The History of The Irish...Worldwide
Is $34.5 Million Enough for Ireland's Magdalene Victims?
What do you think of the Irish government's announcement yesterday that it would provide the estimated 770 living victims of Catholic Church-run Magdalene laundries at least $34.5 million to compensate them for their months and years, even decades of forced labor?
In remarks to former Magdalenes, Justice Minister Alan Shatter apologized to the women and said he hoped they would accept the government's compensation plans as "a sincere expression of the state's regret for failing you in the past, its recognition of your current needs, and its commitment to respecting your dignity and human rights as full, equal members of our nation."
Here's some related information:
Ireland to pay $45 million to Catholic laundry workers (CBS News)
Irish Cillini and Magdalene Laundry Panel with Linda Evangelista, Toni Maguire, Mari Steed, Gerry Regan
'The Magdalene Sisters' Hits America's Shores
Tags: Faith, Magdalenes
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gael Murphy on
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But, the social stigma the girls suffered was the result of teachings of the Catholic nuns and priests. They taught that the body was dirty, that normal sexuality was sin, that even masturbation was dangerous, filthy, that even having a sexual thought was a sin. Unlike what the Taliban do, the girl who besmirched her family's honour, was not buried in a hole and stoned, but she was buried in a prison work-house to live out her days as a silenced slave to the church. Remember this was a big business before the advent of the home washing machine. The Laundries cleaned the clothes from the prisons, and other government agencies. The church's anti-human lessons of sexual sin caused the problem that they then solved, by enslaving the soiled and sinful girls. Until 1996 - NOT in Victorian times! We can't blame the damn queen for this.
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Permalink Reply by Rónán Gearóid Ó Domhnaill on
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So called loose women had/ have a hard time everywhere.
I doubt very much if your average American family of the 1960s would jump for joy if their fourteen year old daughter found herself in the family way.
Is masturbation encouraged as part of sex ed in the States? I believe under Clinton someone advocated it and they lost their job. Our education minister Ruairi Quinn is an atheist, but he would not encourage it as part of the sex ed programme.
In the twenties and thirties many of the Maggies were former prostitutes. In most societies prostitutes are ostracized. I believe in America you can be arrested for prostitution and locked away.
Our British chums are not Catholic, yet are prudish regarding the human body.
BTW, not sure if if we can call the Magdalen aslums a prison. All that was required was for someone to come and collect the Maggie. The nuns cared for them until they had somewhere to go. Some only stayed a matter of months.
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"The family way" This is 2013! Are the Irish still so repressed by the church that they can't even say, "pregnant"? You say 1960's. What about 1994, '95, and '96? Encouraging masturbation is not required. It's natural. Telling little kids they'll be burned in the fiery pit for it is rather different. As far as the laundries being prisons, if the girls were not allowed to leave, they were in prison. Some for life. You say someone could come and "collect the Maggie". Please reread what you wrote. Does this sound to you like freedom?
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sure Ireland is a terrible place altogether.
I would love to read a witness account of a teenage girl sent to the Magdalenes in 1994 or even 1974. The fire and brimstone sermons kind of died out in the fifties. You seem to talk about certain events that happened at least half a century ago as if they still go on. They don't. Like churching they belong to the distant past. I know of some elderly women 'imprisoned' by the nuns to this day. They get their food and lodging at the convent and walk the streets by day. they have no where else to go.
It is possible that some maggies were sent there by the courts for committing a crime such as theft.
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Permalink Reply by Bit Devine on
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I was raised with the adage....
Every story has two sides and somewhere in the middle is the actual truth of things...
Quite the passionate and sticky discussion this Topic has brought us into...
There was a report released back in February... 1,000 pages... thorough research was done....an in-depth and wide-ranging investigation...If you have time...and enough tea and whiskey...Give it a read... If you've only a small amount of time...perhaps at least take a look at Chapter 19, which describes living and work conditions... here is the link:
http://justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/MagdalenRpt2013
Brendan O'Neill, an atheist and editor of Spiked!, summarized the findings in a blog post for the Telegraph:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100202781/catholic...I do believe that after Vatican II...circa 1962... fire and brimstome were replaced with a more Kunbaya ideal... Though corporal punishment was still meted out in Catholic schools and Catholic homes ... so were lessons on compassion and acceptance...
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corporal punishment was outlawed in schools in either 1977 or '81 but continued until the late eighties. Spare the rod, spoil the child.How things have changed!
The interesting thing about the Catholic church in Ireland is that it tolerates 'rebels' such as Brian Darcy. Were I to openly criticise my boss I would be fired, but priests can seemingly criticise bishops without fear of repercussion.
the report is factual as opposed to fanciful.
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I grew up Catholic... Irish & Mexican... I also grew up in the "Celtic Way".... our family code for Druidism... I was the quintessential "Good Catholic Girl"...up until a run in with a interim Priest in my confirmation class...
2 weeks from my Confirmation... Two weeks!... The priest came in and was quizzing all of the kids... he had asked a question of two children..and didn't like their answer...He would yell out "NO!!"... he turned to me and asked the same question... "Who is the Pope"... THey had replied with his name...so I knew that wasn't correct... My reply was also wrong... even though I repeated verbatim hat I had been taght... "NO!! You are WRONG!!"... being who I am...being yelled at like that didn't sit well...so I asked...respectfully.."Father, who do YOU think the Pope is then?"
His reply shocked all of us...He said "The Pope is Jesus Christ in the Flesh!"...
My reply was "Father, with all due respect, I have never heard of him changing water to wine, raising the dead or walking on water. He is not Jesus Christ."...
He turned purple in the face... I still see that face sometimes... He spat at me "leave this Church and don't come back until you agree with me!"... I was 17... I had been baptised and grown up in that one Church...never known another... I left...in tears... and never went back...until eleven years later...as an adult...long after he had left...
I only returned because someone told me I would love the new priest... I knew I would be okay when at the start of his Homily he opened with "In the name of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit...In the name of the Mother, Goddess, Crone"... and then in response to the audible shock..."Well, who did you THINK the Father, Son and Holy Spirit came from? Certainly not thin air!"...
I would have to say "Fire & Brimstone" are well and done...relics of a darker time
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There is a variety of priests out there. Catholics in Ireland tend to be a la carte and I personally would have no problems telling a priest like that where to get off.
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Permalink Reply by Jim Curley on
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Quite a jump from infallible in matters of faith and morals to JESUS CHRIST IN THE FLESH. Your friendly priest was a heretic.
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He was a doddering old man...even back then... and I think dementia was his lot... He hated Vatican II ...said that it stole all respect from the church
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Wonder how long the young priest with The Holy Quartet lasted?
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ODom, it seems that you are one of those Irish who can dish it out, but cannot take it. I will keep my words on a higher level now, but there are Irish I have met who are despicable in their self righteousness, know it all, and ease with which they insult others. Some priests are champions of handing it out! Some probably don't even realize it, but are just obnoxious---and sick. On the other hand, I have met many Irish folks who were kind, loving and wonderful----yes, in Ireland. I have now and always have had friends in Ireland.
This--- in one nutshell--- is Irish, is Ireland, is the Church, is the government; is the complex convoluted thing we are all trying to improve and change for the better. Get back on the horse and ride with us ODom, we need everybody, but there is not always two sides to a story, and rarely,one black and white answer.
Gael, we must stay in the ball game also, as hard as it is sometimes.
I strongly feel that changes in celibacy requirements must be made. There is no screening that can handle celibacy, and that is black and white. We have been bringing droves of young persons into the Church who are sexually conflicted, do know their own sexual ID, etc.
I also feel that the Church ---not government---needs to finance a Mayo or Menninger type facility--- totally for the research into the causes/ and RX of pedophilia. The amount mentioned to pay on the Magdalene situation is way too small. The Catholic Church, aka the Vatican, needs to pay them handsomely, quietly, and move on.
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