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Magdalene Laundries Press Releases
NWCI urges women politicians to support Justice for Magdalenes
At their recent AGM, the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) passed a motion supporting the survivor advocacy group Justice for Magdalene's (JFM) campaign to bring about (i) a formal apology and (ii) a distinct redress scheme for all Magdalene survivors. This week Susan McKay, Director of NWCI, is writing to all women TDs, Senators, and Local Councillors to urge them to support JFM's call for justice. McKay's letter reminds women politicians that:
"Justice must be done and a clear and resounding message must emanate from Government that the treatment of these women and their children was a severe violation of their human rights."
Government exploring an apology for Magdalene survivors while denying any State liability
Justice for Magdalenes (JFM), the survivor advocacy group, met with Department of Justice officials who the government have designated “to take the lead role and coordinate” the State’s response to the Magdalene issue. JFM’s ongoing work details extensive, cross-departmental, State involvement in the operation and function of the Magdalene institutions.
Cardinal Brady hopes Catholic religious will engage with Justice for Magdalenes (JFM)
Cardinal Sean Brady followed his assertion on April 1st, 2010 that he wanted a “just solution” for Magdalene survivors with an invitation to JFM to meet with him to further discuss "a pathway forward." Today (Thursday, 24 June), a delegation from survivor advocacy group JFM met with the Cardinal and key members of the Bishops’ Conference committee who work with survivors of institutional abuse.
Justice for Magdalenes Submits Human Rights Application
Survivor advocacy group Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) today met with the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) and Amnesty International Ireland.
JFM applied to the IHRC to conduct a formal enquiry into the State’s obligation to apologise to and provide redress for survivors of the laundries. The IHRC welcomed the submission and agreed to examine the arguments involved as soon as possible, given the time-sensitive nature of the issues for many survivors.
View photos from this event online.
Pressure Mounts on Cowen as Fianna Fáil TDs Deliver Petition Demanding Justice for Magdalenes
Fianna Fáil TDs Tom Kitt and Michael Kennedy today personally delivered to Brian Cowan the first 1,000 signatures from an online petition demanding a State apology and distinct redress scheme for survivors of the Magdalene laundries.
View photos from this event online.
Pressure Mounts on Cowen as 1,000 Sign Petition Demanding Justice for Magdalenes
Pressure is mounting on national and international fronts for An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, as over 1,000 people sign an online petition demanding a State apology and distinct redress scheme for survivors of the Magdalene laundries. The petition is sponsored by survivor advocacy group Justice for Magdalenes (JFM), who say that the number of signatories is growing every day.
One year after the Ryan Report, Irish Government still shirks responsibility for the Magdalene Laundries
Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) — a survivor advocacy group — says that the government continues to shirk its responsibility towards survivors of the Magdalene laundries. JFM has launched an online petition and a direct e-mail campaign, both addressed to Mr. Cowen, demanding that he provide leadership on this issue. Almost 450 people have already registered their outrage at the State's inaction. JFM asks the people of Ireland to join us in sending an unmistakable message demanding justice for this community of survivors. Doing so underscores that the work of the Ryan Report is yet incomplete.
Press release issued on behalf of Bethany Home survivors: Bethany Home Children's Graves discovered; Former residents call for memorial at gravesite; Bethany Home Survivors Group launched
A Dublin Cemetery has been discovered as the gravesite of forgotten children from the Bethany Home Dublin. Bethany Home was associated with the Church of Ireland and Church of Ireland missionary society, the Irish Church missions to Roman Catholics. It operated in Blackhall Place, Dublin, from 1921-34 and in Orwell Road, Rathgar, until it closed in 1972. The Bethany Home was a combined maternity home, children’s home and place of detention for women convicted of petty theft, prostitution, and infanticide and birth concealment.
Taoiseach dismisses abuse of children in Magdalene Laundries – JFM outraged
Mr. Cowen was responding to a series of Parliamentary Questions (copy below) tabled on behalf of Justice for Magdalenes (JFM), the survivor-advocacy group, by Mr. Michael Kennedy, T.D. (FF) [27 April 2010]. According to Mr. Cowen, the government contends "that the position of women in such laundries was not analogous with that of children in the residential institutions that were the subject of the Ryan Report."
Justice for Magdalenes Urges Minister for Finance to Recover Taxes from Religious Orders
Survivor advocacy group, Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) has written to Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan proposing a means of securing the necessary funds to facilitate, in part, a redress scheme for Magdalene Laundry survivors.
It is JFM's belief that no taxes were ever paid for women and girl "workers" in the Magdalene laundries. This assertion is in light of survivor testimony provided to JFM as well as responses to parliamentary questions from Minister Lenihan and (then) Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin. Minister Lenihan has declined, on the basis of "confidentiality," to respond to a query about the payment of taxes for women and girls who were put to work in Magdalene laundries. Mary Hanafin confirmed however that PRSI payments were not made.
Justice for Magdalenes challenges Taoiseach after meeting with Minister for Health
Minister for Health, Mary Harney received evidence of her department's complicity in referring women to Magdalene Laundries from mother and baby homes at a meeting with the survivor advocacy group, Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) today (Thursday 25th March 2010).
At the meeting, JFM presented evidence, dating to the 1930s, that the Department of Local Government and Public Health's official policy was to transfer women from State-funded mother and baby homes and County Homes into Magdalene Laundries. In December 2009 the Department of Justice accepted that the State was always aware that there was no statutory basis for confining women within these institutions.
Department of Education acknowledges its awareness of children in Magdalene laundries
Senior officials in the Department of Education have confirmed the Department's awareness of children being confined in Magdalene laundries as late as 1970. The admission came during a meeting with the survivor advocacy group, Justice for Magdalenes (JFM), on Tuesday morning, 2 February 2010...
Read more >>
Read Minister O'Keeffe's mailed letter to JFM >>
Minister acknowledges State complicity as Department meets with Justice for Magdalenes
Justice for Magdalenes (JFM), the survivor advocacy group, will meet with officials in the Department of Education on Tuesday, 2 February 2010. The meeting follows statements in recent days by the Minister for Education, Mr. Batt O'Keeffe, T.D., revising his earlier assertion that "the State did not refer individuals nor was it complicit in referring individuals to the laundries" (4 September 2009)...
Justice for Magdalenes views 19th January Parliamentary Questions with mixed emotions
Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) acknowledges with thanks the work of Mr. Ruairi Quinn, T.D. (Labour Party), in tabling a series of Parliamentary Questions in Dáil Éireann on 19th January...
Issue of women committed to Magdalenes Laundries needs to be resolved
From Joan Burton TD, Labour Spokesperson on Finance: The issue of women who were committed to Magdalenes Laundries is one of the last unresolved issues of the hidden Ireland of institutions, religious orders and the State, so eloquently set out in the Ryan report and a whole series of articles, films and programmes....
Watch Deputy Joan Burton's adjournment
debate on Magdalene Laundries >>
All Party Dáil/Seanad Committee on Magdalenes Formed
The survivor advocacy group Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) announces that members of the Dáil and Seanad are to form an ad hoc committee to address the issue of redress for those incarcerated in Magdalene Laundries...
Department of Justice Contradicts Education Minister on Magdalenes
The Department of Justice contradicts the Minister for Education's statement that the State "did not refer individuals nor was it complicit in referring individuals to Ireland's Magdalene Laundries"...
Justice for Magdalenes outraged at grave disrespect.
Justice for Magdalenes, the organisation that campaigns for the rights of women incarcerated in Magdalene Laundries, has written to Glasnevin cemetery and the Lord Mayor of Dublin demanding the removal of the storage area that has been erected around the Mecklenburg Street Magdalene grave at Glasnevin Cemetery. The organisation has also written to the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, who have responsibility for the grave....
The Minister for Education, Mr. Batt O'Keeffe, again rejects Justice for Magdalene's proposal for a distinct redress scheme for survivors of the laundries.
Mr. O'Keefe was responding to two written Parliamentary Questions in Dáil Éireann yesterday. The first question was tabled by Mr. Tom Kitt, TD (FF). The second question was tabled by Mr. Willie Penrose, TD (Labour) [Copies Attached]. A copy of Justice for Magdalene's letter to An Taoiseach (dated 22 September 2009) was attached to both questions...
Justice for Magdalenes reacts to the Minister for Education, Mr. Batt O'Keeffe's expression of regret for any offense caused in referring to survivors as the "former employees" of Ireland's Magdalene laundries.
In a letter to Mr. Tom Kitt, TD, dated 23 September 2009, the Minister for Education expressed "deep regret" for earlier referring to women who worked in the Magdalene Laundries as "former employees." His brief letter concluded, "I fully acknowledge that the word 'workers' would have been more appropriate." A copy of Mr. O'Keeffe's letter is attached to this press release...
Letter from Justice for Magdalenes to An Taioseach
'Apology' from Minister Batt O'Keeffe
Labour women support magdalene redress scheme
Labour Women support calls for a separate redress scheme for Magdalene women' says Sinead Ni Chulachain, Labour Women Chair.
Over several decades the Irish state allowed the civil liberties of the women and girls in the Magdalene institutions to be violated, and made no attempt to vindicate the constitutional rights of these citizens.
The Magdalene women were imprisoned, abused, ill-treated and traumatised. Their freedom, identity, ability to make decisions or choices, their motherhood and their fundamental rights as free citizens, were stripped away from them. Surely inflicting any of those sufferings on a person, amounts to a gross violation of one's freedoms.
Therefore those responsible have no choice but to apologise. The state has to take responsibility for its inaction.
The women need to know that they were the victims, not the wrong-doers. We need a dignified and fair way to give the Magdalene laundries closure.
[ENDS]
Justice of Magdalenes has received official notification that the Irish State will neither apologise to survivors of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries nor establish a distinct redress scheme to provide justice for these victims of institutional abuse
Mr. Batt O'Keeffe, Minister for Education, was responding to draft language towards an Apology and distinct redress scheme circulated by Justice for Magdalenes to all members of Daíl Éireann in early July, 2009. The minister responded in a letter directed to Mr. Tom Kitt, TD, who made representations on our behalf. The Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) members are deeply appreciative of Mr. Kitt's efforts...
Draft Magdalene Redress Act Proposal
Response from Mr. Batt O'Keeffe, Minister for Education & Science
Justice for Magdalenes committee calls on Government to provide redress for Magdalene survivors
Justice for Magdalenes welcomes the publication of the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, 2009: Implementation Plan, and we look forward to witnessing the immediate implementation of the ninety-nine measures outlined therein...
Justice for Magdalenes committee distributes draft language for a distinct redress scheme for survivors of Ireland's Magdalene laundries
The Justice for Magdalenes committee is urging politicians to issue an apology for the state's culpability and its failure to protect the legal rights of women who always remained citizens of the State in Ireland's Magdalene Laundries and also to introduce new legislation to provide redress for this marginalized population...