IRELAND
Irish Examiner
By Claire O’Sullivan
Irish Examiner Reporter
Kathleen Whelan was one of about a dozen former Magdalene laundry survivors who travelled to Cork’s City Hall to meet the Lord Mayor as he signed a book of apologies for the women.
At 17 years of age, Kathleen was sent to the Good Shepherd laundry in New Ross, where she spent eight years washing and ironing clothes without pay.
In 1968, when the New Ross laundry closed, the 25-year-old moved, with the nuns, to the Clifton convalescent home in Montenotte — run by the Good Shepherds.
Nearly 50 years later, she still remains in the care of the nuns. “Clifton was a totally different set up. We get paid for our work and everything,” she said. “That was because the health board had a part of it.”
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