Nuns Claim No Role in Irish Laundry Scandal

IRELAND
Women’s e-News

By Claire Mc Cormack
WeNews correspondent
Thursday, May 30, 2013

When I interviewed two Irish nuns in February it was the first time any member of religious orders that ran the abusive Magdalene Laundries spoke publically. Yet, months later, reconciliation with victims appears to be far off.

DUBLIN (WOMENSENEWS)– The sit-down interview took place over two nights, behind the walls of the convent where they both live.

On the first night, Sister B opened the gates and directed me to her apartment where Sister A was waiting. I didn’t meet any other members of their religious order as I walked through the convent.

As I positioned my Dictaphone for my story for The God Slot, a program on Ireland’s National Public Service Broadcaster, RTÉ Radio 1, the nuns looked at the recording equipment with suspicion. But they didn’t back out.

It was Feb. 11, almost a week after the publication of the McAleese Report, a damning publication linking the Irish State with the incarceration of over 2,500 women between 1922 and 1996 and failing to supervise their care. In reality this number is likely to be much higher but many records did not survive.

I was there so that Irish nuns, for the first time, could comment on a long-simmering scandal over subject matter that has drawn high-profile attention, including the 2002 movie The Magdalene Sisters.

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