General Chat

I was enjoying reading this thread,being interested in the main topic (and not having to duck and dive ) when it turned again :-|.........Sylvia give it a rest!! if you don't like John why put your blood pressure at risk :-(

Mau

Some of the girls were taken there as pregnant teenagers & never left. Their babies were taken from them at birth & adopted into what was classed as 'Good Christian Families'.

The 1997 Channel 4 documentary Sex in a Cold Climate interviewed former inmates of Magdalene Asylums who testified to continued sexual, psychological and physical abuse while being isolated from the outside world for an indefinite amount of time.

Girls who were unfortuate to become pregnant when single,sadly paid the penalty and were victimised as 'fallen women' while the men?...got away scot free :-| :-|

Apparently, and not just according to The Daily Mail, Kathy's story was lies.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-490977/Lies-Little-Miss-Misery--memoir-abused-girl-fake-says-new-investigation.html#axzz2K1VvP3S9

Susan with numbers I looked in again and wow such a lot of info
but very little I could see for kindle, will have to pay a visit to library
I think.

It was mentioned Magdalenes in England any books on them?

Emma

Have just read that account Susan and ,to me, it appears she has written a book of lies.
If she in fact did not live in that way and had those experiences then she's made a lot of money from others' miseries.

This admittedly is a novel but nonetheless interesting in the research needed to have written the book.

A kindle edition for £1-30

The Leaven Of The Pharisees


From Amazon


In his will, Molly's father asked that she bury his ashes in Ireland and track down his old friends, but her journey will take her far beyond her original destination. She will travel into a world of shame, where children were taken from parents and locked up in Catholic institutions. She will run up against a wall of silence, from the nuns and priests and the men who were once inmates. She will discover her own inheritance, a legacy that threatens to crush her soul and break the heart of the one man who is willing to risk everything in an effort to expose the shocking truth.

Just want to make it clear that the two posts from aivlyS that have been reported were not reported by me. I have just decided to ignore her as it is always the same old.

I would prefer her posts to be left if they help her self-esteem.

Some very interesting posts since. :-D

This is from Wiki,,

If you read right down to the bottom of the article there are books beside the ""Kathy ones""

It also says which Countries Magdelene Laundries were in..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_Asylum

Thank you Susan and Sue for info.

Emma :-)

Good thread John thanks for that have learnt something
new today. :-)

Wow, Sue. So much of interest in that article. They were sent to these Asylums because they displayed passive-aggressive behavior or because they were too beautiful!!!

"Passive-aggressive behaviour can be seen as a personality trait or disorder marked by a pervasive pattern of negative attitudes and passive, usually disavowed, resistance in interpersonal or occupational situations."

I had better not expand my thoughts :-) :-)

Another from Wikki

But please read just for the info that it gives.

http://www.netreach.net/~steed/magdalen.html

John,

Just 2 good reads about the Magdelene's

I had never heard of Magdalene Sisters until a few years ago when a very dear friend was staying with me. The film was on TV, my friend told me when her cousin aged sixteen was pregnant she was sent to the Magdalene Sisters in Ireland and suffered at the hand of the Nuns, this was in the early sixties. My friend is Irish Catholic, and said that the treatment portrayed in the film was not over dramatised or unrealistic.

I don't honestly see why anyone shouldn't post what they want about what they know or don't know without immeditaely being jumped on. But I have to admit I came warely onto this thread just knowing that somewhere there was going to be an 'anti John' post.


My Grandmother used to be a volunteer in a home for unmarried Mothers. I used to hear her whispering to my Mum about 'my girls', she loved them and would have been very kind to them, even though she was a Baptist and very puritanical herself (strange because her Mum had a child before she was married. I imagine this would have been a free church home, it was called Woodlands and was in Portsmouth. I found a website about it. Hopefully it wasn't one of the bad ones.

Have read your link Sue and what sad lives they must have led.
So very cruel treatment.
Susan have downloaded The Leaven of the Pharisees, as you say
the research needed to write this will give me an insight into this
subject.

Emma

Yes their lives must have been Hell on Earth.

I had no-one in the Laundries but I feel so sorry for the girls who were
disowned by their families and were sent away just because they got pregnant.

I was pregnant in the early 60's by boyfriend(we did get married before the baby was born)
Thank goodness my Mother was understanding and actually told me that if I didn't want to get married I could bring the child up with her help.

I think sh had that attitude because she was adopted herself and then she didn't know who her mother was.

God bless your Mom Sue, she sounds a lovely lady. <3

I think I have said before that in 1966 I was a foster parent and we had a tiny (5 pound) baby born to a 16 year old unmarried mother. These days not at all unusual but in those days very much frowned on. We had him for six weeks until he was adopted (and taken to ireland). His mother was so sweet, she loved him to bits and was allowed by the social worker to visit him until he was adopted. She would save her money and buy him clothes etc. She would have loved to have kept him but her parents (mainly, I believe, her father) were adamant that he be adopted. Such a shame as they were very well off, lived in one of the big houses in town.

Thanks for this thread John, you are never too old to learn it seems and I am learning a lot here. :-)