I wasn't even 15' - A Magdalene survivor's story

Roger Hassenforder · 06-06-2018 10:04AM

JupiterKid wrote: »

By that time I had made up my mind to walk away, which I did in 1993 and am delighted in hindsight that I was one of the first to see the the truly monstrous entity that the church in Ireland was. For me the decision to finally leave was the church's vicious reaction to the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the church's total rejection of what I am when I was struggling to accept that I was a gay man.

The very mass I walked out of was one where the priest told the congregation all gay people were destined for hell - it was summer 1993 just after I sat my leaving and just before I went to college. I was so angry at the church for a very long time.

I wont patronise you by saying "well done for walking away" (well done for walking away though), but i cant understand how people can still call themselves Catholic, attend the mass and sacraments etc., and purport to be shocked and horrified by the systematic abuse by so many of the Church, on so many, and not condemn the organization.

fatknacker · 06-06-2018 10:10AM

Guess the proddies were right all along...

Taytoland · 06-06-2018 01:11PM

Donald Trump wrote: »

Taytoland wrote: »

The devil church of Rome has left a lasting legacy. Thankfully Ulster rejected it for a long time.

Ah, a good forward thinking and modern DUP man no doubt

How's that working out for ya?

For God and Ulster big donny.

razorblunt · 06-06-2018 01:18PM

I went to school opposite the Peacock Lane laundry in Cork. There was always something "off" about it even from the outside. In primary school your parents would just say "I'll tell you when you're older" but would always make reference to the "poor girls" in there.

In secondary school then they'd tell you what they were. This was the late 90's, turn of the millennium years too. I couldn't get my head around them

Geuze · 06-06-2018 01:54PM

Wesser wrote: »

Direct provision will be the Magdalene laundry of our times. Talking away peoples autonomy, free will and dignity.
We will look back in 20 years and say how did we tolerate and do nothing.
People will be astoundef that we even know the locations of the ' camps'.

No.

AS whose application fails, they then choose, let me repeat, choose, to stay and appeal and appeal.

There are various levels of appeal, all the way to the higher courts.

People in DP can walk out tomorrow, and go home.

They choose not to.

What we are guilty of is allowing the appeals system to take so long.

Sore_toe · 06-06-2018 02:15PM

Wesser wrote: »

Direct provision will be the Magdalene laundry of our times. Talking away peoples autonomy, free will and dignity.
We will look back in 20 years and say how did we tolerate and do nothing.
People will be astoundef that we even know the locations of the ' camps'.

Rubbish

Those bogus asylum seekers can leave and go back to where they came from anytime they wish, the scandal of direct provision is how no journalist will tell the truth about it, one big fat circle jerk of virtue signalling

....... · 06-06-2018 02:38PM

This post has been deleted.

Sore_toe · 06-06-2018 02:47PM

....... wrote: »

They put their daughters into these institutions because the Church had created a "shunning" culture and if they had been seen to support their daughters they to would have been shunned.

Priests held huge authority in Ireland. A priests signature would hold as much weight as a judge or a guard.

If you let your teenage daughter have a child when she wasnt married then the whole lot of you would be shunned and shamed and treated like outcasts.

My mother told me she lived in abject fear that she would somehow become pregnant and bring shame on her family because no one was telling young girls how pregnancy happened. After she went to her first dance she lived in fear that she might be pregnant because she had danced with a strange man.

The whole set up was put in place by the church and shame used to enforce it.

Much like abortion, the whole thing was surrounded by a culture of shame.

Society colluded with the church in terms of the culture and mindset which prevailed, the president put it exactly this way yesterday, first time I ever agreed with him

....... · 06-06-2018 02:56PM

This post has been deleted.

Seth Brundle · 06-06-2018 03:06PM

....... wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

It was also out of institutional mysogony. None of the fellas were locked away for getting a girl pregnant! None of them were cast away from their families.
It was a shit culture driven by a fear of the church and it's views on women.

super_furry · 06-06-2018 03:10PM

First thing the Pope should do when he arrives over here is to get down on his hands and knees and beg the people of Ireland for forgiveness. The Catholic Church set back the progress of this country by a century.

Nettle Soup · 06-06-2018 03:14PM

I really don't think the Roman church have paid the price for their crimes against humanity in Ireland. Financially or Judicially.
The Redress scheme needs to be re-negotiated and they need to be forced to pay immediately.

How people darken the doors of Roman Catholic churches boggles my mind.

Nettle Soup · 06-06-2018 03:18PM

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Why in f*ck are there still people out there who insist that "church-bashing" be kept separate from discussions about these issues?

The Catholic Church has been exposed as an unspeakably evil organisation masquerading as a Christian one, and I say this as somebody who was born and raised a Catholic and stuck by his religion through thick and thin until his mid-20s (the Tuam scandal being the straw that broke the camel's back).

In all honesty, the Criminal Assets Bureau needs to get involved in the unpaid compensation issues at this stage as far as I'm concerned, and I wouldn't even object to the religious orders in Ireland being made proscribed organisations and being driven out of this country by force. They have absolutely no place in any civilised society.

How anyone can read these utterly horrific stories and not come to the same conclusions is totally beyond me.

And just by the way, I really do have the greatest sympathy for lay Catholics who are forced to witness the unravelling of the organisation into which they placed their trust as the one legitimate intermediary between themselves and God. I was one of them, and letting go was hard. I don't for one minute include lay Catholics in any of my vitriol, nor even do I include those good, misguided people who are members of the clergy or the orders and are just as horrified by all this as we are, but I do believe that however painful it may be, the organisation needs to be driven from this country. Those who died in pain and suffering under the authority of this wretched bastion of cruelty will not rest easy in their graves until that happens. I cannot stand the idea of another human being spending their lives being raised Catholic and spending their lives in total ignorance of the horrific legacy they will have to deal with once they're old enough to think for themselves. It has to stop. For the good of humanity and for the good of Christianity, the organisation that is the Catholic Church needs to die.

Thoroughly agree. The cowards that validate their crimes against humanity as "a few bad eggs" sicken me to the core.

Seth Brundle · 06-06-2018 03:24PM

super_furry wrote: »

First thing the Pope should do when he arrives over here is to get down on his hands and knees and beg the people of Ireland for forgiveness.

Out of curiosity, if he did beg for forgiveness, would you give him forgiveness and be happy then?

Donald Trump · 06-06-2018 03:43PM

super_furry wrote: »

First thing the Pope should do when he arrives over here is to get down on his hands and knees and beg the people of Ireland for forgiveness. The Catholic Church set back the progress of this country by a century.

06-06-2018 03:53PM

Housing estates full of feral kids have replaced the laundry set up.

Things are less than perfect now too.

....... · 06-06-2018 04:06PM

This post has been deleted.

Donald Trump · 06-06-2018 04:08PM

....... wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Well that plus your granny was a bit of a divil for the willy too....so they say...allegedly

....... · 06-06-2018 04:16PM

This post has been deleted.

hatrickpatrick · 06-06-2018 04:23PM

Seth Brundle wrote: »

Out of curiosity, if he did beg for forgiveness, would you give him forgiveness and be happy then?

As a Christian, I am obliged to forgive those who repent. But repentance isn't just asking to be forgiven, it's also taking steps to right the wrongs committed. Which means, pay the f*cking compensation and hand every single known abuser over to the secular police force to be dealt with through the secular criminal justice system.

Cork Lass · 06-06-2018 06:05PM

Trasna1 wrote: »

What I'll never understand was how, in the majority of cases it was parents who put their daughters voluntarily in these institutions. It's a point often overlooked.

It was lack of respect for women from all church, state and family was endemic at the time.

I thoroughly agree with this. Whilst there is no denying the cruelty of the Catholic Church it has to be said that lots of parents wilfully handed them their daughters therefore allowing them to commit what can only be called crimes against these women. My heart goes out to anyone who had to to spend time in one of these institutions but there are a lot of parents out there who are also guilty in this case - they too should hang their heads in shame.

jiltloop · 06-06-2018 06:11PM

Stained glass windows keep the cold outside
While the hypocrites hide inside
With the lies of statues in their minds
Where the Christian religion made them blind
Where they hide
And prey to the God of a bitch spelled backwards is dog
Not for one race, one creed, one world
But for money
Effective
Absurd
Do you pray to the Holy Ghost when you suck your host
Do you read who's dead in the Irish Post
Do you give away the cash you can't afford
On bended knees and pray to lord
Fat pig priest
Sanctimonious smiles
He takes the money
You take the lies
This is religion and Jesus Christ
This is…

paw patrol · 06-06-2018 06:27PM

super_furry wrote: »

First thing the Pope should do when he arrives over here is to get down on his hands and knees and beg the people of Ireland for forgiveness. The Catholic Church set back the progress of this country by a century.

really?? who else was educating us back in the day? the prods? the muslims? the jews? the half functioning state we had till the 1960s?

I get it , you hate the church. Don't we all? but stop inventing stuff

Sore_toe · 06-06-2018 06:35PM

Seth Brundle wrote: »

It was also out of institutional mysogony. None of the fellas were locked away for getting a girl pregnant! None of them were cast away from their families.
It was a shit culture driven by a fear of the church and it's views on women.

Well women supported locking away young women who became pregnant so not sure about the mysogony thing

skylight1987 · 06-06-2018 09:31PM

my mam tells me the story of a woman she knew who actually went and got her daughter out of bessborough mother and baby home in cork and got her grandson out too .the woman has long since passed but her grandson grew into a fine handsome fella according to my mam .what a brave lady and what a lucky daughter to have a mother willing to defy the church .

professore · 06-06-2018 10:19PM

I just finished reading Heretic by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. What struck me was the deep familiarity of the shaming language, second class treatment of women silencing of dissent and dogmatic belief that kept the whole thing going.

There are women all over Europe suffering from a very similar situation, only much worse, than the Magdalene laundries. Yet it is somehow racist to say this. The Catholic Church's power is broken in Ireland. Let's not allow another religion free reign to commit similar crimes.

If we do this will be our shame. This is NOT to justify racist or anti immigration policies. This is about the human rights of a large percentage of Muslim women.

fatknacker · 06-06-2018 11:16PM

Huh? Which countries in Europe currently have similar or worse than Magdalene Laundries?

....... · 07-06-2018 09:28AM

This post has been deleted.

07-06-2018 09:44AM

As a society, we have to get to the root cause of why by the 1950's 1% of the population was locked up in some sort of institution, not just the laundries and not just religious institutions.

In Ballinasloe, for example, the town had a population of almost 5,600 in the early 1950s. Some 2,000 were patients in the mental hospital. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/ireland-s-mental-hospitals-the-last-gap-in-our-history-of-coercive-confinement-1.1833379

Why were institutions seen as a source of employment and why locals campaigned to keep them open, what businesses were making a living supplying them.

Why did family want the state or church to sort out issues for them, what happened to Irish society that we lost the capacity to help ourselves after the famine?

LuckyLloyd · 07-06-2018 10:16AM

The Pope needs to be met with protest. It can be a peaceful protest, but everywhere he goes he needs to be met by people in black protesting his presence and the horrible legacy of evil meted upon the Irish people by his institution.

I wasn't even 15' - A Magdalene survivor's story

Comments