoccupation with sin, sexual sin, and sex.

These women were rejected by their families because those families were brainwashed by bishops and priests into believing that sex was the biggest sin ever.

Parish priests from all over Ireland told parents and families to send their sinful and disgraced daughters to these Catholic gulags.

The RC Church had the full cooperation of the government, the judiciary, the Garda, the medical and legal professions - most of whom were  "devout" Catholics.

Doctors filled out false death certificates for children killed by priests and religious - children that were then buried in unmarked graves or septic tanks.

Catholic men from the clerical, medical and legal "professions" regularly visited these gulags to rape the women.


THE WATERFORD MAGDALEN LAUNDRY


When I was a seminarian in Waterford (1973 - 1976) I was sent to visit elderly women living in rows of little cottages. At the time I did not know that these were "retired Magdalens" - that had now become too elderly and unable for the laundry's 13 hour days.

Later, looking back and knowing then who the women were I was horrified to think that I had been visiting women who had 50/60/70 year sentences for the crime of falling in love.

Jesus said: "It is by their fruits that you will know them".

The church that ran these Magdalen concentration camps, with their totally evil fruits, belongs to the Power of Darkness and not the Power of Light.


-------------------------------------------

CARDINAL WITH CAPPA MAGNA (GREAT CAPE) ON HIS BIRTHDAY CAKE!






65 comments:

  1. These places may no longer provide laundry services but it is a mistake to think these ladies were freed. They still live in such places, still abandoned by families and still incarcerated within church grounds.

    This church has no place in modern society.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. GATES - MAGHERAFELT

      The most important issue is Gates.The wee man is running scared. He Had a bunch of looney tune body guards in to protect him at Confirmation last Sunday.

      Delete
    2. @13.10
      Read the comment that you wrote a reply on. It is a comment about hundreds of ladies who remain incarcerated today, following decades of imprisonment. Then read your reply.

      Folliwing the two first steps have a look in the mirror and attempt to access how big an ass you are.

      Delete
    3. @14.09 The only ass on here is you. Perhaps try speaking out of your mouth instead in future. People on the blog have differing views and opinions than you - get over it. The person at @ 13.10 is commenting on a long standing issue on the blog but you wouldn’t appreciate that as you’ve only been posting for what seems only 5 minutes on here.

      Delete
    4. @19.03
      After several years of contributing to +Pat's blog I think I am not new, although my goggle handle may now differentiate me from the anons here.

      Today's blog is not about Gates and 13.10 belittles the suffering of thousand's of innocent ladies and babies with their level of disregard for an important revelation within the 7:12 comment. That is the action of an ass.

      If 13.10 wished to speak about Gates than they could at least have the basic manners to raise a new reply rather than make unrelated replies to existing comments.

      Gates may be important, but that issue is seperate and today +Pat shone the light of the blog elsewhere.

      As for your point on people having differing views I need no lecture from you on the matter. I welcome different views, but off topic views and views that distract from important points are irrelevant and lacking in decorum.

      Delete
  2. Nothing more to add here. It is horrible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And nobody was going to do anything that day.

      At the meeting in Magherafelt it was decided that there would be no protest as it would spoil a special day for children and parents.

      There was no one there to say anything to anyone.

      Delete
  3. Is that the old faggot, Burke?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep. But I'd be surprised if he ever acted out his inclinations.

      He seems to have channelled all those energies into dressing up and talking in Latin.

      Delete
  4. Rumour has it that you were there in Magherafelt last Sunday. Is this true?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No. I was not.

      I spent that afternoon in the Royal Victoria ICU and the cancer centre in the City Hospital.

      Delete
  5. Pat, thank you for removing that vile, hateful comment of Magna's. It does nothing to help anyone in distress, pain or hurt. His language is offensive and totally unacceptable. I was about to take his comment to my local Garda station for advice. His comments are dangerous.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I received several calls about the comment and went and looked at it again and came to the conclusion that it's language was extreme.

      It's a pity because Magna is obviously an intelligent man with very important views.

      It seems that some anger sometimes takes over and he can use very firey language.

      Delete
    2. If Magna was that "intelligent" he would wise up and know not to write such offensive diatribes in the first place! Clearly, he isn't.

      Delete
  6. 09.52 I have already reported it to the PSNI and I do think that Magna should now be banned from posting. He has crossed the line. I am all for freedom of speech but not inciting hatred.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do not like the idea of banning anyone.

      Perhaps I need to edit words and phrases more carefully?

      Delete
    2. 10:00 There is, legally and morally, a massive difference between expressing hatred and inciting hatred.

      I have never made any bones about my hatred of, and contempt for, Roman Catholic theology of priesthood, which glorifies (makes demi-gods of) mere men and has them behave as masters rather than the servants Christ commanded his disciples to be. It is this theology of priesthood which is the foundation of clericalism in the Church, and it is clericalism that Pope Francis himself described as a cancer.

      Throughout the entire history of Roman Catholicism, it has always been its clergy who have sparked, through their selfish unchristian behaviour, turmoil in the Church. And they continue to do so.

      Report me to whomever you will, 10:00; I truly couldn't care less. But I shall continue to hate this theology of priesthood and the priests who, rather than pledge their allegiance to Christ, pledge it instead to a largely man-made institution which has, unconscionably, done so much harm in this world, driven so many away from their Saviour, and sacrificed the welfare of innocents (children) on the altar of self-expediency.

      Bishop Pat, I'm disappointed that you allowed yourself to be intimidated by these complainants. Some (maybe all) are probably Roman Catholic priests, who would rather not face just criticism of their conduct.

      Remember that the institutional Roman Catholic Church is so steeped in Pharasaisim (in monunental self-regard) that it will not change its ways unless forced to do so by pressure brought to bear on it through such media outlets as this.

      Delete
    3. Magna, I defend you when you speak and I edit when you go OTT.

      Your long comment above, without any unsavoury words, is a good explanation of your "hatred".

      Why not avoid those words when you have a very good vocabulary?

      Delete
    4. Magna 11.51: There is indeed a difference between expressing hatred and inciting hatred. YOU DO BOTH IN AN IGNORANT, OFFENSIVE AND RACIST WAY. We know your contempt for priesthood - a contempt that has its origin in your being found totally unsuitable for such in seminary - but you cannot ever justify your continued expression of your hatred and contempt, in the process INCITING HATRED. Earlier I was appalled at your now deleted comment but I took advice from my local Garda office. Pat should disallow you from spewing out your vile language. The truth is Magna, while you may "appear" intelligent, you lack the ability to be a rational, reasonable, normal human being. You have a deep deficit of humanity. Thus, you present as a weary, perplexing, miserable, abusive and offensive individual.

      Delete
    5. 13.12: Pat, stop always defending Magna. He's an arrogant, rude, offensive, insignificant, abusive person. There are other good, worthwhile, rational contributors who deserve respect but not this abusive troll. This vile man should be disowned completely.

      Delete
    6. 13:56, in other words, the Garda gave you short shrift.๐Ÿ˜…

      Delete
  7. Well you are not demonstrating you are taking this situation seriously enough. People are not going to tolerate such views on here., neither should you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Magna is entitled to his views and to express them, albeit in a rational way.

      There are people on here who would die for the RC Church.

      There are others who see it as a repository of evil happenings.

      Both parties, and others, are entitled to their views.

      Delete
  8. Auswich? That's a really terrible comparison. Shocking actually. You wont compare Muslims or Protestants using the same language

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Locked up against your will for life.

      Your baby taken away from you never to see again.

      Enforced labour.

      13 hour days.

      Physician and psychological punishments.

      No hope

      Etc

      Delete
    2. Auswich was a concentration camp, a death sentence. However having to tolerate amateur theology from magna racist and the drunk corkman is easy compared to what happened in ww2 for those who died at the hands of Nazis. By the way pat, why don't you talk about the work the Church does on daily basis keeping people alive? As usual you will not print this response.

      Delete
    3. It's spelt Auschwitz.

      Delete
  9. 10.56. Totally agree. I wouldn’t mind but Auswich is the wrong spelling. You cannot compare Jews who died in gas chambers with what happened in these laundries. I just told my friend who is a Jew and who worships on the Somerton Road, she said it was a disgusting and vile comparison. She is thinking of taking this to the Press and I would encourage her to do so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 11:17 Why don't the pair of you just grow up instead?

      Instead of what?

      Instead of making hyper-sensitive idiots of yourselves.

      Morons.

      Delete
    2. 13.08: You, Magna, the biggest moron of all. The police have your racist, hate inciting comment from earlier and I will follow up on the complaint.

      Delete
    3. decades of suffering, baby snatching, loss of hope... suffering is suffering. Those politically correct people who criticise a comparison between these ladies and thise who died in German gas chambers are only
      1. distracting from these ladies ongoing suffering, and
      2. Falsely indicating that the suffering in those chambers was exclusively the suffering of Jews.

      Park the political correctness crap and take a look at the bigger picture; namely that all suffering is wrong.

      And that Jew from Somerton Rd (if they are real) should have realised all that I wrote before I wrote it.

      Delete
    4. One hammered what’s your face @ 15.16 The one talking crap and falsely indicating facts is YOU. You are another one that’s just joined the blog, think you know it all and own the place and enjoy talking down to people.

      Delete
    5. 14:02, sitting here laughing at you.๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿ˜†

      Delete
    6. 18.58, tut tut tut.

      Am I new? Rather I am here years but no longer stand behind the anon status as you do.

      You say I 'falsely indicate facts'.. I challenge you to identify one falsely indicated fact?

      As for your assumptions on what I think? A properly developed adult knows not to assume the thoughts of another person. You should explore developing your abilities around egocentric self-awareness.

      As for your feeling that I talk 'down to people'. I merely comment within the forum. If the intelligence of my comments land in a downward fashion to you than again you should not assume they land in such a fashion upon all people. Again you overly project the subjective where you ought not to - further indicating a need to develop your egocentric self-awareness.

      Also fret not, for I shall not charge you for this counselling insight.

      Delete
  10. Ah I missed it. What was it saying? Must be juicy if people are going to the police / free state police.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 11.38 Yeah you missed it. I'm in floods of tears about your nosiness.

      Delete
  11. +Pat. Diarmuid announced today in St Patrick’s Maynooth the the itinerary of the visit by the Holy Father in August. It’s a very heavy schedule for a man of the Holy Father’s age.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Magna still being protected by Pat. A huge mistake and also the attack on Fr Darcy a mistake and I am really disappointed in Pat and this blog. It must be bad when you get reported to the police.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All kinds of cranks report people to the police.

      And most of the time the police ignore.

      Delete
    2. Indeed the police do ignore most times.๐Ÿ˜… And not only this, but they laugh at the hyper-sensitivity of assholes who believe the mere fact that they are offended by something constitutes a criminal offence against them.

      They don't know the Law, but some of us do.๐Ÿ˜†

      Delete
    3. Magna, I agree with your points about hypersensitivity and cleric defenders.

      Does it further the argument to call them axxholes?

      Just wondering.

      Pat.

      Delete
    4. Point taken, Bishop Pat.

      The word did, though, make an important (abusive?) point about this kind of person. Perhaps I should have used the word 'fool' instead; but then, on previous blogs, I received criticism even for this. (As I recall, I was told, too, that I could go to Hell as a consequence. ๐Ÿ˜„)

      Seems you can't win.๐Ÿ˜•

      Delete
    5. 13.01 So you further insult people like your friend Magna and call people cranks who go to the Police. Appalling behaviour.

      Delete
    6. 13.17 You printed the word by Magna in full therefore endorsing it so there is little point trying to hide the word in your reply.

      Delete
    7. 13:34 Hyper-sensitivity alert!๐Ÿ˜ฒ

      'Cranks'? Be grateful for such gentle (though truthful) mockery; I'd have used, er, more telling words.๐Ÿ˜†

      Delete
    8. M C Take care Watch your back. Some alleged Christians are only waiting for an excuse

      Delete
  13. Anne Hornimouse11 June 2018 at 13:03

    MIRACLES:

    Anne Hornimouse11 June 2018 at 12:53

    I really hope miracles don't occur.

    A god who can't, or doesn't, work miracles, I can live with; but a god who works them occasionally just repels me.

    There is a cataclysmic amount of suffering in the world. Surely a 'god of love' would be doing all he could to end, or to alleviate, that suffering; he wouldn't wait until he was asked.

    What about all the times that a miracle is prayed for and not granted? If I were a parent of a child who'd died and I read that account I'd either be spitting feathers in anger at god, or I'd be rolling around the floor in agonies of guilt, blaming myself for not praying hard enough, or long enough, or with enough faith, or in the right words.

    The god of miracles seems to have a lot in common with the National Lottery. In both cases your chances of hitting the jackpot seem to be around 14-million-to-1; it's just that with the Lottery you have to find the right combination of numbers, while with god you apparently have to find the right combination of words and attitude. Up with a god like that, I cannot put. If he exists he deserves to be scorned, not thanked and worshipped.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your thoughts, your frustration, your consternation, your anger and puzzlement have been mine also, many times before. (And, doubtless, will be so again many more times.)

      Delete
    2. MournemanMichael11 June 2018 at 14:54

      Your final sentence Anne rings true for me: "If he exists....."He doesn't" is what I have consistently put as my opinion to this blog for about four years now. I have pointed out the lack of any sensible objective proof. For a blog site frequented by mostly deist believers absolutely no realistic proof of God's existence has been argued, other than individual's personal beliefs often linked to biblical texts over which there is little agreement as to origins, authenticity and relevance.
      It's almost ignoring the "elephant in the room " syndrome that so much "debate " relates to personalised trivia.
      Your analysis is compelling. Thanks for sharing it.
      MMM

      Delete
    3. MMM, There are no proofs for the existence of God - nor indeed proofs for his non existence.

      It is purely a matter of faith and spirituality.

      We all make choices as to how we explain our existence etc.

      Those of us who believe make that proofless choice.

      Delete
    4. 17.05 Negation implies affirmation. One has to know what it is that one is saying no to

      Delete
    5. MournemanMichael11 June 2018 at 19:24

      I believe there can be spirituality without belief in any God. We've debated this one before.
      But faith: in what? Seems to me it's choice to remain in a comfort zone of adherence to mythological childhood inculcated beliefs which bind us to familial, local and wider societal norms and expectations. I wish all the time energy and finance spending on religious matters were instead channelled into making this world better now rather than aspiring to a new life/world after death.
      As I've said before: "Good without God." seems a perfectly reasonable choice.
      MMM

      Delete
    6. I totally agree with you MMM that there is spirituality, ethics and a morality without God or religion.

      I have met many atheists and agnostics who were deeply spiritual people.

      And religion is very often the enemy of authentic spirituality.

      It's about how we CHOOSE to interpret life and existence.

      You do that on a non-deist way.

      I do it in a deist way.

      Delete
    7. MournemanMichael12 June 2018 at 01:03

      No +Pat: I don't "choose" to interpret life and existence in a non deist way. I simply accept the obvious as opposed to the ridiculous.
      Watching recent TV programmes about earth's origins, its place in the cosmos, life origins and human evolvement underlines just how ridiculous are religious belief explanations.
      Deist religion, especially the Christian version, as well as being contrary to all scientific evidence surely raises questions about the bizarre nature of any supreme being who only provides evidence of existence through the "smoke and mirrors " of disputed biblical texts and historically contested events in the distant past.
      MMM

      Delete
  14. 13.16: Magna, how you feign such heartfelt sincerity! You are a viperous, creepy person with not an ounce of decency. Your comments prove your creepiness and hatred.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi Pat, just wondering have you any updates on getting a bigger dog? You need one to scare them boys away.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No. I have two Jack Russels and they would bring down an elephant.

      Delete
  16. Pat, how can the pope's engagements between 10.30 and 5pm on the first day take precedence over him visiting the north? Just wondering.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dermo doesn't want the WMOF (who'd heard of it previously) to be overshadowed by a visit to NI.

      It'll make me vomit to see Francis being fawned over in Dublin Castle by Leo and co, who were rejoicing in Dublin Castle over abortion.

      Delete
  17. Please do understand and remember that illegitimacy being regarded as a disgrace etc and babies removed for adoption in those earlier times was NOT just something that happened in the RC Church. . We experienced exactly the same for Protestant girls "in trouble" as it was then described.. My neighbour was on the Staff of one such Protestant Home in North Belfast when she worked in Thorndale House in Thorndale Ave run by the Salvation Army who were also extremely strict and daily admonished the "fallen" Protestant women for the error of their ways. The girls there had to work hard as domestic servants and cooks and earn their keep. There were many such Protestant institutions since unwed parenthood carried exactly the same stigma as in RC families and even today those women would prefer that it's not mentioned again at this stage of their lives when some immediate family may still be unaware etc . This was particularly true of strict Evangelical Christian households as you can imagine. I point this out by way of fairness and balance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, that's right @ 19.25.
      I remember someone whose baby was taken away from her - -like many other girls - - in the Mission Maternity Home for Protestant girls. It was in Malone Place, Belfast and I think the building is still there but now used for something else I suppose .

      Delete
  18. Whatever became of the fathers of these children????

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. An excellent question!

      They certainly did not live up to their responsibilities.

      Delete
  19. The errant fathers, who were often married to other unsuspecting women, came out in a terrified hot sweat when they heard about the pregnancy and then looked the other way and kept their head down until the whole thing blew over. Of course there were exceptions, but even fellows who confided in their parents were told to "keep well out of it".

    ReplyDelete