Letters to The Irish Times.

Sir,

Mary Raftery’s commitment to recovering the story of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries is part of her impressive legacy of investigative journalism.

Twice in the past year she wrote opinion pieces on the need to bring about justice for Magdalene survivors. She identified the State’s moral obligation to redress historic injustices. She recognised families’ and society’s responsibility for these women – the daughters, sisters, aunts who were summarily disappeared: the invisible workforce who cleansed our dirty linen. And, Mary Raftery demanded that the four religious congregations account for the women in their “care”.

Back in August 2003, she wrote her influential exposé on the 1993 exhumation of 155 women’s remains at the High Park Magdalene Laundry, Drumcondra. That piece acted as a major catalyst in the rejuvenation of the Magdalene Memorial Committee and, ultimately, the formation of Justice for Magdalenes (JFM). Entitled “Restoring dignity to Magdalens,” the article offered a searing critique of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity. The issues raised – the discovery of an additional 22 bodies, the lack of death certificates for 54 women, the lack of names for 24 women, and significant discrepancies between the names listed on the exhumation licence issued by the Department of the Environment and the headstone subsequently erected at Glasnevin Cemetery where the bodies were cremated and reinterred – were alarming at the time; they are disconcerting still because as yet they remain unresolved.

These details would have gone unnoticed but for Mary Raftery’s particular brand of investigative journalism. She began the previous April by contacting the nuns seeking to clarify the aforementioned anomalies. She obtained copies of the original and revised exhumation orders, she tracked down death certificates for individual women, compared names on the Glasnevin gravestone with those on the exhumation licence. Ultimately, she submitted a list of 19 detailed questions for the attention of Sr Ann Marie Ryan at High Park.

To read those questions now is to fully appreciate Mary Raftery’s determination to get at the truth – she asked why so many deaths went unregistered, she asked why the order did not know the first and last names of numerous women who spent their lives working in the institution, she sought explanation for the discrepancies between the exhumation order and the headstone, she asked how much “did the exhumation, cremation, and reburial cost? Did you pay it all? Did the purchaser of the land pay any of it?” And, she asked why the order decided “to cremate the remains” and whether they were “aware of Canon Law 1176 in this regard?”

She concluded by referencing the fact that “a number of religious orders have already apologised for their role in the industrial schools” before asking “Has your order done so? Do you feel this is either appropriate or warranted?” Her questions would go unanswered.

Looking back, it matters less that Sr Ryan’s response (a brief statement issued the week the article was scheduled to appear) is notable only for its evasion. Rather, it seems important we recognise Mary Raftery’s work practices as worthy of emulation by everyone interested in better understanding Ireland’s recent past.

Her life’s work was fuelled by the conviction that all human beings deserve dignity and respect. She sought to restore dignity to Ireland’s Magdalene women and in doing so she inspired all of us in the Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) campaign to do likewise. – Yours, etc,

JAMES M SMITH,

Associate Professor,

English Department & Irish Studies Program,

Boston College,

Massachusetts, US.

Inquiry into State role in laundries to end by summer

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE INTERDEPARTMENTAL committee to establish the facts of State involvement in the Magdalene laundries intends to conclude its work by the middle of 2012, according to an interim report published yesterday.

The four religious congregations involved in running the 10 laundries, where women were detained between 1922 and 1996, have agreed to give the committee full access to relevant records.

“Appropriate safeguards” have been put in place to enable the congregations do so “within the law and while fully respecting the sensitivity and confidentiality of the records”. An order was made by Minister for Justice Alan Shatter “to authorise the disclosure of sensitive personal data to and processing of such data by the committee”.

The religious congregations involved are the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, the Religious Sisters of Charity and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.

The interim report said that “in no case would such sensitive personal data be published or made available to the public without the consent of the data subject”, and that this was so whether the person concerned was living or dead. “The names or personal data of former residents of the Magdalene laundries will not be published or otherwise released to the general public,” it said.

Also, an archive of the committee’s work will not include “personal and sensitive personal data”, all of which will be “destroyed and/or returned to the relevant religious order upon conclusion of the committee’s work and publication of its report”.

The committee, under the independent chairmanship of Senator Martin McAleese, includes officials from five Government departments, with another official from the Department of Foreign Affairs advising Mr McAleese.

The report pointed out that as the committee’s role is “a fact-finding one”, “any information provided will be used for the purpose of the committee’s investigations into the facts of State involvement only”.

From: “Ciara D. Kellegher”
Date: July 1, 2011 6:47:46 AM EDT
Subject: 1. Minister Shatter announces appointment of Chairperson of Inter-departmental Committee into Magdalene Laundries 2. Statement by Senator Martin McAleese on the Magdalene Laundries Inter-departmental Committee

Department of Justice and Equality
1 July 2011

Minister Shatter announces appointment of Chairperson of Inter-departmental
Committee into Magdalene Laundries

Mr Alan Shatter TD, Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence today
announced the appointment of Senator Dr. Martin McAleese as the Chairperson
of the Inter-departmental Committee on the Magdalene Laundries.

The Government believes it is essential to fully establish the true facts
and circumstances relating to the Magdalene Laundries as a first step. The
purpose of the Inter-departmental Committee will be to clarify any State
interaction with the Magdalene Laundries and to produce a narrative
detailing such interaction.

Announcing the appointment Minister Shatter said “I am delighted that
Senator McAleese has agreed to take on the important role of Chairperson of
the Inter-departmental Committee. The value of his work and involvement in
the peace process in Northern Ireland and the positive contribution he has
made to life on this island have been widely recognised. He is a person of
the highest integrity whose presence on the Committee will, I believe, both
enhance it’s stature and, importantly, reassure everyone concerned that the
role of Chairperson of the Inter-departmental Committee is a truly
independent one.”

An initial report is to be made to Cabinet on the progress being made by
the Inter-departmental Committee within 3 months of it’s first meeting.

_____________________________________________________________________

Seanad Eireann
1st July 2011

Statement by Senator Martin McAleese on the Magdalene Laundries
Inter-departmental Committee

“I have accepted an invitation from the Minister for Justice, Equality and
Defence, Alan Shatter TD, to become the independent chairperson of the
Inter-departmental Committee on the Magdalene Laundries. The sole purpose
of the committee is to clarify and detail the facts of any State
interaction with the laundries. I look forward to working with the
Committee and hope our report will make a valuable contribution to this
issue. I will be making no further public comment until the work of the
Committee is complete.”

Justice for Magdalenes (JFM), the survivor advocacy group, will meet with Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, and Minister for State, Kathleen Lynch, next week as part of the government’s proposed series of meetings with “groups representing former residents of the Magdalene Laundries.”

JFM will submit its Narrative of State Interaction with the Magdalene Laundries, a lengthy document accompanied by about four hundred pages of appendices. It is hoped this material will be shared with the incoming Independent Chairperson of the Inter-departmental Committee. The document points to State interaction in the following government departments: Justice, Education, Health (and Local Government), Defence, Social Protection, Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, and Finance. It also includes a section on the Religious Congregations’ various funding sources for the Magdalene Laundries. The document underscores the need for the proposed Committee to examine not only what the State did in the past, but also what it failed to do. It is offered in the spirit of expediting this process and moving forward to the desired goals of bringing restorative justice and reparations to all survivors of the laundries.

The JFM delegation will comprise JFM PRO and co-founder Claire McGettrick and JFM advisory committee members Prof. James Smith (Boston College), Katherine O’Donnell (UCD), and Maeve O’Rourke (Harvard Law School 2010 Global Human Rights Fellow). It is hoped JFM committee director, Mari Steed, will join the meeting from Philadelphia via Skype.

JFM will also conduct a public forum on Tuesday, 5th July, at UCD’s Humanities Institute of Ireland on the Belfield Campus. Beginning at 10 a.m. in the “Seminar Room,” JFM will again present A Narrative of State Interaction with the Magdalene Laundries to members of the public. The forum will also be advertised via Facebook, Twitter and other media outlets. Members of the media are welcome to attend, and members of the JFM delegation will make themselves available afterward for questions/interviews. For directions, see http://www.ucd.ie/hii/facilities/directionstothehii/. The venue is wheelchair accessible.

JFM will also present to the Oireachtas Ad Hoc Committee on the Magdalene Laundries on Tuesday evening at 5 p.m. in the AV/Media Room in Leinster House. This Committee is “all party,” just as JFM has always maintained that the issue crosses party politics. The meeting was arranged and is hosted by Maureen O’Sullivan, T.D. (IND), and will be chaired by Caoimhghin O’Caoláin, T.D. (SF).

Saturday June 25 2011

David Quinn’s analysis of the Magdalene Laundries adds to the public’s confusion about these institutions (“Magdalene inquiry must lift veil and uncloak anti-Catholic myths,” June 17, 2011).

He is factually incorrect when he states that the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) sent its published Assessment to the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT).

The UNCAT recommendation came on foot of a submission by Justice for Magdalenes (JFM), the survivor advocacy group.

Mr Quinn is correct in his assertion that there is nothing essentially Irish or Catholic about these institutions.

Nevertheless Ireland’s Catholic Magdalene institutions retained at least three distinct characteristics, foremost of which was their longevity — the last one closed its doors in October 1996.

Secondly, the nature of these institutions changed at the turn of the 20th Century — formerly they were rehabilitative and oftentimes short-term refuges; latterly they became more punitive on the one hand and often long-term and life-long places of confinement.

Thirdly, the population of women entering the Laundries became ever more diverse after 1922 as the nuns sought to secure a workforce for their commercial, for-profit enterprises.

This unpaid workforce included unmarried mothers, women found guilty of crimes by the courts, young girls transferred from industrial and reformatory schools, women on remand and on probation, women referred to as “mental defectives” and “simpletons,” and so-called “voluntary” committals brought to the laundries by family members, the local priest, a social worker, the local garda, an employer, or teacher.

Finally, myths about the laundries feed off the religious orders’ refusal to provide access to post-1900 records. Because there can be no official history, there are no answers to important questions.

These facts we do know: the 1901 and 1911 census data reveals that there were 912 and 1,094 women respectively in the 10 Catholic Magdalene Laundries that would continue to operate after 1922.

In 1956, the Irish Catholic Directory reported a capacity of 945 at these same 10 homes. Between 1926 and 1963, the Irish courts referred at least 54 women to Catholic Magdalene Laundries.

In March 1944, there were 19 women “on probation” at Magdalene laundries and other religious convents.

Mr Quinn concluded his article stating that: “If this new inquiry does its work properly it will provide a fully rounded picture of the Magdalene asylums.”

When we met with him last year, Cardinal Sean Brady characterised JFM’s presentation of our campaign as “fair and balanced” and encouraged us to continue working toward “a just solution” to the Magdalene Laundries scandal.

That is precisely what this campaign is all about.

Dr James M Smith
Associate Professor, English Department and Irish Studies ProgramME, Boston College, USA

The Irish Times 25th June 2011

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

TWO OF the religious congregations which ran Magdalene laundries in the State set up and continue to run the Dublin-based Ruhama agency, which is funded by the State and works “with women affected by prostitution and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation”.

According to its website, the agency receives funding from the Department of Health and the Department of Justice.

Ruhama, which means “renewed life” in Hebrew, is described as “a joint initiative of the Good Shepherd Sisters and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, both of which had a long history of involvement with marginalised women, including those involved in prostitution”.

Both congregations refused to meet Justice for Magdalenes, a support group for women who had been in the laundries, including those run by the Good Shepherd Sisters at Limerick, Cork, Waterford and New Ross, and those run by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity at High Park in Drumcondra and Seán MacDermott Street in Dublin.

In a letter to Justice for Magdalenes spokesman Prof James Smith on June 23rd last year, Sr Sheila Murphy of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity said she did “not wish to have, nor do I see any purpose in having, a meeting with you at this time”.

In an e-mail of June 17th last year, Sr Bernie McNally of the Good Shepherd Sisters told Prof Smith she would not be able to engage in a meeting with him and “will not be able to respond further”.

Top of the list of Ruhama’s board of directors are Sr Sheila Murphy and Sr Bernadette McNally.

As reported in The Irish Times , figures disclosed to Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin by Minister for Health Dr James Reilly revealed that the Good Shepherd Sisters have received more than €14.4 million from the Health Service Executive since 2006.

No figures were disclosed for what sums the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity received over that period, or for what either order received from the Department of Justice.

Despite selling off extensive properties in Waterford, Cork and Limerick, the Good Shepherd Sisters said, following publication of the Ryan report in 2009, that they had no resources to contribute to the costs of redress for people who had been abused as children in institutions which they had also run.

The Irish Times – Wednesday, June 15, 2011

PAUL CULLEN, Political Staff

THE GOVERNMENT has ordered a limited investigation into the treatment of women and girls in Magdalene laundries.

The form of the investigation, an inter-departmental committee chaired by an independent person, falls short of the statutory inquiry demanded by the UN Committee against Torture and the Irish Human Rights Committee.

The remit of the committee has been confined to asking it to “clarify any State interaction with the Magdalene laundries and to produce a narrative detailing such interaction”.

The Government believed it was essential “as a first step” to establish fully the true facts and circumstances relating to the Magdalene laundries, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said in a statement last night.

The statement made no reference to another key demand of the UN, the IHRC and groups representing former residents, the payment of compensation, but did promise to put in place a “restorative and reconciliation process” involving the religious congregations that ran the laundries and former residents.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dáil last May the Department of Justice was considering a reparation scheme for former residents.

Mr Shatter and the Minister of State at his department, Kathleen Lynch, are to meet the congregations and ask them to make their records available to former residents.

They will also be asked to provide information on the number of former residents still in their care.

The decision to set up an inter-departmental committee on the matter was taken at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting. It was agreed that the committee would make a progress report within three months.

Last month, the UN Committee against Torture recommended that the Government set up a statutory investigation into allegations of torture and degrading treatment against women and girls committed to the laundries and forced to work without pay.

The committee said the perpetrators should be punished and redress provided to the women.

The group’s report criticised the State for failing to regulate or inspect the laundries, which were run by four congregations: the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Religious Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Mercy and the Good Shepherd Sisters.

Mr Shatter said the Government welcomed last week’s indication by the four congregations of their willingness to bring “clarity, understanding, healing and justice in the interests of all the women involved”. Consideration was being given to the appropriate independent person to chair the inter-departmental committee, he added.

Last May, speaking at a hearing of the UN committee in Geneva, Department of Justice secretary general Seán Aylward said the State couldn’t “rewrite its history” with regard to the Magdalene laundries.

The first Magdalene laundry opened in Dublin in 1767 and in the 20th century 10 laundries were in operation throughout the State. Most closed in the 1960s and the last one shut its doors in 1996.

Justice for Magdalenes (JFM), the survivor advocacy group, welcomes the government’s announcement this evening, in particular the establishment of an Inter-departmental Committee, chaired by an independent person, and we see this as a further positive step to bringing “Restorative Justice and Reparations” to all survivors of the Magdalene Laundries.

Much work remains to be done, however, and JFM looks forward to working with both the State and the religious congregations in the coming weeks and months to bring about a prompt and timely resolution to this “restorative and reconciliation process”. JFM has already proposed a structure that might be utilized to facilitate this process, which the UN Committee Against Torture has recommended that the government examine more closely.

We note with regret that the government is not yet prepared to issue a formal apology to the women despite the fact that an apology remains their first and most important request. Survivors speaking in recent days stressed the importance of an apology as the first crucial step in restoring their dignity and sense of citizenship. We are aware of the legal implications that an apology may bring and the State’s concern in that regard. But we remind the government that the UN Committee Against Torture has already found the State liable: “The Committee is gravely concerned at the failure by the State party to protect girls and women who were involuntarily confined between 1922 and 1996 in the Magdalene Laundries, by failing to regulate their operations and inspect them….”

JFM welcomes the opportunity to meet with both Minister Shatter and Minister Lynch, and as the primary voice for those not afforded one, feels it is very important that we also meet with the Inter-departmental Committee to help “clarify any State interaction with the Magdalene Laundries”. Our research and our discussion with survivors helped to bring about today’s announcement. JFM feel strongly that our experience and knowledge of these institutions, and the nature of their relationship to other residential institutions, can make an important contribution to the independent investigation.

Finally, on foot of the government’s announcement, JFM remembers who this campaign is about—the women who spent time in the institutions and their children. Many survivors are aging and elderly. Some women feel that heretofore both Church and State have pursued a policy of “deny ‘til they die.” For all their sakes, we again ask that Church and State consider offering an apology immediately, and thereafter move forward to bring the work of the independent inquiry to satisfactory conclusion.

In conclusion, JFM thanks everyone who responded to our e-mail and social media campaign and contacted various ministers asking them to read our correspondence prior to today’s Cabinet meeting. We appreciate your efforts on behalf of those women for whom we advocate.

[ENDS]

Contact Details:
Claire McGettrick [PRO], Ireland—353-(0)86-3659516, clairemcgettrick@gmail.com
Mari Steed, Philadelphia—(00)1-215-589-9329, mari_tee@yahoo.com
James M. Smith, Boston—(00)1-617-552-1596, smithbt@bc.edu
Maeve O’Rourke, London—(00) 44 74 0330 1781, maeveorourke@gmail.com
Katherine O’Donnell, Dublin—353-(0)1-716-7323, katherine.odonnell@ucd.ie

Government Statement on the Magdalene Laundries

The Government today considered the circumstances of the women and girls who resided in the Magdalene Laundries. The Government welcomed the statement made last week by CORI on behalf of the four congregations, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Religious Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Mercy and the Good Shepherd Sisters who indicated their “willingness” to “bring clarity, understanding, healing and justice in the interests of all the women involved”. The Government believes it is essential to fully establish the true facts and circumstances relating to the Magdalene Laundries as a first step. The following has been agreed:

1. An Inter-departmental Committee will be established, chaired by an independent person, to clarify any State interaction with the Magdalene Laundries and to produce a narrative detailing such interaction.

2. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Alan Shatter TD and the Minister of State with responsibility for Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People, Kathleen Lynch TD are to meet with the religious congregations and the groups representing former residents of the Magdalene Laundries. Their discussions will include addressing the following matters;

a. The making available by the congregations of all records maintained by them with regard to the residents of the Magdalene Laundries to enable all available information about former residents to be shared with them and also made available for appropriate research purposes.
b. The provision of information concerning the number of persons currently residing with or in the care of the religious congregations who originally commenced such residence in the Magdalene Laundries and who have remained in their care.
c. To discuss the putting in place of a restorative and reconciliation process and the structure that might be utilised to facilitate such process.

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence together with the Minister of State for Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People, will now be following up on this Government decision with the relevant parties. Consideration is being given to the appropriate independent person to appoint to chair the Inter-departmental Committee. It was agreed by government that an initial report should be made to Cabinet on the progress being made by the Inter-departmental Committee within 3 months of its establishment.

Press statement – CHANGE from previous due to change in statement form Dept of Justice – immediate

Bethany Residents disappointed at cabinet failure to resolve denial of redress for former Bethany and Magdalene residents

Former residents of the Bethany Home Dublin are disappointed to hear that the Cabinet today failed to discuss the problem of those excluded from the Redress Scheme for victims of institutional abuse. These victims include former residents of Magdalene laundries and of the Bethany Home in Dublin.

A further denial of state responsibility so close to a damming report from the UN Committee Against Torture would have been embarrassing for the government and would anger increasing numbers of Irish people.

Possibly, the failure to discuss the issue today may mean that the government realises that ‘No’ or ‘deny till they die’ is no longer sustainable as a response. If it means the government is instead moving toward a solution to this problem that grants justice to the victims we would welcome that. We are happy to discuss with ministers a means of resolving this issue and suggest that these discussions begin now and end very soon.

Former residents of the Bethany Home and of Magdalene laundries have waited too long for an apology. Justice demands that it be issued now and that former residents become eligible for redress.

Derek Leinster
Chairperson, Bethany Survivors Group.
00 44 1 788 817311
42 Southey Road Rugby CV22 6HF
Warwickshire England

derek.linster@talktalk.net

By Dan Buckley and Claire O’Sullivan

Saturday, June 11, 2011

THE four religious congregations that ran the Magdalene houses in Ireland have agreed to help achieve justice for thousands of women who were forced to work in the laundries.

Acknowledging the workhouses as a “dark story of Irish society”, a joint statement issued on behalf of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, Religious Sisters of Charity, Sisters of Mercy and the Good Shepherd Sisters includes a promise to assist any official investigation into the running of the homes.

The Government is under international pressure to establish a judicial inquiry following a call by a UN committee last Monday to investigate reports that women and girls sent to work in the laundries suffered widespread abuse.

The statement, issued through the Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI), describes the issue as a “sad, complex and dark story of Irish society that extends over 150 years”. It continues: “As the religious congregations, who, in good faith, took over and ran 10 Magdalene homes during part or most of that time and as congregations still in relationship with many residents and former residents, we are willing to participate in any inquiry that will bring greater clarity, understanding, healing and justice in the interests of all the women involved.”

The statement was welcomed by groups seeking justice for the women, in particular the Justice for Magdalene (JFM) group. Spokesman Professor Jim Smith called it “a positive first step”.

Next Tuesday, the Cabinet is due to discuss reports on the laundries by the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Geneva-based UN Committee Against Torture, both of which criticised the state’s failure to protect the women.

The UN panel’s report recommended that the Government “in appropriate cases, prosecute and punish the perpetrators with penalties commensurate with the gravity of the offences committed”.

Estimates put the numbers who passed through the laundries from 1922 to 1996 at 30,000.

Last night, JFM stressed it is not seeking a redress board-style legal adversarial process.

“JFM is very conscious of the current economic climate and we have no desire to propose anything that lines the pockets of Ireland’s legal profession,” Prof Smith said.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, June 11, 2011