Magdalene Laundries: Uncovering the gaslighting and shame

The Magdalene Laundries were back in the spotlight recently following the death of Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, who spent time in one of the former asylums as a teenager. A new BBC drama examines the impact of the abuse which took place at some of these notorious institutions.

Many of the obituaries published following O'Connor's death last month noted the time she spent as a young woman in Dublin's An Grianan Training Centre, a Catholic-run institution which used to be the High Park Magdalene Laundry, where children and teenagers were routinely treated badly.

The laundries had been theoretically set up to house "fallen women" - a blanket term which included unmarried mothers, women deemed to have been badly behaved, promiscuous or sexually abused, or who were considered uncooperative or burdens on their families.

Shoplifting and truancy led to O'Connor being placed in the institution for 18 months in her teens. She later referred to it as a "prison", where she said she was deprived of a normal childhood, and girls "cried every day".

Women lived and worked without wages - O'Connor recalled being assigned jobs such as washing priests' clothes for no pay. She said the women generally studied maths and typing and had limited contact with their families.

The singer's time there did help set her own path to a career in music, after one nun gave her a guitar and connected her with a music teacher. But glints of light and hope such as this were rare.

Coincidentally, the BBC commissioned a six-part TV drama about the Magdalene Laundries last year, prior to O'Connor's death. Created and written by Joe Murtagh and starring Ruth Wilson, the Woman in the Wall launches on BBC One on Sunday at 21:00 BST.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66376157

Ireland's version of the Indian boarding schools, but for women only. Ireland's SHAME