Tag Archives: Magdalene Laundries

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European Election candidate Ronan Mullen tweets his concern for the abducted Nigerian girls while questioning the effectiveness of social media.

Anyone?

Update:

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Cyberbully+ writes:

Photoshop battle, anyone?

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Via Allan Cavanagh

Previously: Democracy Now

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Part of today’s report on the Vatican by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Recommending a new investigation into the Magdalene Laundries.

Mark Kelly, Director of the  Irish Council For Civil Liberties (ICCL) writes:

“This is a devastating critique of systemic child protection failures by the Vatican which continue to have a profound effect on many people in Ireland. The report zeros in on some of the most egregious forms of abuse committed in this State under the ultimate authority of the Vatican. In the light of these unprecedented findings, the ICCL is calling upon the Pope’s diplomatic representative in Ireland, Archbishop Charles John Brown, Papal Nuncio and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps to provide a detailed account of the action that will be taken in this State to ensure that these shortcomings are rectified”

Pope’s Ambassador Should Give Answers on UN Vatican Abuse Report (ICCL)

Earlier: The Damned

Previously: The McAleese Report: A Conclusion

Thanks Walter Jayawardene

I131022_165948_672275oTextCS_50044303-2480541(Kathleen Whelan with Steven O’Riordan at Áras an Uachtaráin)

Magdalene Laundry survivor Kathleen Whelan died in her home at Baile Na Aoire, Montenotte, Co Cork, last Sunday – on her 68th birthday.

She received no compensation before she died, even though Taoiseach Enda Kenny made the State apology in February.

Steven O’Riordan, of Magdalene Survivors Together, spoke to Mary Wilson on RTÉ One’s Drivetime moments ago about this.

Mary Wilson: “Did [Kathleen Whelan] get anything?”

Steven O’Riordan: “No. Unfortunately Kathleen, and like the lady that died previously, has left now €200,000 behind them and the State obviously has saved €200,000 and paying any compensation to these individuals. And I think that’s very sad as well because I think these women really did believe that once the apology was made, and once the scheme was set up in June, that payments would be start to be made and, of course, like everything that the State seems to have to offer is all legal implications and all tied with red tape and nothing ever seems to progress in this country.”

Wilson: “So, what is stopping the progress? They got the apology last February, the scheme for compensation was established in June. Here we are near the end of October and you’re telling me that none of the women have got any money?”

O’Riordan: “No. And I think the implication is that a waiver form has to be signed by the women and I think there’s a…”

Wilson: “This is a waiver, not to sue…”

O’Riordan: “Not to take the State to the courts any more after they get the compensation and I think ultimately then what happens is that if the women don’t sign it and want to go to the courts, would the statute of limitations be lifted? Does the implications of them getting a previous compensation from an industrial school kick in? Does that prevent them from going to the courts? And what are the implications of signing the waiver form in terms of the rights they’re giving away.”

Wilson: “So Steven are some of the blockages to pay out on the side of the women who want certain guarantees in relation to their own futures on the compensation?”

O’Riordan: “Well a lot of the women expressed a view that they feel that they should be paid in full. And the Government feels that they should be getting a weekly allowance each week, on top…”

Wilson: “They want the full payment? The women want the full payment from the start?”

O’Riordan: “Yeah.”

Wilson: “The Government wants to give it on an incremental basis?”

O’Riordan: “Yeah, and I think it’s a shame that the Government again just don’t listen to the women. The Government were asked to get the religious orders to pay something into the scheme, they didn’t achieve that. The Government have been asked for the women can they be paid in full. We don’t seem to be getting that. I distinctly remember writing to the Secretary General Jimmy Martin asking could there be confirmation as to whether the women or not will get the full entitlement rather than this weekly payment, that was in July. I’m still waiting in October to receive a response.”

Wilson: “So where are we at? Are there talks ongoing?”

O’Riordan: “We’re in absolutely no-man’s land. The Department of Justice has completely and utterly shut down. They don’t relay or communicate with me. They only communicate with the women directly. I’ve had over 20 complaints from different women that I’ve worked with in relation to the Department of Justice’s handling of the process of the scheme. The women are very upset with the fact that they don’t know what the situation is with their medical cards. We’ve heard a lot about that from different, various groups already this week in the Budget. And I suppose the women now feel that they might not even get the medical cards. The other thing that they’re upset about is the fact that there’s been no progress on the national monument even though they have a clear vision as to what they want to achieve. And I think their biggest fear is that, will they all be dead by the time this is resolved? And why is it taking so long? What is the situation with regard, the delay in the process of these payments? And why isn’t the Government properly communicating with these women? And why isn’t the Government communicating with the groups that have been set up to deal with these women?”

Stephen also said the women have yet to hear anything about the  dedicated unit and helpline that the Government promised to set up, following the State apology.

He also said that the ladies have had to pay in order to obtain birth certificates and marriage certificates, as part of the process.

Listen here

Pic via Goldenbridgeinmate36

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Martin McAleese presenting his report into the Magdalene Laundries in February

It’s not washing.

From Saturday’s Irish Examiner:

Questions surround a section of the McAleese Report which states it asked the Ryan Commission to contact seven women mentioned in the Ryan Report who were in Magdalene Laundries.
Chapter 19 of the McAleese Report outlines how it asked the Ryan Commission to write to the women it spoke to and inform them of the McAleese committee and its work.
This was done as it was not possible for the Ryan Commission (CICA) to clarify to the McAleese committee what sections of the chapter referred to Magdalene Laundries, rather than other institutions because of legal issues.
However, minutes of a meeting of the McAleese Committee on June 26, 2012, obtained under Freedom of Information, which deal directly with its interaction with the Ryan Commission, completely contradict this claim.
In the minutes, it is stated that it was agreed with the Ryan Commission that it would not contact any of the women.

…The McAleese report ultimately concluded that it could not determine if any of the women’s experiences cited in the Ryan Report actually related to the 10 Magdalene Laundries within its scope.

 

Lest we forget.

Questions over section of McAleese Report (Conall Ó Fátharta, Irish Examiner)

Previously:

The McAleese Report: ‘Incomplete And Not Independent’

Omission To Prey

Lost In The Wash

McAleese Report: A Conclusion

 (Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)

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Former Senator Martin McAleese, top, in his report on the State involvement with the Magdalene Laundries, concluded that the four orders involved in the laundries he investigated – the Mercy Sisters, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Charity and the Good Shepherd Sisters – were not profitable, as seen in the report’s executive summary above.

Following this report, Mr Justice John Quirke called for a redress scheme to be organised for the survivors.

However, this morning, the Irish Times reports the aforementioned religious orders are refusing to pay, or even contribute, to what’s expected to amount to a €58million scheme.

It is understood the McAleese Report’s conclusion that they were unprofitable strengthens their case in this regard.

However

In a critique of the McAleese Report, law lecturer Máiréad Enright, wrote:

“Much has been made of the Report’s findings that the laundries, despite large incomes and an unpaid workforce, did not turn significant profits. But, even though the Committee was given full access to Orders’ financial records, this part of the Report consists in very broad statements of accounts (often summaries of income and expenditure over long periods of time) coupled with extracts from statements of  firms of accountants who worked for the Laundries. Where the running costs that eat up the profits of the Laundries are mentioned, they are not detailed. Details of per person amounts spent on maintaining the residents (clothing, food etc) are not provided. No real details are provided of the purposes – e.g. capital expenditure – to which the, perhaps small, profits generated by the Laundries were put. Senator John Crown has noted that the Committee did not conduct any detailed forensic analysis of the financial statements included in the Reports. We need to watch carefully for moments in which the Laundries might be re-spun as charitable enterprises rather than as places of industry and employment.”

 

In addition Conor Ryan, investigative correspondent with the Irish Examiner, reported two years ago:

“Land surrounding a former mass grave at the largest Magdalene Laundry was quietly sold by the order of nuns who ran it for €61.8 million during the boom.

“The revelation emerged as representatives of the women imprisoned in the laundries met with Justice Minister Alan Shatter.

“They discussed the new inquiry and their case for an apology, compensation and a pension for the women involved.

“The Justice For Magdalenes group (JFM) said the €296m made in property deals during the boom by the four orders who ran the laundries must form part of the conversation on redress. “

Also.

Given that the redress scheme largely involves payments based on the length of time a survivor spent at a laundry, it is troubling that Ms Enright has also noted that while the McAleese Report suggests 61% of women admitted to the laundries were there for less than a year, the Magdalene women who gave evidence to Justice Quirke’s team gave testimony indicating that this figure is closer to 9%.

How can the State  recompense women based on a potentially flawed report?

What’s Wrong with the Magdalenes Redress Scheme? (Mairéad Enright, Human Rights In Ireland)

Critiquing the McAleese Report (Mairéad Enright, Human Rights In Ireland)

Previously: A Limerick A Day

The McAleese Report: “Incomplete And Not Independent”

Omission To Prey

Lost In The Wash

The Magdalene Report: A Conclusion

felice90289517magdaleneThe UN Committee on Torture has responded to the investigation by Martin McAleese (centre) in to the Magdalene Laundries.

The McAleese Report, warmly received by religious commentators here, stated that no evidence exists that abuse took place in the laundries.

Despite hundreds of pages of testimony from survivors documenting incidents of physical and mental cruelty available to Mr McAleese and his team.

Felice Gaer (top) head of the UN Committee on Torture in a letter, revealed in today’s Irish Examiner (above), to the UN representative in Ireland, writes:

The report lacks many elements of a prompt, independent and thorough investigation…specifically the committee has recieved information from several sources highlighting that the McAleese Report despite its length and detail did not conduct a fully independent investigation into allegations of arbitary detention, forced labour or ill treatment.

 

It was Ms Gaer’s Committee Against Torture and its 2010 report into the laundries that forced the government to launch an inquiry. Unca called on the government to “institute independent and thorough investigations” into the Magdalene Laundries abuse, to “prosecute and punish the perpetrators” in appropriate cases, and to “ensure that all victims obtain redress.”

In her letter, Ms Graer adds

Please clarify whether the state party intends to set up an inquiry body that is independent with definite terms of reference and statutory powers to compel evidence and retain evidence from relevant religious bodies.

 

Since its publication in February, The McAleese Report has been used by Catholic fundamentalists as ‘proof’ that much of the survivors’ claims of mistreatment by the religious orders were embellished.

UN anti-torture body criticises Magdalenes report (Conall Ó Fátharta, Irish Examiner)

Previously: Omission To Pray

He Did The State Some Service

Lost In The Wash

The Magdalene Report: A Conclusion

magdalene_sistersDONOHUEA new booklet The Myths of the Magdalene Laundries has been published by the American Catholic League.

Based on Martin McAleese’s sanitised report into state involvement in the laundries, the booklet claims to examine “the origins of the many myths that have surfaced”.

Bill Donohue (above), president of the American Catholic League, says:

Virtually all the horror stories that have been told—nuns cruelly torturing and sexually abusing “fallen” women—are lies. Worse, Irish officials, such as the current prime minister, Enda Kenny, continue to misinform the public, even in the face of indisputable evidence. Media outlets, the BBC and the New York Times, in particular, refuse to discuss the McAleese Report, leaving the impression that the falsehoods told by Peter Mullan in his propaganda film, “The Magdalene Sisters” (top) offers an accurate picture of what happened.

 

Copies are available to the public for $5 per booklet.

$5 you say?

Will we flock.

Bill Donohue

Lies Of The Magdalene Laundries (CatholicLeague.org)

Via: PJ Coogan

Previously:

 The Magdalene Report:A Conclusion

Result

Sister, Sister

 

 

 

 

 

RTÉ showed Steve Humphries’ 1998 documentary Sex In A Cold Climate last night,

15 years after it was originally aired on Channel 4.

Prompting the above responses on Twitter.

Previously: Staying In Tonight?

The Magdalene Report: A conclusion

Full documentary here