‘Ireland failed you’ – President apologises to abuse survivors
230 survivors of infamous Magdalene Laundries finally get ‘VIP’ treatment as they visit Áras
“IRELAND failed you” – you could have heard a pin drop as President Michael D Higgins apologised to the 11,000 Irish women who spent time in Magdalene Laundries and acknowledged their pain and hardship.
“When you were vulnerable and in need of the support of Irish society and its institutions, its authorities did not cherish you, protect you, respect your dignity or meet your needs and so many in the wider society colluded with their silence,” he told a gathering of 230 survivors at Áras an Uachtaráin yesterday.
“You were apologised to by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the Dáil in 2013 but as President of Ireland, I want to acknowledge again the wrong that has been done to you, the pain that has been caused in your lives and the opportunities that have been lost to you as a result of your mistreatment.
“Today, here in Áras an Uachtaráin as President of Ireland, mar Uachtarán na hÉireann, I apologise to you – survivors of the Magdalene regime,” he added.
Among those listening to the President’s words was Margaret Cowman, who will be 78 in November and has lived in London for nearly 60 years.
At almost 12 years of age, the Wexford woman was told by her mother and a priest she would be attending school to receive an education in the Mercy Convent Training School.
Instead, she was put to work in a Magdalene Laundry for the next four years.
“For all the girls there it was never a training school,” she recalled.
Standing in the grounds of the Áras with her sister-in-law Pat McInerney, she admitted returning to Ireland was not something she had wanted to do.
“I didn’t want to come back but glad I did, for today,” she said.
“I was told I was going to get a good education.
“And then it was like being locked away and not knowing what you had done. And even when I’d run from there, my mother wouldn’t believe me that I wasn’t training – no one would believe you in those day; if there was nuns involved you weren’t believed.
“I tried to run from there a few times, myself and another girl – I had hoped I would see her here, she was lovely.”
Margaret was sometimes sent to work to mind children “of rich people” in Rosslare, or to help clean their houses.
One day, she was paid six pence for a job outside of the convent and was mistreated while she worked. So it was that day that Margaret took her six pence and started on her journey to London.
Margaret’s story bears the hallmarks of those told by many other Magdalene Laundry survivors.
Four friends – Breda, Mairead, Roseanna and Annette who had been in Goldenbridge Industrial School together – were seated together in the marquee in the gardens of the Áras.
As a piano played softly in the background, twins Breda Kennedy and Mairead Manley retold the horrors they experienced growing up, when they moved from the school to work in St Ciaran’s in Rathdrum, Co Wicklow.
“Slave work. We never got paid for it or anything like that,” said Breda.
The twins, who will be 68 in November, were born in Birmingham and had been taken from their mother, who they reunited with 10 years ago through the help of Barnardos.
They also met their brother for the first time in May last year, as he had been adopted in England while his sisters were sent to Dublin.
Their friend, Roseanna Murphy, said yesterday was the first time these women “had got the VIP treatment”.
Annette Hall was accompanied to the event by her son Rob Campbell (30), having made the trip from London for the Dublin Honours Magdalenes gathering.
A young, mixed-race Irish girl, Annette fled to London when she was thrown out of Goldenbridge onto the streets of Dublin aged just 15.
Yesterday, she recalled standing up to the nuns and finding herself homeless in her own country.
As these women finally heard an apology for the great grievances they had suffered, those in the marquee rose to their feet as the President concluded his speech.
The Hot House Flowers then took to the stage before six coaches of survivors, fighters and Irish women rolled on to the Mansion House for a gala, with performances including Christy Moore, Philomena Begley, the Three Tenors and Mary Byrne.