The Justice Derby

Tomorrow, the best horses in the world will run around in a circle and punters with money riding on the outcome will cheer.

The former inmates of the Magdalene laundries in Ireland are running around in a circle as well, and it's the Catholic Church with money riding on the outcome.

The forgotten Maggies don't have a finish line in sight.

They're to keep on running, and that way, there'll be no declared winner. The bishops, with money riding on the outcome, can hold on to their cash.

Only the abused women lose in such a scenario. They'll die of old age before their race is over, if the religious congregations have their way.

For decades, Irish women were incarcerated and forced into slave labor for the crime of being pregnant out of wedlock. For the crime of being pretty. For the crime of rubbing the local parish priest the wrong way. For the crime of being illegitimate. For the crime of having a mother who wasn't toeing the morality line.

A greater crime was committed by the religious congregations who never paid into a pension plan for their inmates. The women are now old, unable to work, and have no source of income in their dotage.

In dire want, they've gone to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who's all sympathy to their plight. Go see the Sisters, he said.

What, then, did the Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Mercy, the Good Shepherd Sisters, and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity do in response? In short, they told the forgotten Maggies to feck off. There's nothing to talk about, as far as they're concerned.

That leaves the women with but one option, which is to go back to the Archbishop, who can then send them back to the nuns, who won't do anything, and it's back to the Archbishop, and sooner or later the old gals will drop in their traces and there's an end to a financial burden.

A fictional portrayal of the harsh regime is found in The Leaven of the Pharisees, available as an e-book with multiple format options. It's well-researched and based on survivor accounts.

Easy enough to ignore the former inmates of the Magdalene laundries. Not so easy to ignore the voters, the parishioners, or those who fund the Catholic Church. The Justice for Magdalenes group needs everyone's help. Drop by their website and see if there's anything you might be able to do.