History Meets HBO

So there I was, watching Boardwalk Empire and marvelling at the writing process (every episode has a different writer and each episode has a slightly different flavor because of it) when a reference to one of Ireland's most shameful institutions was tossed out.

There was the character of Margaret, an immigrant who fled from Ireland under a cloud, confronting her unforgiving brother.

From earlier episodes, we all know that she was pregnant and unmarried when she left home, and in the latest installment, we find that her brother and the parish priest all thought that Margaret should have been locked away by the....the Magdalene Sisters?

Close, but no cigar for Howard Korder, Steve Kornacki and Bathsheba Doran.

And those places weren't workhouses. Not at all.

The laundries run by the Sisters of Mercy or the Good Shepherd sisters were little better than jails, in which the period of incarceration was entirely outside the boundaries of the legal system. The women who worked there were slaves.

To gain a true picture of what drove Margaret to steal her mother's savings to escape, a desperate act indeed, read The Leaven of the Pharisees.

You'll gain a different perspective on the character, an insight you might otherwise miss if you're relying on the passing reference made by the dramatists who penned the incident.

And you'll find yourself looking at her interactions with clerics through a different, more informed lens.