IRELAND
Irish Times
JACKY JONES
SECOND OPINION: Forster Street in Galway runs alongside the gates of the old Magdalene home and laundry. Ordnance Survey maps included in the report of the inter-departmental committee to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalene laundries show that in 1898 there were just a few buildings opposite the laundry site.
By 1944 the maps show a row of houses named St Mary Magdalen’s Terrace. The interesting thing about these houses is that they had no windows on the first storey, which overlooked the laundry grounds.
Preserve anonymity
Growing up in Galway, I was aware of the urban myths about the terrace, the most charitable being that no windows overlooked the laundry to preserve anonymity.
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