English Professor Advocates For Reparations

Their pleas for reparation largely ignored by their government and the church, women formerly enslaved in Ireland's Magdalene Laundries are now finding an international outpouring of support, with some of it centered right here in Chestnut Hill.

The laundries, which were profit making institutions to which "problem" Irish women would be sent by court order or by their families, were run by four religious orders of nuns. The last functioning laundry was shut down in 1996.

Over the past few years, the group Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) has attempted to obtain redress for former Magdalenes through drafting legislation and stating their case to the Prime Minister of Ireland. So far, their appeals have been ignored as the state is taking the stand that they had little involvement in facilitating the injustices that occurred in the Magdalene laundries.

The JFM argues that though the laundries were operated by religious orders, the state should be held culpable for turning a blind eye to the issue and especially for their role in illegally transferring women and children to the laundries.

"Despite their complicity, the state has always disclaimed their culpability or liability for the abuse of women or child in the Magdalene laundries," said James Smith, a member of the JFM and a professor in the English department. "In the state's opinion, these were private institutions in which the state had no function either as the licensee or as the regulator."

The issue of reparations for people living in "residential institutions" in Ireland, beyond just the Magdalene laundries, has recently come to the forefront as a contentious issue in the country. However, Smith said, the government is only offering aid to slighted communities that were enslaved in state-funded institutions.

Just last summer, a report was released in Ireland that spoke to the reparations that the Irish government was prepared to give to the victims of its industrial schools. "But the Magdalene Laundries, unlike the industrial schools, were not funded by the state, regulated by the state, or managed by the state," Smith said.

Therefore, he said, former Magdalenes are not currently offered near the level of compensation or recognition of their struggles as children enslaved in the industrial schools. "But this report really makes this issue manifest in a way in which it is a horrendous indictment on Irish society," Smith said.

Smith said that though the church is responsible for the injustices of the Magdalene laundries, the JFM's focus is on the state for obtaining proper and due reparations.

"The issue at the moment is that the state has come out and attempted to wash its hands of this issue," Smith said. "I would argue that for most of 20th century the church and state were hand and glove. It may not have been a theocracy, but it was close to it. So for the state in 2009 to turn around and wash its hands of this is tantamount to saying we're prepared to throw our partner in crime under the bus - redress for the victims of the Magdalene laundries rests on this point."

Smith said that though the laundries themselves were not run by the state, the government should still be held responsible for not protecting the safety of its youth.

"The JFM's stand is that the state routinely used the Magdalene laundries to hide away segments of its population which were particularly problem women - women who were deemed sexually deviant, women who themselves were the victims of family or sexual abuse, and women who their families wanted them to disappear because of a conflict over land or inheritance," he said.

"Any other children that ended up here, it was because their parents dropped them there or they were committed by a family member," Smith said. "Even if they were children - we're talking 11, 12, 13 years of age - there's no liability on the state's part to have protected them from this huge exploitation."

In their first draft of legislation regarding reparations for Magdelenes, the JFM asked the Irish government for pensions and financial aid for former Magdalenes.

This legislation was rejected by the Irish Minister of Education. "The most troubling reasoning in the minister's assertion was that the state did not refer individuals and was not complicit in referring individuals," Smith said. "There were dozens and dozens of women who were referred by the state courts as judges offered them a suspended sentence if they voluntarily agreed to enter these Magdalene laundries."

Smith said the state was fully complicit in moving children from industrial schools to Magdalene laundries, where they would not have to financially support them. "When they entered the laundry, they worked for the nuns, and the nuns did not need to support them," Smith said. "The women in industrial schools who were illegally transferred were supposed to get an education in the industrial schools. When moved into a Magdalene laundry run by an order of nuns, they did not receive an education."

Smith said that for former Magdelenes to find solace in their current lives, many require counseling and aid in obtaining independent housing. "There are women who are so institutionalized that they still live under the care of the nuns because they couldn't hack it or function out in society," he said.

The psychological scarring, though, will last a lifetime. "It was horrendous abuse," Smith said. "Horrendous sexual abuse, horrendous physical abuse, and horrendous emotional abuse."

"The state is first and foremost interested in protecting itself from financial issues," Smith said. "It's horrendous that in this day and age Irish society is refusing to own its responsibility toward these people who were abused and exploited and enslaved."