Laundries’ voices have to be heard

IT was fitting President Michael D Higgins welcomed more than 220 survivors of the Magdalene Laundries to a special reception at Aras an Uachtarain yesterday.

This, the first of a two-day event being held in Dublin, will give many of the women a first chance to speak openly to others who were effectively enslaved in these hellish institutions.

Females from this country, as well as Britain, the US and Australia have been brought together to finally tell their stories.

This reunion shines a light into a very dark place where innocent young women were treated as criminals and exploited by religious orders who exploited them as slaves.

They were deprived of their freedom and an education and left to fend for themselves when they had been worked to the bone.

The redress scheme went some way to undoing the damage done but no amount of damages could compensate for the loss of youth and the psychological damage done.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said he is satisfied all women involved can avail of the Magdalene Restorative Justice Scheme.

Unfortunately the hundreds who died in the decades while the State washed its hands of all responsibility can not.

Minister Flanagan also said there is a need to heed lessons of the past.

But women caught up in the cervical smear scandal might question if lessons are being heeded at all.