IRELAND
Irish Examiner
By Sinéad O’Connor
Dear Sisters,
I am one of the very few who can say with my hand on my heart that the time spent in your institution at High Park in Drumcondra saved my life.
It was named An Grianán, and is named so in The Residential Institutions Redress Act, where An Grianán is listed first, should there be any doubt as to whether or not An Grianán (the house of the rising sun) was a residential institution.
It was the very place indeed which gave the name “Magdalene Laundries” when, sometime after I left in 1984, the land was sold and some builders digging up the ground found many graves, all marked only “Magdalen”.
During the time I spent there, the girls used to say they saw a ghostly white lady crossing the garden. I laughed and mocked them. Until the day I heard about the graves.
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