Magdalene Laundries Survivors Reject Apology

By Rachel Cooper
The Telegraph
February 5, 2013

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/9850882/Magdalene-Laundries-survivors-reject-apology.html

Survivors of the Magdalene Laundries have rejected an apology from the Irish prime minister about the conditions in the church-run laundries where women and girls toiled.

The 2002 film 'The Magdalene Sisters' depicted life in the Magdalene Laundries. Photo: Momentum Pictures

Enda Kenny, Ireland's prime minister, said he was sorry thousands of women had to live in austere conditions in the convent-run institutions after a report said the state was responsible for sending many women and girls to the laundries.

“To those residents who went into the Magdalene Laundries through a variety of ways, 26pc from state intervention or state involvement, I am sorry for those people that they lived in that kind of environment,” Mr Kenny said in parliament in Dublin today.

“I want to see that those women who are still with us, anywhere between 800 and 1000 at max, that we should see that the state provides for them with the very best of facilities and supports that they need in their lives.”

But, survivors quickly rejected his apology and demanded a fuller and more frank admission from government and the religious orders involved.

Maureen Sullivan, of Magdalene Survivors Together, said: "That is not an apology. He is the Taoiseach of our country, he is the Taoiseach of the Irish people, and that is not a proper apology."