Slaves mistresses of the Magdalene laundries feel they are unfairly treated.

Lou.m

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/sisters-who-ran-magdalene-laundries-are-being-treated-unjustly-1.1711186

I guess from the title you can guess my stance.

In the late 17th century, the term “fallen women” primarily referred to prostitutes; but by the end of the 18th century, Magdalen laundries were filled with many different kinds of women, including girls who were “not prostitutes at all,” but either “seduced women” or women who had yet to engage in sexual activity.

According to Francis Finnegan, author of Do Penance or Perish:

“the institutions had little impact on prostitution over the period,” and yet they were continuing to multiply, expand and, most importantly, profit from the free labor. Since they were not paid, Raftery asserted, “it seems clear that these girls were used as a ready source of free labour for these laundry businesses”

Many girls apparently were not unwed mothers but even virgins.

Finnegan wrote that based on historical records,[which?] the religious orders had motivations other than simply wanting to curtail prostitution; these multiple motivations led to the multiplication of these facilities. According to Finnegan, as the motivations started to range from a need to maintain social and moral order within the bounds of patriarchal structure, to a desire to continue profiting from a free workforce, Magdalen laundries became a part of a large structure of suppression.With the multiplication of these institutions and the subsequent and “dramatic rise” in the number of beds available within them, Finnegan wrote that the need to staff the laundries “became increasingly urgent”. This urgency, Finnegan claims, resulted in a new definition of “fallen” women, one that was much less precise and was expanding to include any women who appeared to challenge traditional notions of Irish morality. He further asserted that this new definition resulted in even more suffering, “especially among those increasing numbers who were not prostitutes but unmarried mothers – forced to give up their babies as well as their lives”. And as this concept of “fallen” expanded, so did the facilities, in both physical size and role in society.

Considering the absolute control the church had of the debate for years I don't see how they can complain. Also I think they have been treated more than fairly.

I can't get over how these psychos have not been receiving more prison sentences for the gross levels of sociopathic child abuse and abuse of human rights they perpetuated.

All those young men and women in 'reform schools' and laundries!:mad:

In May 2009, the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse released a 2,000-page report recording claims from hundreds of Irish residents that they were physically, sexually, or emotionally abused as children between the 1930s and the 1990s in a network of state-administered and church-run residential schools meant to care for the poor, the vulnerable and the unwanted.The alleged abuse was by nuns, priests and non-clerical staff and helpers.The allegations of abuse cover many Catholic (Magdalene), Protestant (Bethany) and State-run Irish Industrial schools.

Since 2001, the Irish government has acknowledged that women in the Magdalene laundries were victims of abuse. However, the Irish government has resisted calls for investigation and proposals for compensation; it maintains the laundries were privately run and abuses at the laundries are outside the government's remit. In contrast to these claims, evidence exists that Irish courts routinely sent women convicted of petty crimes to the laundries, the government awarded lucrative contracts to the laundries without any insistence on protection and fair treatment of their workers, and Irish state employees helped keep laundry facilities stocked with workers by bringing women to work there and returning escaped workers.

Notwithstanding the investigations instigated by the government in the Republic of Ireland, similar investigations have yet to be instigated in Northern Ireland and worldwide.

And just four days ago the Times has a piece about them being unfairly treated?

Having lobbied the government of Ireland for two years to investigate the history of the Magdalene laundries, advocacy group Justice for Magdalenes presented its case to the United Nations Committee Against Torture, alleging that the conditions within the Magdalene laundries and the exploitation of their labourers amounted to human-rights violations.On 6 June 2011, the panel urged Ireland to "investigate allegations that for decades women and girls sent to work in Catholic laundries were tortured." In response the Irish government set up a committee chaired by Senator Martin McAleese, to establish the facts of the Irish state's involvement with the Magdalene laundries.

It is counted as one of the many examples of the church using slave labor by human rights organizations. In 1820, the Jesuits had nearly 400 slaves on their Maryland plantations. The Society of Jesus owned a large number of slaves who worked on the community's farms. Realizing that their properties were more profitable if rented out to tenant farmers rather that worked by slaves, the Jesuits began selling off their slaves in 1837.For many centuries the Church was part of a slave-holding society.
The popes themselves held slaves, including at times hundreds of Muslim captives to man their galleys.No Father or Doctor of the Church was an unqualified abolitionist.In Ireland, up to 30,000 women were forced into slave labour at the Catholic run Magdalene Laundries from 1922-1996!

Not to mention the countless young men in reform schools!

Utterly disgusted. :mad:

porsche959

Agreed except the state and the public at large must share in the blame for allowing so much power to the church.

Karl Stein

Livestock.

Lou.m

porsche959 wrote: »

Agreed except the state and the public at large must share in the blame for allowing so much power to the church.

Yes very true.

jellyboy

Society has failed to hold its own responsibility for the crimes of the past ..
it has always being "there fault".. we were ignorant and equally being abused ..
Make them pay..


But this is changing
We have now the "scandals" of adoption and the mother and baby homes coming down the track and the 60 thousand plus who were sold,bought farmed out

Where did the mothers come from ?
Was there snatch squads of nuns pulling women into mother and baby homes?

Or did the ever pervading malignant shame of what the world would think and the land prevent women and men from being treated with respect and dignity?

Scandals haven't gone and won't go away ..next up is Mental institutions and how we treated them