:00:00. > :00:07.to the truth of what went on behind the convent walls, including the
:00:08. > :00:14.notorious Magdalene Laundries. The discovery that some 800 babies had
:00:15. > :00:18.died at a former mother and AB home run by the nuns in Ireland, and that
:00:19. > :00:25.there were these had been put in unmarked and horribly inappropriate
:00:26. > :00:31.graves, shocked the world. It is a sewage tank. Why are their children
:00:32. > :00:34.buried in a sewerage area? The religious orders are back in the
:00:35. > :00:45.spotlight. The government has called an enquiry, the sixth into what went
:00:46. > :00:50.on behind content walls. They won't properly enquire, because I know
:00:51. > :00:54.what the government alike. Report, into the Magdalene Laundries, run by
:00:55. > :00:58.the nuns, is a whitewash, according to survivors. They took my life,
:00:59. > :01:02.they took me there, they took my clothes, they took my name, and they
:01:03. > :01:06.also took my daughter, which was the worst of all. The survivors want the
:01:07. > :01:14.new enquiry to also look into the story, and for the nuns to be held
:01:15. > :01:18.to account. All I wanted was, please, somebody to give me an
:01:19. > :01:21.apology for what happened to me. Will this latest enquiry tell the
:01:22. > :01:41.whole truth of the suffering of those put in the care of the nuns?
:01:42. > :01:48.Survivors of a home run by the nuns for single mothers in this county
:01:49. > :01:55.gather for a reunion. They are the lucky ones. They survived. There
:01:56. > :02:01.were thousands of babies born here. There were hundreds of them died,
:02:02. > :02:05.and I remembered the nuns coming down with little brown shoeboxes to
:02:06. > :02:10.bury the children. And when the workmen buried those little babies
:02:11. > :02:16.he put nails in the wall to represent each child he buried. Now
:02:17. > :02:19.the government has announced yet another enquiry into the mother and
:02:20. > :02:28.baby homes. These survivors say they won't he fobbed off. We will have
:02:29. > :02:32.found a voice and will not be silent. They are angry because they
:02:33. > :02:37.say earlier reports, like that into Magdalene Laundries, failed to tell
:02:38. > :02:46.the whole truth of what really went on in Ireland's religious
:02:47. > :02:53.institutions. Questions began to be asked when back in the early 1990s
:02:54. > :03:02.the nuns who owned the vast content in Dublin wanted to sell the land
:03:03. > :03:07.where now there is a car park. The problem was that the plot they
:03:08. > :03:11.wanted to sell, which back in 1993 looked like an empty Greenfield, was
:03:12. > :03:20.in fact filled with the bodies of former laundry workers. I tracked
:03:21. > :03:32.down a gravedigger employed by the nuns to dig them up in Co. Mac
:03:33. > :03:37.County Kildare. He agreed to give an interview. They didn't want anyone
:03:38. > :03:41.to know what was going on. It was all hush`hush. We were supposed to
:03:42. > :03:46.tell no one. Nuns told him there were 133 bodies buried in the plot.
:03:47. > :03:53.I said there were more bodies buried there. They said no, there is 133.
:03:54. > :04:00.We started digging, and kept digging until we had dug out the whole, and
:04:01. > :04:03.we had 22 more, that we didn't even know was there. So there were 22
:04:04. > :04:11.that never know was there. Didn't even know were there. And he found
:04:12. > :04:18.something else inside grave. There were marks on their wrist is, feet,
:04:19. > :04:23.ankles, broken arms and broken legs. It seemed to me like. The women were
:04:24. > :04:36.too small, too frail for that kind of work. There was shock at the
:04:37. > :04:40.story of unrecorded burials and corpses with broken limbs. People
:04:41. > :04:49.began to ask what had been going on in the laundry is? The few pictures
:04:50. > :04:54.that exist give a rose tinted view. No sign here of the crippling work
:04:55. > :04:59.described by survivors. Thousands of women and girls were sent to work
:05:00. > :05:03.unpaid to a network of laundry is all over Ireland. They were sent by
:05:04. > :05:14.the State, by their parents, by local priest, and if they were
:05:15. > :05:19.orphans, by the nuns. Mary Merrett was born of a single mother at a
:05:20. > :05:25.mother and baby home and was sent to an orphanage run by nuns in Ireland
:05:26. > :05:28.for most of the last century. One day when she was 11 she was so
:05:29. > :05:36.hungry she took an Apple from an orchard. She was sent to work in a
:05:37. > :05:40.laundry in Dublin. They took me to Hyde Park content, and they left me
:05:41. > :05:43.there and they said now you stay there until you learn to stop
:05:44. > :05:49.stealing. And how long did that take? I was 14 years there. I went
:05:50. > :05:57.there on the 7th of January 1947, and they came out of their in
:05:58. > :06:01.September 1960. Did you ever ask why you were therefore 14 years for
:06:02. > :06:06.stealing an Apple? Yes, I did ask them. And I asked was ever going to
:06:07. > :06:10.get out of here? Am I going to die here? Because some of the women had
:06:11. > :06:14.been there for so 56 or 57 years. I thought I going to be the same and
:06:15. > :06:20.am I going to have to die in this place? One of my jobs was to help to
:06:21. > :06:24.lay out the women when they died. I was happy to do it. Because it
:06:25. > :06:32.leaves these women were getting out of the laundry and their suffering
:06:33. > :06:48.was over. So that was my friend, Mary. She worked for the Magdalen
:06:49. > :06:52.laundry for 56 years. I moved on to Waterford, where I learned you
:06:53. > :07:01.didn't have to steal an Apple to get sent to a laundry. So what do you
:07:02. > :07:05.remember as you walk down these corridors? Elisabeth had been abused
:07:06. > :07:14.by her step`father and was sent to took out when she was or team, and
:07:15. > :07:21.put her to work in a laundry. `` when she was 14. The first laundry I
:07:22. > :07:24.was in was a nightmare. I worked from eight in the morning to six at
:07:25. > :07:37.night. Every day except for Sunday and bank holidays. By my God. You
:07:38. > :07:43.know what? This brings back so much memories. It has changed, and yet it
:07:44. > :07:48.is the same. We used to have to go to confession once a week here. The
:07:49. > :07:58.priest would sit in here, and we would go
:07:59. > :08:01.would you commit any way? You didn't have time. We didn't have time to
:08:02. > :08:04.send. If anything, they were committing a sin against,
:08:05. > :08:14.torturing us. They were the centres, not us. This is where we came every
:08:15. > :08:17.single day for mass. The Magdalene women and girls. We had to come here
:08:18. > :08:25.even if we were sick or not. You just had to. As more such stories
:08:26. > :08:29.come to light, the more the Irish public demand to know how this
:08:30. > :08:33.catalogue of slave Labour was allowed to go on until the last of
:08:34. > :08:38.the laundry is closed in the 1990s. After all, the government was paying
:08:39. > :08:41.for women and children to be cared for in these institutions. It was
:08:42. > :08:44.when the United Nations commission on torture called for an
:08:45. > :08:50.investigation that the government here agreed to an enquiry. But with
:08:51. > :08:53.a narrow remit of looking into state involvement into the running of the
:08:54. > :08:57.Magdalene Laundries. When the senator brought out his report at
:08:58. > :09:04.the end of last year there was widespread criticism. Survivors were
:09:05. > :09:07.astounded to read that the report decided to not make specific
:09:08. > :09:12.findings on the issue of living and working conditions, in light of the
:09:13. > :09:16.small sample of women available. Despite the harrowing testimony of
:09:17. > :09:23.many women who complain of ill treatment. Elisabeth told the
:09:24. > :09:29.enquiry she was put into a punishment cell at a laundry in
:09:30. > :09:34.Cork, after wrongly being accused of stealing sweets. I was in there for
:09:35. > :09:37.three days and three nights, until they decided I'd learnt my lesson
:09:38. > :09:42.for something I didn't do. But that was, again, it was all about mind
:09:43. > :09:46.games. It was just controlling you. When Elisabeth tried to run away,
:09:47. > :09:51.she was sent to another laundry, with an even stricter regime. They
:09:52. > :09:57.shaved my head. And I had to wear a uniform. So straightaway, your
:09:58. > :10:01.identity is taken, because my name was changed, my hair was cut, and
:10:02. > :10:10.I'm not wearing my own clothes. And I'm stuck in there and I have to
:10:11. > :10:14.answer to the name Enda, which is a man's name. So how do you cope
:10:15. > :10:25.without? Why do you think they did that? Just to dehumanise me. To make
:10:26. > :10:29.me feel nothing in society. Mary also tried to escape. She broke a
:10:30. > :10:37.window and ran into the town, where she begged a priest to help her. He
:10:38. > :10:42.raped her. I'd never been out in the world in my life. And I had no idea
:10:43. > :10:45.what was going on. I was crying my eyes out, and they said you're
:10:46. > :10:49.hurting me. Then when he was finished he said now, this is
:10:50. > :10:53.between us. I'm going to give you six pints, and this is between us,
:10:54. > :10:58.the set. Don't tell anybody, he said. Only trained to help you. He
:10:59. > :11:05.said. The police took a back to the laundry. Mary says she also told the
:11:06. > :11:08.commission how the nuns didn't believe she had been raped. They put
:11:09. > :11:13.her in the punishment cell for running away. One of the nuns came
:11:14. > :11:19.down and cut my head to the bone. And then I was taken up and I was in
:11:20. > :11:23.a room with all the women there, kneel down, kiss the floor, and say
:11:24. > :11:28.I'm sorry for what I did. And promised not to do it again, which I
:11:29. > :11:32.didn't promise, of course. I said no, I'm not promising you anything.
:11:33. > :11:41.Because I want to get out of here. And I will do it again.
:11:42. > :11:51.Many girls and women tried to run away. I went to Limerick to meet
:11:52. > :11:55.Gabrielle. This is the more I tried to escape from many times but in
:11:56. > :12:01.those days they had glass all along the top, so there was no chance.
:12:02. > :12:08.Then, in the end, I remember falling off and I still actually got the
:12:09. > :12:13.scars to prove it. Gabrielle was 17 when she was sent to the laundry
:12:14. > :12:19.here. Her mother asked the nuns to stop running away with her boyfriend
:12:20. > :12:25.and be obliged by imprisoning her. This was the yard. It was kind of
:12:26. > :12:28.like an exercise yard. You would walk around. That was the only
:12:29. > :12:38.exercise you got, really. You would just walk around I do know how long.
:12:39. > :12:48.Same as a prison. We worked the same system. Gabrielle didn't do the
:12:49. > :12:55.laundry. She was put to unpaid work, making the famous Limerick lace now
:12:56. > :13:01.on display in the city Museum. We would be making lace from 9am until
:13:02. > :13:09.6pm. And they would have the American market, holidaymakers, if
:13:10. > :13:13.you like, coming over, coming into the convent, looking at what we were
:13:14. > :13:18.doing and they would place orders and they would buy stuff. We mainly
:13:19. > :13:25.were selling collars, lace collars, handkerchiefs, all little things
:13:26. > :13:29.like that. It was big business? It was and they were making money on
:13:30. > :13:38.it. They say it wasn't commercial but it was. But it was a very secret
:13:39. > :13:42.thing. Which is odd because the report says that the date and made
:13:43. > :13:49.available by the nuns suggested that the Magdalene laundries were
:13:50. > :13:50.operated on close to breakeven basis, rather than on a commercial
:13:51. > :14:03.or highly profitable basis. The nuns are famously secretive
:14:04. > :14:10.about money but their old ledges can turn up in the strangest places. A
:14:11. > :14:14.public and in Limerick bought all the furniture from the laundry when
:14:15. > :14:21.it closed and found four ledges dating back to the 1950s. Do you get
:14:22. > :14:27.many people asking to look at them? I don't. Pages and pages of private
:14:28. > :14:33.individuals. Hundreds of these. Here, the bigger clients. Colleges,
:14:34. > :14:39.churches, restaurants. The hotel, the railway hotel. Here, the
:14:40. > :14:44.Limerick lawn tennis club. There wasn't much going on in Limerick
:14:45. > :14:49.where the nuns weren't doing the washing for them. I found a more
:14:50. > :14:55.recent letter from 1980 in a museum in Dublin. It's from the Hyde Park
:14:56. > :14:58.laundry, where Mary worked. It reveals even bigger clients,
:14:59. > :15:05.including government contracts. We have the airport. One of the
:15:06. > :15:07.country's main train stations. Airlines, government departments
:15:08. > :15:17.like the department of fisheries. Hotels, private individuals.
:15:18. > :15:19.Confidence and others. `` convents. No wonder trade unions and
:15:20. > :15:24.commercial laundries complained at the time. They were competing
:15:25. > :15:30.against the nuns, whose overheads didn't include wages. They had free
:15:31. > :15:34.and forced labour. And for how long were the women forced to work?
:15:35. > :15:37.According to the report, the average or median duration of stay in the
:15:38. > :15:44.laundries was approximately seven months.
:15:45. > :15:52.By comparing headstones with electoral rolls, Clare discovered
:15:53. > :15:57.that four on ten year period most women at the Hyde Park laundry were
:15:58. > :16:01.therefore a minimum of eight years. We've looked at electoral registers
:16:02. > :16:06.for example from 1954 on till 64 and looking at Hyde Park in particular
:16:07. > :16:13.we have been able to show that at least 46% of these women from 1954
:16:14. > :16:18.on till 64 never got out. Also, you've got a woman in memory can be
:16:19. > :16:23.spent 74 years. In 1911 we have had their at 18. So, again, it tells a
:16:24. > :16:28.completely different story to that of the report and the figures are
:16:29. > :16:36.presented is frankly misleading and is not respectful of the lived
:16:37. > :16:40.experience of these women. And, as if to confirm her point, I stumble
:16:41. > :16:47.across a newly dug grave for a former laundry worker due to be
:16:48. > :16:51.buried the next day. Like these women, she went from working in the
:16:52. > :16:56.laundry to living in the convent. Another example of how the enquiry
:16:57. > :17:01.was less than thorough with the figures, they counted as workers in
:17:02. > :17:05.the Magdalene laundries only those who were there when they shut down.
:17:06. > :17:09.Forgetting that hundreds had become so institutionalised that they never
:17:10. > :17:18.left. They were there, still, under the care of the nuns were they died.
:17:19. > :17:22.`` when they died. I wanted to talk to the nuns about this and other
:17:23. > :17:25.matters. I asked the four main orders involved about the
:17:26. > :17:31.allegations made by Mary and other women but they all refused to be
:17:32. > :17:35.interviewed. So, Mary and I called on the headquarters of the sisters
:17:36. > :17:43.of our Lady of charity in Dublin, where an administrator came to the
:17:44. > :17:48.gate. Good morning. I'm here from the BBC and this is Mary, a former
:17:49. > :17:52.Magdalene laundry worker. You have already sent in a request and you've
:17:53. > :17:55.had your answer to that request. No, we have been refused an
:17:56. > :18:00.interview but we still have some important questions to ask. All I
:18:01. > :18:06.wanted was for somebody to give me an apology for what happened to me.
:18:07. > :18:14.That's all I wanted! Have you been in touch with our PR people? We
:18:15. > :18:15.have. This is not my job. We were clearly not going to be invited in.
:18:16. > :18:29.Goodbye. Mary and other survivors are getting
:18:30. > :18:33.compensation from the government for time served in the Magdalene
:18:34. > :18:40.laundries but they feel betrayed by the report. The senator turned down
:18:41. > :18:44.my request for an interview, however the government has apologised and I
:18:45. > :18:48.was invited to meet Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister, who was herself born
:18:49. > :18:53.to a single mother and put up for adoption by the nuns. Her mother
:18:54. > :19:01.died before she managed to find her. I recall sitting in kitchens in
:19:02. > :19:06.rural areas of Ireland and women crying and just saying to me, and
:19:07. > :19:14.they had known my birth mother and my birth father, that things were so
:19:15. > :19:16.different now and it was so difficult, it was impossible. When
:19:17. > :19:21.mostly to these women, what they want is for the truth to be told. We
:19:22. > :19:28.now have the process for preparing a full official report by very
:19:29. > :19:34.experienced judge who has been involved. Do you admit the McAleese
:19:35. > :19:36.enquiry was less than thorough? It was an enquiry at a point in time.
:19:37. > :19:41.The critical thing that it achieved was recognition for what women had
:19:42. > :19:47.experienced and what women had gone through. At the women themselves say
:19:48. > :19:54.it didn't. For example, the glossing over of the abuse, the duration of
:19:55. > :19:57.stay. I have met personally a huge number of women, through my own
:19:58. > :20:03.personal knowledge, and I do know that what is important for a lot of
:20:04. > :20:08.the women is that they would receive redress payment and as I said that's
:20:09. > :20:14.one of the critical things to happen. The cost of paying
:20:15. > :20:19.compensation, or redress as it's called in Ireland, is expected to
:20:20. > :20:22.run into tens of millions of euros. For those responsible for running
:20:23. > :20:27.the laundries, the nuns are not being asked to pay. `` those
:20:28. > :20:33.responsible. Not only were they making money from the laundries, but
:20:34. > :20:38.after they closed the nuns made even more from property sales. They now
:20:39. > :20:46.have assets estimated at over 1.5 million euros. `` million. What
:20:47. > :20:51.about the nuns? They have the money. Why aren't a made to pay? Over the
:20:52. > :20:56.years, property has been forthcoming but nothing like the amounts of
:20:57. > :21:02.funding and compensation and partaking in the rigourous scheme to
:21:03. > :21:09.the tune that we would like. `` redress scheme. That's a continuing
:21:10. > :21:15.conversation. That's you, when you were a baby. When they took you away
:21:16. > :21:21.from me. After Mary was raped, she gave birth to a daughter. The baby
:21:22. > :21:24.was taken by the nuns and put up for adoption and Mary was sent back to
:21:25. > :21:33.work in the laundry. For 40 years is she only had a photo. You have to
:21:34. > :21:39.keep them forever now. I will. I will treasure them. Mary now lives
:21:40. > :21:45.in the UK. A few years ago, with the help of British social workers, she
:21:46. > :21:50.found her. Mary is desperate to assure her daughter that she didn't
:21:51. > :21:55.give her away willingly. You don't blame me for anything? No, God, no.
:21:56. > :22:09.It wasn't my fault. Know one has ever been prosecuted.
:22:10. > :22:13.The nuns haven't paid up and they've been reluctant to find the records
:22:14. > :22:17.which could unite survivors of the mother and baby homes with their
:22:18. > :22:28.families. Now these people await an enquiry into their past. Justice for
:22:29. > :22:30.mothers and for the babies. But the indications are that the new
:22:31. > :22:40.government enquiry will not look again at the laundries. I would love
:22:41. > :22:43.to get to the route but they won't. They won't enquire a properly. I
:22:44. > :22:49.know what the government is like. They cover up. The church and state
:22:50. > :22:53.work together. I want somebody to apologise to me. The nuns, the
:22:54. > :23:26.church, the priest, somebody to apologise to me before I die.
:23:27. > :23:31.This very dry September continues. Very little rain this weekend. A few
:23:32. > :23:35.light showers but most places will be dry. There will be a lot of
:23:36. > :23:41.cloud. Where the sun pops out it will be warm. The main issues will
:23:42. > :23:43.be thick morning fog patches. Quite dense and thickening up further in
:23:44. > :23:44.the south, especially south`west