NORTHERN IRELAND
NorthJersey.com
WEDNESDAY MAY 1, 2013
BY PAIGE BRETTINGEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (RNS) When the Republic of Ireland apologized to the wayward girls who were sent to the Magdalene laundries for hard work and no pay, Teresa Bell felt encouraged. Surely, she thought, the government of Northern Ireland would do the same.
Nearly three months later, she’s still waiting.
Bell was one of thousands of young girls who were sent to the Magdalene workhouses run by Roman Catholic nuns when she got pregnant at age 16. She worked long hours washing clothes with no pay and little rest; after giving birth, her daughter was put in an orphanage.
Bell never recovered from the shame.
“I felt I was beneath everybody for 40 years,” she said. “It was only when I got a little older that it eased off a little bit.”
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