IRELAND
The Guardian (United Kingdom)
Henry McDonald Dublin
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 February 2013
Elderly survivors of Ireland’s notorious Magdalene laundries are threatening to go on hunger strike if the Irish government fails to establish a financial redress scheme for women held in the institutions.
The Fine Gael-Labour coalition will receive a report on Tuesday that will establish the Irish state’s role in a system that the UN Committee on Torture described as slavery.
Girls described as “troubled” or deemed to have been morally “fallen” – mainly unmarried young mothers – were ordered by courts to work unpaid in the laundries run by the Irish Catholic church. The workhouses operated from the early 1920s until 1996.
Steven O’Riordain, a representative of the Magdalene Survivors Together, has warned some women will go on hunger strike if the government does not meet their demands.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.