The song “Magdalene Laundries” by The Chieftains and Joni Mitchell, (1994), tells of the disturbing conditions at Magdalene Laundries like the one pictured here in Donnybrook, Ireland. The lines “All of us woe-begotten-daughters / In the streaming stains / Of the Magdalene Laundries” are especially telling of the shame and pain women experienced.
In 1992, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity asked officials for permission to move the bodies buried in the cemetery at their Donnybrook laundry. However, officials soon realized it was a mass grave containing the bodies of unidentified women, who were the inmates of Donnybrook, one of Ireland’s Magdalene laundries.
Between 1837 and 1992, women were sent to Donnybrook and other Magdalene laundries for sexual relations outside of marriage. Nuns forced the women to labor for months, years or for the rest of their lives because they were unwed mothers, flirtatious, or perceived as unfit for society.
When the 155 unmarked tombs were discovered, the horrors of the laundries were exposed for the first time, causing the Irish public to react in horror. Most residents were not convicted of a crime, and yet, they were punished as prisoners would be, with ‘shaven heads, institutional uniforms, bread and water diets, restricted visiting, supervised correspondence, solitary confinement and even flogging’ (Self) (History).
It was when the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity decided to sell some of the land that the 231-year long system was finally exposed. Journalists learned the remains of 155 people were located, but the nuns applied to have 133 bodies relocated from unmarked graves. Only 75 death certificates were located.
Survivors then came forward with their stories. One survivor, Marina Gambold, had been placed in a laundry by a priest. She remembered “being forced to eat off the floor after breaking a cup” and “working in the laundry from eight in the morning until about six in the evening” (History).
Blakemore, Erin. “How Ireland Turned ‘Fallen Women’ Into Slaves.” History.com, A&E
Television Networks, 12 Mar. 2018, www.history.com/news/magdalene-laundry-ireland-
asylum-abuse.