Ireland’s history has been marked by numerous religious scandals in recent years. The laverie convents (known as the “Couvents de la Madeleine”) are a sad case in point, and have become a symbol of the exactions of the Catholic Church.
For almost 70 years, thousands of Irish girls were forcibly interned in convents, where they worked for free as laundresses.
The latter were generally placed in these establishments because of an allegedly dissolute life: some were found guilty of sexual relations outside marriage, or had become pregnant… Many of these women were imprisoned there for the rest of their lives, in terrifying conditions of violence and abuse.
The Muiredach cross – Felipe Garcia – cc
The phenomenon lasted for almost 70 years, between 1920 and 1960.
At the time, Ireland was a Catholic country, clinging to deeply held convictions, where the church was the authority within the state.
The whole of Irish society lives under the dogma of Catholic religious precepts.
Priests and nuns were the authority figures in the towns and villages, and rules of decorum and good behavior were de rigueur… at the risk of bringing shame on one’s family in the event of misconduct.
At the time, society was living in a puritanical climate that profoundly rigidified the social straitjacket. A tacit agreement has even been reached between the Catholic Church and the Irish state: the church must take care of “immoral” girls and straighten them out, so that they don’t become a burden on Irish society.
So it’s out of the question to leave a young woman to her own devices, to have sex out of wedlock, to be a victim of rape… or to be guilty of petty theft. Such scandals could simply destroy the reputation of a good Irish family at the time!
This reality will weigh heavily on Irish women and their possible deviations from moral standards.
From then on, nothing will be forgiven them. Any woman who has sinned by flouting Catholic rules will have to go through the Magdalene convents (also known as Magdalene asylum or Magdalene laundry ).
These are supposedly “well run” establishments, run by nuns. Their mission is to reform young women in their faith and inculcate good morals, while subjecting them to forced labor that is supposed to restore them to society.
Most of the time, it’s the Irish families themselves who ask for their wives, sisters or daughters to be placed in these institutions. A deliberate choice marked by ignorance of what was really going on over there. At the time, social pressure was too great, and the threat of “what people would say” was far too great…
The Madeleine convents enjoyed an immaculate reputation at the time. A symbol of uprightness and values, these establishments run by nuns are respected and represent an undisputed solution for Irish society. They are the means of putting “lost” women back on the right path and washing away their sins…
Residents of the Magdalene convents in Ireland
But the reality is quite different. The Magdalene convents are based on a relentless and frightening mechanism.
Their concept is based on accepting free labor.
And they’re not exactly fussy: they take in pregnant women, raped women, orphans, flighty women, delinquents and mentally unfit women.
They are then forced to work as laundresses in deplorable conditions.
They wash by hand, are exposed to noxious products, hang laundry in all weathers, eat poor-quality, sometimes missing food, sleep on extremely precarious beds in unheated dormitories… and so on. In the rare moments of rest, they are forced to pray and repent.
Physical abuse is also used to punish the most resistant. Starved, abused, humiliated, sexually assaulted… Many of the occupants of the convents and laundries are faced with horrific acts.
Finally, when it’s time for some to give birth, the nuns offer these children for adoption without permission to wealthy Catholic families, literally snatching the babies from their mothers’ arms.
Terrifying procedures that have sadly destroyed thousands of lives and still have a resonance in contemporary Irish society.
A scene from the film The Magdalene Sisters
Although the convent laundries finally closed their doors in the 1990s, the scandal only came to light belatedly.
Hitherto hushed up by the church and the victims themselves, the secret was revealed in 1993, when a property developer discovered over 100 anonymous graves on the grounds of a convent.
The bodies were found to be those of victims from a convent laundry.
In 2002, a film also stirred up scandal. The Magdalene Sisters is a bombshell, telling the story of three young girls who arrive simultaneously at a Dublin-area convent in the 1960s. We follow their days, marked by injustice and the relentless violence of the nuns.
The extremely poignant film awakens the ghosts of the past, and leaves the church, the Irish state and the Vatican in deep trouble.
In 2009, the Irish government officially apologized to children who had been abused or sexually assaulted in boarding schools run by Catholic brothers, sisters and priests.
But the government refuses to acknowledge the violence suffered by women in laveries convents.
Fortunately, the United Nations Committee against Torture published a report on the subject in 2011, accusing the Irish state of complicity. An investigation is then requested, as is a compensation procedure.
It was a long process, but in 2013, Senator Martin Mac Aleese spoke out on the subject, denouncing the state’s role in the tragedy. A 1,000-page report catalogues the horrors perpetrated in these Magdalen convents. There’s no room for doubt, and testimonies are pouring in from all over Ireland.
The Prime Minister at the time, Enda Kenny, then spoke on February 19, 2013 and made an official apology to some of the surviving victims:
We’ve forgotten you. It’s a national disgrace, for which I say again, I’m deeply sorry.
Financial compensation ranging from €11,500 to €100,000 is then paid to the victims. The amount is indexed to the length of time spent in the establishments.
For their part, the Irish church and the Vatican are keeping quiet. In 2014, the United Nations called for an investigation into violence in Catholic institutions and laverie convents in Ireland.
A request that remains unanswered… So far, only the Irish government has acknowledged its involvement in his misdeeds. The church remained silent, provoking anger and consternation throughout Ireland.
These acts have profoundly weakened the Irish people’s faith and vision of the Catholic religion. The emergence of scandals like this one, and that of theCatholic orphanage in Tuam, where more than 800 bodies were found under the foundations, have triggered a real change in the Irish population’s consciousness.
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