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Justice in Death is Sought for 27 'Fallen' Women
by Gráinne Cunningham
© The Examiner, 28 October 1997

A WOMAN, who is fighting for a decent burial ground for 27 'fallen women' lying in unmarked graves , has received calls from their relatives from all over the country.

Mrs. Mary Norris insisted yesterday that she wants justice in death for the women who died while in the care of the Good Shepherd Convent in Cork city.

The women, known as Magdalenes, were sent to the convent after becoming pregnant outside of marriage or beacuse they were difficult.

Yesterday Mrs. Norris, a former 'Magdalene', choked back tears as she spoke of discovering the graveyard in Sunday's Well where 27 of them are buried.

The graveyard is overgrown and the graves are not marked by name or date of death.

Mrs. Norris is to meet representatives of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Tralee this Thursday. She was contacted by a member of the order over the weekend and given a committment that named crosses would be put on the 27 unmarked graves.

"I want justice for these women. Society has a lot to answer for, and in those days, society was the Church", Mrs. Norris said.

Since the state of the graveyard was first made public, Mrs. Norris has received phonecalls from people in Dublin, Waterford, Kerry and Limerick who believe they may be related to people buried there.

Mrs. Norris received one call from a priest who believes his mother is in one of the unmarked graves.

The priest, who only discovered that he was adopted when one of his parents died, plans to visit the grave.

"He was wondering if it was known he was born out of wedlock, would he have been accepted as a priest", Mrs. Norris said.

During her teens in the 1950s, Mrs. Norris spent two years as a 'Magdalene' after going to the cinema without permission.

She spent time in solitary confinement, her virginity was medically checked, and she was put to work for 12 hours a day until an aunt in America succeeded in getting her out.

Last week when Mrs. Norris went to visit the graves, she discovered they were enclosed behind a high wall and the old entrance was sealed. She was told that 'fallen women' were buried there.

While the nuns' graves are on land now owned by University College Cork, the Magdalenes' graves are on land belonging to Cork Prison, Mrs. Norris said.

The nuns' graveyard is well cared for and each grave has its own engraved iron cross but the other graves are overgrown and unmarked.

"Oh God, you should see the state of it. It is overgrown with weeds and there isn't one cross there", a tearful Mrs. Norris said yesterday. "These women were ostracised in life and they are now buried in a pauper's grave and ostracised in death", she said.

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