News Wire: The Magdalen Laundries - Ireland's [Catholic] Dirty Linen

On Jan. 3, the CBS News magazine "60 Minutes" aired a segment
on Ireland's Magdalen Laundries. The 60 Minutes program was
preceded last March by a documentary made in Ireland, which
broke the story about these institutions. The documentary,
"Sex in a Cold Climate," was reviewed and discussed in a 
series of articles in The Irish Times and available on
its web site. 

www.irish-times.com/irish-times/paper/1998/0314/fea9.html.

The Magadelen Laundries were workhouses run by Catholic nuns.
Young Irish women were sent there to atone for their sins
by working long, hard hours for no pay in the workhouse
laundries. The last Magdalen Laundry closed only a few years
ago.

Women were sent to the laundries by their families, by
public authorities or the church, and incarcerated, without
trial or due process of any kind. They worked long hours,
were not permitted out of the institution, and they were
forced to pray out loud while they worked. 

The laundries were named for Mary Magdalen, the former
prostitute who washed the feet of Jesus with her hair 
at the foot of the cross. The women of the Magdalen 
Laundries were said to be washing themselves clean of their
own sins by toiling prayerfully in the laundries.

Women were "sent to the nuns" if they became pregnant or 
were otherwise sexually active, but sometimes even because
it was feared that they might become sexually active. The
Irish Times article entitled "Too Pretty To Be Allowed Out"
tells of a women sent to the Magdalen Laundries for eight
years because she was "pretty as a picture" and the uns
felt that she might "fall away" and become pregnant because
she was a temptation to men.

The 60 Minutes program focussed on the the commanding role
played by the Catholic Church in Irish political and social
life until very recently, as one reason why the Magdalen
Laundries could exist in a supposedly modern society subject
to the rule of law.