General Chat

I think there was a programme on TV about this (Or a Similar one) reminded me of my Grandma who adopted her sisters daughters child rather than have her moved out of the family . She never spoke to her BIL ever again, said he was a cruel Hypocrit.**M**.

Have just logged back on to read more of this interesting thread and have to just say it was not me who rr'd any of the posts.

Mau

The film Magdalene Sisters is on youtube in 10 Parts here is the link to part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdWdcwkhqpM

the rest can be accessed from that page

Roy

If you want to have a look at the Magdelene Laundries as John has put this thread up for the report today..

Have a look at the BBC News or BBC World News they show pictures of the lasses and a couple of the women who were in the Laundries.

Mau mentioned 'Sex in a cold climate' a few posts back. The full film can be found on YouTube....... Enter search box with....... Sex in a cold climate full

Books to read,..

Suffer The Little Children: The Harrowing True Story of a Girl's Brutal Convent Upbringing: The True Story of an Abused Convent Upbringing [Paperback]
Frances Reilly (Author)

Frances Reilly and her sisters were abandoned by their mother outside Nazareth House Convent - a Belfast orphanage run by nuns. Little did they know the unimaginable cruelty they'd endure within its walls. Frances suffered horrifically at the hands of the Sisters: brutally beaten, worked like a slave, abused and molested, the convent regime stripped her of everything - education, innocence and childhood. But the hope of rescue or escape never left her. Years later, Frances would face her demons in court, bringing to account those who so viciously stole her youth. SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN is a gripping and moving story of one child's spirit of survival.



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This is the book that got my interest going in the Magdelene Laundries and I still have the book.


Childhood Interrupted: Growing up under the cruel regime of the Sisters of Mercy [Paperback]
Kathleen O'Malley
Kathleen O'Malley (Author)


In 1950, Kathleen O'Malley and her two sisters were legally abducted from their mother and placed in an industrial school ran by the Sisters of Mercy order of nuns, who also ran the notorious Magdalene Homes. The rape of eight-year-old Kathleen by a neighbour had triggered their removal - the Irish authorities ruling that her mother must have been negligent. They were only allowed a strictly supervised visit once a year, until they were permitted to leave the harsh and cruel regime of the institution at the age of sixteen. But Kate survived her traumatic childhood and escaped her past by leaving for England and then Australia when the British government offered a scheme to encourage settlement there. Fleeing her past again, Kate worked as a governess in Paris and then returned to England where she trained as a beautician at Elizabeth Arden. She married and had a son. A turning point in Kate's life came when she applied to become a magistrate and realised that she had to confront her hidden personal history and make it public. This is her inspiring story.



Rock Me Gently: A Memoir Of A Convent Childhood [Paperback]
Judith Kelly
Judith Kelly (Author)


In the 1950s, shortly after her father's death, Judith Kelly was left in the care of nuns at a Catholic orphanage while her mother searched for a place for them to live. She was eight years old. Far from being cared for, Judith found herself in a savage and terrifying institution where physical, emotional and sexual abuse was the daily norm and the children's lives were reduced to stark survival. As the months became years and no word came from her mother, she sought comfort instead from the girls around her, and especially the bright, angel-voiced Frances, who seemed miraculously untouched by the nuns' persecution and the abject misery surrounding her. When a tragic accident robbed Judith of her dearest friend, the traumatic memories of the event were to trouble her deeply, long into her adult life. Years later, at a kibbutz in Israel, Judith met and befriended an elderly Holocaust survivor. It was a friendship that began with an instinctive recognition of the fear and suffering each had experienced, and one that would begin an emotional journey culminating in Judith's return to the Nazareth House orphanage to confront her memories and to achieve some measure of peace. "Rock Me Gently" is an astonishing, moving and deeply shocking memoir, and a story that resonates in the mind long after the final page.


This is another book I have read and have kept.
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This Book is on Kindle ..

The Girl Nobody Wants: A Shocking True Story of Child Abuse in Ireland [Kindle Edition]
Lily O'Brien
Lily O'Brien (Author)



Product Description

THE GIRL NOBODY WANTS' IS A TRAGIC & MOVING BOOK TO READ! BUT A WARNING! THE CONTENT IS VERY GRAPHIC & SHOCKING, AND THERE IS OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION TO SUPPORT THIS TRUE STORY, THANK YOU.
It's my 40th birthday today and I'm trying to smile, but as I look in the mirror all I can see is an empty shell, someone waiting to die... You could never tell that anything was wrong with me by just looking at me, as I dress clean and I keep myself tidy, and I have a smile on my face that hides my emotions and over the years I've become an expert at hiding behind it" This is the shocking true story of an innocent girl abused by the very people who said they would take good care of her. Lily's family began the path to her destruction - they used her and abused her - but they never ever wanted or loved her. The little girl was also sexually physically and emotionally abused by many people around her who were able to hide behind the security of Ireland's Catholic Church-run institutions. She also suffered at the hands of other people around them who they called their friends. You only get one chance to live your life as a child, but Lilly was never given that chance - her childhood was taken from her before it ever begun. From the age of four, when she was first sexually abused, her life changed forever and when she walked through the institution's doors in Ireland, her life continued along the same path that has destroyed her soul. Her emotional pain is as strong today as it was the day it began and will never leave her alone. "When I go to sleep it's in my head and when I wake up I can see it in the mirror and I am only waiting to die." A child abuse story that will stay with you forever and one that you will talk about for many years to come,?The Girl Nobody Wants is a harrowing true story that will appeal to fans of biographies.


Have a good read.

Been reading BBC Ireland online Sue,about Maureen Sullivan's account of her time in the laundries. She was taken there at 12 years old and worked hard,without pay,from morning till night.
How cruel to take someone's young life away who had done no wrong.

And the idea they would have their young lives taken away because they were too beautiful or too negative and critical is just horrible.

As we look back at what happened (often less than 100 years ago) no wonder so little was said in families.

Mau thanks a lot I will see if I can get BBC Ireland online.

JOHN
VERY INTERESTING JOHN
THANK YOU FOR POSTING IT

Yes, thank you John.
I was already aware of the situation in Ireland, but really it wasn´t much better in the Children´s Homes run by various churches here in England.
When my g grandmother died in 1907 my grandmother & 3 of her brothers were taken into care & suffered the effects for the rest of their lives.
My grandmother had originally been taken in by her much older half brother, but after a year she was placed in care. According to the Home records, which I have, she was wilful & out of control. She was 12 years old when she was admitted to the home & 15 when she was released into domestic service.
Don´t think there was the degree of deliberate cruelty that was experienced in Ireland, but a very uncomfortable start in life nevertheless.

Have just been googling Nazareth House here in my city as
it rang a bell when mentioned. Grampian Police are apparently
the only force to investigate the abuse etc that went on here,
this ofcourse is of not much help to the sufferers as the nuns
would long be dead.

Emma

Many thanks Dizzi, Wisechild and others.

Caught my eye this morning and I was really thinking how many of us have lost rellies and they could easily have been in these institutions.

Some wonderful posts on this thread. Really interesting :-) :-)

Thanks to you John for putting this thread on as more people now know about the Physical,Mental and Sexual abuse of the Nuns and Priests that ran the Magdelen Laundries.

And how the young women and girls suffered.

I just hope this never happens again.

Thanks, Sue. Hopefully, society is much more open today. But I do worry it may still be going on in some of the more secretive groups in our society.

I am thinking, for example, of the young Muslim boy in Cardiff who was tortured and murdered by his mother for not learning the Q'ran properly. But not thinking only of Muslims. Two gay Nigerian Christian men might not have the freedom in our big cities that British Christians now have. :-(

The Irish PM Enda Kenny has given an apology to the women for the stigma and conditions.

But No Official apology as yet for them.

A very interesting thread.

I knew nothing of the Magdalene Laundries until today.

Dispicable to learn how these poor creatures were treated in these types of institutions.

:-( :-( :-(

I have ordered one book on this from Amazon. Childhood Interrupted: Growing up under the cruel regime of the Sisters of Mercy"
O'Malley, Kathleen; Paperback; £1.49 post free.

Missed Story re Magdalene Laundries on the 6.30 news, anyone get it.

Emma

Emma,
If you can get BBC World News it will be on that..one of the pictures they show are women walking round a fountain and another is women congregataing outside.well if that happened it must havew been back in the early 1900's as according to a few of the lasses that were there in later years worked from 8am until 9pm.scrubbing floors and in the laundry.

It might be on Channel 4 News which is on now,.