THE MAGDALENE SISTERS: THE SCANDAL ROCKING IRELAND

THE MAGDALENE SISTERS: THE SCANDAL ROCKING IRELAND

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Ireland has apologized for its newest scandal relating to church affairs.  

In the book No Name, Wilkie Collins highlighted the plight of children born out of wedlock.  Now more than a century later, the government of Ireland has had to make amends for its treatment of illegitimate children and of women, in prison for illegitimacy and sexual misdemeanors , who were sequestered within the Magdalene Order in a misguided campaign of 'rehabilitation' in which the girls were forced to stay at with the Magdalene nuns where they were used as slave labor in laundries and other unpaid work.

They were also severely punished and forced to pray. 

Investigation in the practice, which lasted for decades during the last century and was administered by the Order, revealed that state authorities committed one quarter of 10,012 women to their workhouses, often when the girl was found just to be homeless or truant.

Some of the girls were made to work 12 hours a day, and were arrested and returned if they fled.  Some endured such labor for years.

In the past the Irish government had asserted that these 'laundries' were private enterprises.   

Source: Al Jazeera 2.5.13