Magdalene Laundries Research Paper

The Magdalene Laundries

By Holly Barriscale

The Magdalene laundries were institutions of confinement run by the Catholic Church where Irish women were sent if they were considered a burden to society. These institutions were operated between the 1760’s and the 1990’s in Ireland and were named after the biblical figure Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’ closest followers. She is viewed by many Christians as a promiscuous woman, which is possibly why the institutions for ‘wayward’ women like her are in her name.

The first Irish Magdalene laundry was set up in 1765 in Dublin, this one was church of Ireland and was exclusively for protestant girls. The first Catholic one, however, was set up in 1809 in Cork. The Catholic Magdalene Laundries are the

This stripped the girls of their identity and left them feeling isolated and lonely. The only way most women got out of the Magdalene laundries was because a family member came and picked them up. “The only way out was to be claimed by a relative who was willing to take responsibility”- [Violet Feng for CBS News]. On the way out your relative may be given payment for your work, but it was only around 30 shillings which is the equivalent of about €2.75 today. Some girls did not even receive this payment at all, and weren’t given

She first entered the Magdalene Laundry in Stanhope street Dublin when she was fourteen years old, and she remained there for the next four years. She was taken care of by her grandmother until the age of eleven, when her grandmother unfortunately passed away. She spent the next few years mostly fending for herself as her mother was unmarried and didn’t take good care of her. At 14, her mother decided she should continue the rest of her education with the nuns, but her mother was unaware of what really lay in store inside those laundries that the nuns