The Magdalene asylum is a network of monastic-type educational and correctional institutions for so-called “fallen women” that existed from the late 18th century to the end of the 20th century. They became most widespread in Catholic Ireland, although they existed outside its borders, including among Protestants, among whom they originated: in Canada, Great Britain, France and other European countries. The first such shelter was opened on Leeson Street in Dublin in 1767 by Arabella Denny.
The original mission of the shelters was to help “fallen women” find their place in society again. However, by the beginning of the 20th century, asylums, by their nature, increasingly became institutions of punishment and forced labor (at least in Ireland and Scotland).
Over time, the Magdalene asylums began to house not only prostitutes, but also single mothers, women with developmental delays, those who had been sexually abused as children, and even young girls whose relatives considered their behavior to be overly playful or who had “too seductive appearance.” In parallel with the Magdalene asylums, at that time in Great Britain and Ireland there was also a network of state asylums where “socially deviant” people were placed. Typically, women were sent to such institutions at the request of family members (usually men), priests and doctors. In the absence of a relative who could guarantee, the pupils could remain in the orphanage for the rest of their lives, some of them were forced in this regard to take monastic vows.
Given the conservative values that reigned in Ireland, including in the field of relations between the sexes, the existence of Magdalene asylums was approved by society until the second half of the 20th century.
The existence of orphanages in Ireland did not come to public attention until a monastic order in Dublin decided to sell part of its parish to a real estate company in 1993. On the grounds of the former orphanage, the remains of 155 of its pupils were discovered in unmarked graves, which were then cremated and reburied in a mass grave at Glasnevin Cemetery. As cremation in Catholic Ireland is seen as a dark legacy of paganism, a public scandal has erupted. In 1999, Mary Norris, Josephine McCarthy and Mary-Jo McDonagh, all former residents of the orphanage, testified about how they were treated. In 1997, Channel 4 aired the documentary Sex in a Cold Climate, which interviewed former residents of Magdalene Orphanages who testified to repeated sexual, psychological and physical abuse, as well as exclusion from environment for an indefinite period of time.
In May 2009, the Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse released a 2,000-page report documenting claims from hundreds of people in Ireland that they were... childhood in the period 1930-1990. were sexually abused in a network of government or church-run orphanages or schools designed to educate poor children or orphans. The perpetrators of the cases of violence were nuns, priests, non-church staff of these institutions and their sponsors. The allegations involved many Catholic schools and state "industrial schools", as well as Magdalene asylums.
In the mid-18th century, Great Britain was one of the pioneers in creating institutions special type: prisons in them modern form and workhouses (something between a labor camp and a homeless shelter). On the basis of the latter, the Magdalene Shelters appeared.
If the new type of prisons were supposed to fight crime, and workhouses - with poverty and unemployment, then shelters were conceived to eradicate such a vice as prostitution.
The first asylum opened in London in 1758. Prostitutes who wanted to give up this craft came to an institution where they could get shelter and paid work as a seamstress or laundress.
Soon the practice of creating Magdalene Asylums, named after the repentant Mary Magdalene, spread throughout the British Empire, which at that time included Ireland. The first shelter there opened just seven years after the London one. But if English shelters were created mainly by private individuals, then in Catholic Ireland it became the work of religious communities.
The Catholic Church has revised the conditions required to enter shelters. And they began to accept not only prostitutes, but also anyone whose behavior was out of line with the moral code of that time. And most importantly, without any element of voluntariness.
Now women entered shelters on the recommendation of relatives and parish priests. They included those who gave birth out of wedlock, were subjected to violence, those who today are commonly called difficult teenagers. The most devout - and there were no problems with such families in Catholic Ireland - even sent their “too beautiful” daughters to orphanages.
After Ireland gained first autonomy and later independence in 1922, asylums became a uniquely Irish phenomenon. All over the world, similar programs for the “rehabilitation” of prostitutes have come to naught, since, firstly, the effect of them was small, and secondly, the world has nevertheless become more humane and it is easy to force women who have not committed crimes to work for pennies , it was impossible.
But in Ireland, the last Magdalen Asylum closed just twenty years ago - on September 25, 1996. Three years before its closure, a huge scandal occurred. Congregation of Sisters Holy Virgin decided to sell the land of one of the shelters. During the transaction, a mass grave was discovered on the territory, in which 155 unidentified female bodies were found.
Only after this did Irish society first become interested in what was happening behind the walls of these “correctional laundries” throughout the twentieth century.
Shelters functioned as laundries for two reasons. Firstly, the character itself similar work carried religious overtones and referred to purity. Secondly, before the mass distribution of washing machines, the washing process was very difficult, so laundries were very popular. Could there be anything more profitable than free labor? “Children” or “Magdalenes” (as those “corrected” were called) did not receive money for their work, so the Magdalene Asylums were extremely profitable institutions.
The first details about how everything was arranged in the shelters became known only at the end of the twentieth century, when the former “Magdalenes” finally spoke.
A woman who ended up in a shelter lost all civil rights, even the right to a name: in best case scenario they were simply renamed (sometimes even male name), or they even made do with a number, like in a concentration camp. There were no restrictions on length of stay, although of the 10,000 Irish women who passed through asylums in the 20th century, most stayed for less than a year. But there were cases when people lived in laundries for years, and in addition, it was possible to end up in shelters more than once.
They were released from shelters when there was a relative who was ready to take responsibility for “Magdalene.” But the relatives were not informed of the exact location of the “corrected” person, so it was not easy to find a specific person in the Catholic Laundry system, because their names had also been changed. In addition, so that their relatives would not worry, they could simply lie and send a report card with good grades, although instead of studying, “Magdalena” did hard work. physical labor. And in the event of an escape (naturally, people often escaped from such establishments), the fugitive was caught by the police and returned back without a court decision.
Working conditions in the Magdalene Asylums remained the same as in the 18th century. The working day was not limited; it could last twelve hours or more. Washing was carried out on an industrial scale - using presses, steam, and caustic substances. At the same time, labor protection was carried out at the most primitive level. An injured woman could be left without medical care for a long time, for example, as punishment for some offense. Apparently, as a result of such incidents, a mass grave appeared on the site of the sisters of the Blessed Virgin.
One of the most famous prisoners of the Magdalene Asylums, Mary Norris, said in an interview: “I would rather be in a women’s prison. At least it’s clear when the term ends.”
In 1997, the documentary “Sex in a Cold Climate” was released, in which some former “Magdalenes” (including Norris) finally decided for the first time publicly to talk about what they had to endure: grueling work, psychological and sexual abuse, severe moral injuries. After the film's release, other evidence began to appear, including Peter Mullan's feature film The Magdalene Sisters, which was released in 2002.
Among those who attended the “correction” is the famous Irish singer Sinead O’Connor, who has since taken a very hostile position towards the official catholic church.
Until recently, the Irish government tried to avoid any responsibility for the operation of legal Catholic labor camps in the country. It was only under pressure from the UN Committee Against Torture that the Irish government created a special committee in 2011 to investigate the issue.
The committee's final report, published in 2013, showed that the Irish government was not only aware of the existence of a forced labor network in the country. It directly supported the Magdalene Asylums, providing them with lucrative government orders. Slave labor in Ireland existed with the direct participation of the state. It was only after this information was made public that Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny apologized for the first time to everyone who had gone through the shelters.
To date, Ireland has paid out more than €10 million in compensation to victims of the Magdalene Laundries. The trials are still ongoing.
Victor Mironov
The Magdalene Asylums - a history of Europe.
Hello, dear club members!
I accidentally found this information on the Internet, here is a link to Wikipedia:
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_Shelter
"The Magdalene asylum is a network of monastic-type educational and correctional institutions for the so-called “fallen women” that existed from the end of the 18th century until the end of the 20th century.
They were most widespread in Catholic Ireland, although they existed outside its borders, including among Protestants, among whom they originated: in Canada, Great Britain and other European countries. The first such shelter was opened on Leeson Street in Dublin in 1767 by Arabella Denny.
The original mission of the shelters was to help “fallen women” find their place in society again. However, by the beginning of the 20th century, asylums, by their nature, increasingly became institutions of punishment and forced labor (at least in Ireland and Scotland). In most orphanages, their pupils were required to do hard physical work, including laundry and sewing. They also had to adhere to a strict daily routine, which included long prayers and periods of enforced silence.
In Ireland, shelters received the common name “Magdalene laundries”. The last such shelter in Ireland was closed on September 25, 1996.
The existence of orphanages in Ireland did not come to public attention until a monastic order in Dublin decided to sell part of its parish to a real estate company in 1993. On the grounds of the former orphanage, the remains of 155 of its pupils were discovered in unmarked graves, which were then cremated and reburied in a mass grave at Glasnevin Cemetery. In 1999, Mary Norris, Josephine McCarthy and Mary-Jo McDonagh, all former residents of the orphanage, testified about how they were treated. In 1997, Channel 4 aired the documentary Sex in a Cold Climate, which interviewed former residents of Magdalene Orphanages who testified to repeated sexual, psychological and physical abuse, and isolation from the outside world for an indefinite period of time.
IN beginning of XXI century, during a survey of the Bethany Orphanage, unmarked graves of children who died in this orphanage were discovered. This orphanage was located in Rathgar until it closed in 1972, and even before this opening it was repeatedly accused of abuse and neglect of its residents."
I read it, and my hair stood on end, is it really all true, and this outrage lasted right up to 1996?
Girls from Europe, who live at the scene of the events, as they say, you know better, please tell me something you personally know on the topic, is everything really that creepy?
For this reason, thousands of Irish sisters and daughters were branded with the shameful title of “fallen woman” and banished by their own families to the Catholic orphanages of St. Magdalene, often for the rest of their lives. Daily slave labor, psychological and physical abuse from the clergy, hopelessness and despair - these were the constant companions of 30,000 Magdalene sisters for more than two hundred years. Particularly frightening is the fact that the last establishment of this type was closed in Ireland only in 1996.
Magdalene asylums began to be created in Ireland in 1767 thanks to the Protestant “Salvation Movement” and the personal efforts of the philanthropist Lady Arabella Denny, who decided to adopt the successful experience of rehabilitating prostitutes from other countries. The first establishment of this type was opened in Dublin on Leeson Street and was a temporary shelter for fallen Protestants, where women were provided with a roof over their heads and the opportunity to learn a new profession. The noble goals of Arabella Denny were appreciated by society, so soon a whole network of similar establishments was built in Ireland. It was no coincidence that the choice of spiritual patron for the shelters was: it is known that in the biblical writings, Mary Magdalene was a repentant harlot who later became an ardent follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Even then, clergy and sisters of mercy were involved in the work on the re-education of fallen women. According to the surviving registration books, the residents of the shelters came and left its territory of their own free will, sometimes more than once.
Gradually, the Protestant movement lost state support, which caused serious financial difficulties in all areas of its activities. The Catholic Church, on the contrary, only strengthened its power. Over time, Magdalene's shelters were completely transferred to her department. This made a number of fundamental changes in the life and functioning of these institutions. By nature, shelters began to more closely resemble long-term educational and correctional institutions, and, to put it in simple language, turned into real prisons.
The population of inmates has also changed: if previously the inhabitants of the shelter were exclusively prostitutes, then under the Catholic Church, a prisoner of a correctional institution could become a victim of sexual violence, a mentally retarded person, or a young woman who had sexual intercourse and gave birth to a child out of wedlock. Most often, the unfortunates became pupils of the orphanage at the request of family members, but sometimes among the “prisoners” there were virgins, whose behavior was regarded by the guardians or staff orphanage as overly playful and loose. In the absence of an adult relative who could take custody of the girl, she was doomed to “serve a life sentence.”
The girls who ended up in the shelter were deprived of not only personal belongings, clothing and freedom. They were forced to forget who they are: they were forbidden to use given name, remember relatives, illegitimate children and any episodes from past life. Those who disobeyed could be severely beaten by the nurses, locked in a cold windowless room and starved for several days. Pupils were required to call their tormentors “mothers”, listen to daily sermons about the Fall and memorize long prayers. To maintain the monastic atmosphere, girls were forced to spend most of the day in oppressive silence, because simple human communication and friendship were strictly prohibited. Hellish work from morning to evening, psychological and physical violence, constant bullying from nuns - this was hell on earth, through which women had to atone for their sins before God. Of course, some girls tried to run away, which was basically pointless. After the police or relatives brought the fugitive back, she was shaved bald.
The shelters were deprived of any financial support from the Catholic Church. Therefore, all pupils were obliged to work from morning to evening in order to pay their “benefactors” for the wretched living conditions that were available to them. A rather symbolic form was chosen as the main way of earning money for residents of shelters. household work- wash. Apparently, it was precisely this hard female labor that the clergy associated with the cleansing of the soul from filth. The cheap services of unfortunate slaves were used by various government agencies, the army, hospitals, hotels and famous brewing companies, for example, Guinness.
Soon, the shelters acquired the humorous name “Magdalene Laundries,” and the “church business” began to acquire industrial proportions: to increase the efficiency of the work process, professionally equipped laundry rooms began to be built in the courtyards of inconspicuous Catholic shelters. Meanwhile, hundreds of girls were forced to spend days in damp rooms, washing their hands bloody dirty laundry strangers to them, breathe harmful chemicals which caused irreparable harm to their health.
More than once, orphanages received serious injuries and injuries during their work. No medical assistance was provided to the victims, and students who were unable to go to work for health reasons simply disappeared. No one can now answer the question of how many women were buried in unmarked graves, what their names were and how terrible they were last days their lives. One thing is for sure - only a miracle could save the “modern slaves”. And it happened! At the beginning of the 20th century, a miracle of technological progress was born - washing machine With electric drive. Every year this species of large household appliances became increasingly cheaper and more accessible to the Irish consumer, which gradually led to the demise of the Magdalene laundry chains. Having received freedom, the former Magdalene sisters somehow arranged their lives, found normal work, got married, trying not to remember terrible years spent in captivity. No one would have known about the thousands of crippled destinies of Irish women if it had not been for the public scandal that erupted in connection with the sale of one of the shelters to a certain private company.
In 1993, a monastic order in Dublin decided to sell part of its lands along with the former Magdalene Orphanage. When inspecting the area, employees of a real estate company discovered unmarked graves containing 115 unknown women. The remains were recovered, cremated and reburied in Glasnevin Cemetery. Cremation in Ireland is unofficially banned, as Christian society equates the process of burning bodies with a pagan rite. In the wake of general indignation, former prisoners of the shelters, one after another, began to break the silence: the women gave interviews to various printed publications, openly appeared on television with stories about the most terrible years of their lives. In 1997, victims of asylums took an active part in the production of the independent documentary Sex in Cold Climates, which created a real shock on modern Irish society.
In 2002, the world community learned about Magdalene’s shelters. The feature film “The Magdalene Sisters”, directed by the famous Irish director Peter Mullan, was released on the big screens. The film made an indelible impression on the jury of the Venice Film Festival and received the Golden Lion, the main prize of the competition.
Soon the victims of the shelters formed their own union, Magdalene Survivors Together. Representatives of the organization demanded that government officials pay compensation for physical and moral damage caused to them over the years of living in shelters. The former pupils also wanted to receive an official apology from the Catholic Church and the state. But neither one nor the other was in a hurry to meet the women halfway, perhaps because they understood that an official apology is tantamount to a full admission of guilt. Soon a scandal erupted with new strength, and words of forgiveness could no longer help here.
In 2009, the head of the Irish government signed the Lisbon Treaty, which obligated EU countries to begin the fight against discrimination and social injustice in their territories. As a result, Ireland's network of Catholic orphanages and church schools was subjected to scrutiny by an independent commission. According to the report, over 80 years, more than 800 Catholic clergy, nuns and church teachers regularly subjected their students to moral humiliation, physical and sexual abuse. Non-church staff and shelter sponsors took part in these crimes. Totally agree last years About 10,000 victims sought help, and the total number of victims over the 80-year period may exceed 150 thousand. Pope Benedict admitted the guilt of the church and apologized to the victims, and Cardinal Sean O'Malley and Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin performed a public washing of the feet of victims of sexual abuse in the main catholic cathedral Dublin.
The 2009 report made several accusations against the owners of St. Magdalene's asylums, and the UN Committee against Torture insisted on conducting another investigation into the activities of these institutions. In 2013, a special commission published a report which confirmed that between 1922 and 1996, about 10 thousand women worked for free and were subjected to violence in the Magdalene laundries. But the Irish government did not seem to notice what was happening. In response to their silence, former prisoners of the Magdalene asylums began to organize protests and threaten hunger strikes.
Under pressure, Prime Minister Enda Kenny nevertheless agreed to devote one of the upcoming meetings to this topic. A few weeks later, at the next government meeting, the prime minister made an official statement in which he publicly apologized to the victims of the shelters and promised to pay compensation to all surviving women. During his heartfelt speech, Kenny called the Magdalene asylums “the national disgrace of Ireland” and even burst into tears, which earned him warm support from those present.
The elderly Magdalene sisters proved to the whole world that they were not just victims of church tyranny. These are strong-willed women who dedicated their lives to struggle: in their youth they fought for their own lives, and in adulthood - for the opportunity to become happy, despite what they have experienced. In his old age, Sister Magdalene continued to fight injustice and human indifference, calling the church, state and society to account for the thousands of broken lives of young Irish women.
The Magdalene asylum is a network of monastic-type educational and correctional institutions for so-called “fallen women,” which existed from the end of the 18th century to the end of the 20th century. They became most widespread in Catholic Ireland, although they existed outside its borders, including among Protestants, among whom they originated: in Canada, Great Britain, France and other European countries. The first such shelter was opened on Leeson Street in Dublin in 1767 by Arabella Denny.
The original mission of the shelters was to help “fallen women” find their place in society again. However, by the beginning of the 20th century, asylums, by their nature, increasingly became institutions of punishment and forced labor (at least in Ireland and Scotland). In most orphanages, their pupils were required to do hard physical work, including laundry and sewing. They also had to adhere to a strict daily routine, which included long prayers and periods of enforced silence. In Ireland, shelters received the common name “Magdalene laundries”. The last such shelter in Ireland was closed on September 25, 1996.
Events in one of these orphanages formed the basis for Peter Mullan's film The Magdalene Sisters (2002).
The whip, scourge or lash was used by medieval Europeans for self-flagellation, to cleanse their souls of sins or to punish themselves for the sins of society. Back in the 13th century, a movement of flagellants (scourges) arose, who led an ascetic lifestyle and beat themselves with whips or whips to mortify the flesh. This self-torture became especially popular during the Great Plague of 1348 - 1349, which people considered a manifestation of God's wrath.
The beginning of the 13th century was marked by many years of war in the south of France. For a long time The Cathars, harmless heretics, ruled there. However, the Pope felt that their freethinking threatened his power. Then he called on all Christians obedient to him to punish these apostates from the faith. By this time Western Europe has been leading for more than a hundred years religious wars: with non-believers - Arabs in the Middle East and Moors in Spain, with non-believers - the Byzantines. Now is the time to destroy any unbelief in your camp.