On the heels of the investigation into Ireland's industrial schools, the women who were held as virtual slaves for the crime of being pregnant outside of marriage (or too pretty in some cases) sought equal treatment for their injuries.
The bureaucrats claimed that the women were not part of the education system, as was the case with those incarcerated for the crime of being poor.
Besides, incarceration in the laundry was voluntary...wasn't it? Not ordered by any court....was it? And can't the Magdalene laundry survivors just please go away and stop reminding everyone of a hideous practice?
To date, the women who slaved in the laundries without pay have not received so much as an apology.
Maeve O'Rourke has authored a submission to the UN commission which lays out the grievances, in the hope that the Irish government will be forced by a world authority to open its deaf ears and listen. And act.
Because cruelty, torture, degradation and inhuman treatment were part and parcel of the Magdalene laundry system, Ireland is required by UN convention to investigate and provide compensation.
The laundries were shuttered completely in the late 1990's. If the government can stall long enough, all the Maggies will die of old age and the problem will go away.
Ms. O'Rourke has upped the stakes to prevent this from happening, by turning to the UN and making the injustice known throughout the world. By embarrassing the Irish government, she may turn up the volume just enough, making the voices of the Maggies heard at last.
The barbarity of the laundries is too unpleasant to contemplate, and most would rather not think about it, as if it never happened. The problem is, it did happen. Innocent women were physically and mentally abused by order of the State and the Catholic Church. Those who suffered for no reason deserve to be heard.
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