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to the truth of what went on behind the convent walls, including the

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notorious Magdalene Laundries. The discovery that some 800 babies had

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died at a former mother and AB home run by the nuns in Ireland, and that

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there were these had been put in unmarked and horribly inappropriate

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graves, shocked the world. It is a sewage tank. Why are their children

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buried in a sewerage area? The religious orders are back in the

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spotlight. The government has called an enquiry, the sixth into what went

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on behind content walls. They won't properly enquire, because I know

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what the government alike. Report, into the Magdalene Laundries, run by

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the nuns, is a whitewash, according to survivors. They took my life,

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they took me there, they took my clothes, they took my name, and they

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also took my daughter, which was the worst of all. The survivors want the

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new enquiry to also look into the story, and for the nuns to be held

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to account. All I wanted was, please, somebody to give me an

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apology for what happened to me. Will this latest enquiry tell the

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whole truth of the suffering of those put in the care of the nuns?

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Survivors of a home run by the nuns for single mothers in this county

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gather for a reunion. They are the lucky ones. They survived. There

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were thousands of babies born here. There were hundreds of them died,

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and I remembered the nuns coming down with little brown shoeboxes to

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bury the children. And when the workmen buried those little babies

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he put nails in the wall to represent each child he buried. Now

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the government has announced yet another enquiry into the mother and

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baby homes. These survivors say they won't he fobbed off. We will have

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found a voice and will not be silent. They are angry because they

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say earlier reports, like that into Magdalene Laundries, failed to tell

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the whole truth of what really went on in Ireland's religious

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institutions. Questions began to be asked when back in the early 1990s

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the nuns who owned the vast content in Dublin wanted to sell the land

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where now there is a car park. The problem was that the plot they

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wanted to sell, which back in 1993 looked like an empty Greenfield, was

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in fact filled with the bodies of former laundry workers. I tracked

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down a gravedigger employed by the nuns to dig them up in Co. Mac

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County Kildare. He agreed to give an interview. They didn't want anyone

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to know what was going on. It was all hush`hush. We were supposed to

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tell no one. Nuns told him there were 133 bodies buried in the plot.

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I said there were more bodies buried there. They said no, there is 133.

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We started digging, and kept digging until we had dug out the whole, and

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we had 22 more, that we didn't even know was there. So there were 22

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that never know was there. Didn't even know were there. And he found

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something else inside grave. There were marks on their wrist is, feet,

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ankles, broken arms and broken legs. It seemed to me like. The women were

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too small, too frail for that kind of work. There was shock at the

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story of unrecorded burials and corpses with broken limbs. People

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began to ask what had been going on in the laundry is? The few pictures

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that exist give a rose tinted view. No sign here of the crippling work

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described by survivors. Thousands of women and girls were sent to work

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unpaid to a network of laundry is all over Ireland. They were sent by

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the State, by their parents, by local priest, and if they were

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orphans, by the nuns. Mary Merrett was born of a single mother at a

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mother and baby home and was sent to an orphanage run by nuns in Ireland

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for most of the last century. One day when she was 11 she was so

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hungry she took an Apple from an orchard. She was sent to work in a

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laundry in Dublin. They took me to Hyde Park content, and they left me

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there and they said now you stay there until you learn to stop

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stealing. And how long did that take? I was 14 years there. I went

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there on the 7th of January 1947, and they came out of their in

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September 1960. Did you ever ask why you were therefore 14 years for

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stealing an Apple? Yes, I did ask them. And I asked was ever going to

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get out of here? Am I going to die here? Because some of the women had

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been there for so 56 or 57 years. I thought I going to be the same and

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am I going to have to die in this place? One of my jobs was to help to

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lay out the women when they died. I was happy to do it. Because it

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leaves these women were getting out of the laundry and their suffering

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was over. So that was my friend, Mary. She worked for the Magdalen

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laundry for 56 years. I moved on to Waterford, where I learned you

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didn't have to steal an Apple to get sent to a laundry. So what do you

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remember as you walk down these corridors? Elisabeth had been abused

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by her step`father and was sent to took out when she was or team, and

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put her to work in a laundry. `` when she was 14. The first laundry I

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was in was a nightmare. I worked from eight in the morning to six at

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night. Every day except for Sunday and bank holidays. By my God. You

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know what? This brings back so much memories. It has changed, and yet it

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is the same. We used to have to go to confession once a week here. The

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priest would sit in here, and we would go

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would you commit any way? You didn't have time. We didn't have time to

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send. If anything, they were committing a sin against,

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torturing us. They were the centres, not us. This is where we came every

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single day for mass. The Magdalene women and girls. We had to come here

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even if we were sick or not. You just had to. As more such stories

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come to light, the more the Irish public demand to know how this

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catalogue of slave Labour was allowed to go on until the last of

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the laundry is closed in the 1990s. After all, the government was paying

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for women and children to be cared for in these institutions. It was

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when the United Nations commission on torture called for an

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investigation that the government here agreed to an enquiry. But with

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a narrow remit of looking into state involvement into the running of the

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Magdalene Laundries. When the senator brought out his report at

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the end of last year there was widespread criticism. Survivors were

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astounded to read that the report decided to not make specific

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findings on the issue of living and working conditions, in light of the

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small sample of women available. Despite the harrowing testimony of

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many women who complain of ill treatment. Elisabeth told the

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enquiry she was put into a punishment cell at a laundry in

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Cork, after wrongly being accused of stealing sweets. I was in there for

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three days and three nights, until they decided I'd learnt my lesson

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for something I didn't do. But that was, again, it was all about mind

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games. It was just controlling you. When Elisabeth tried to run away,

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she was sent to another laundry, with an even stricter regime. They

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shaved my head. And I had to wear a uniform. So straightaway, your

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identity is taken, because my name was changed, my hair was cut, and

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I'm not wearing my own clothes. And I'm stuck in there and I have to

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answer to the name Enda, which is a man's name. So how do you cope

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without? Why do you think they did that? Just to dehumanise me. To make

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me feel nothing in society. Mary also tried to escape. She broke a

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window and ran into the town, where she begged a priest to help her. He

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raped her. I'd never been out in the world in my life. And I had no idea

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what was going on. I was crying my eyes out, and they said you're

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hurting me. Then when he was finished he said now, this is

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between us. I'm going to give you six pints, and this is between us,

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the set. Don't tell anybody, he said. Only trained to help you. He

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said. The police took a back to the laundry. Mary says she also told the

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commission how the nuns didn't believe she had been raped. They put

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her in the punishment cell for running away. One of the nuns came

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down and cut my head to the bone. And then I was taken up and I was in

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a room with all the women there, kneel down, kiss the floor, and say

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I'm sorry for what I did. And promised not to do it again, which I

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didn't promise, of course. I said no, I'm not promising you anything.

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Because I want to get out of here. And I will do it again.

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Many girls and women tried to run away. I went to Limerick to meet

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Gabrielle. This is the more I tried to escape from many times but in

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those days they had glass all along the top, so there was no chance.

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Then, in the end, I remember falling off and I still actually got the

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scars to prove it. Gabrielle was 17 when she was sent to the laundry

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here. Her mother asked the nuns to stop running away with her boyfriend

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and be obliged by imprisoning her. This was the yard. It was kind of

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like an exercise yard. You would walk around. That was the only

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exercise you got, really. You would just walk around I do know how long.

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Same as a prison. We worked the same system. Gabrielle didn't do the

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laundry. She was put to unpaid work, making the famous Limerick lace now

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on display in the city Museum. We would be making lace from 9am until

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6pm. And they would have the American market, holidaymakers, if

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you like, coming over, coming into the convent, looking at what we were

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doing and they would place orders and they would buy stuff. We mainly

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were selling collars, lace collars, handkerchiefs, all little things

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like that. It was big business? It was and they were making money on

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it. They say it wasn't commercial but it was. But it was a very secret

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thing. Which is odd because the report says that the date and made

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available by the nuns suggested that the Magdalene laundries were

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operated on close to breakeven basis, rather than on a commercial

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or highly profitable basis. The nuns are famously secretive

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about money but their old ledges can turn up in the strangest places. A

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public and in Limerick bought all the furniture from the laundry when

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it closed and found four ledges dating back to the 1950s. Do you get

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many people asking to look at them? I don't. Pages and pages of private

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individuals. Hundreds of these. Here, the bigger clients. Colleges,

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churches, restaurants. The hotel, the railway hotel. Here, the

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Limerick lawn tennis club. There wasn't much going on in Limerick

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where the nuns weren't doing the washing for them. I found a more

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recent letter from 1980 in a museum in Dublin. It's from the Hyde Park

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laundry, where Mary worked. It reveals even bigger clients,

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including government contracts. We have the airport. One of the

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country's main train stations. Airlines, government departments

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like the department of fisheries. Hotels, private individuals.

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Confidence and others. `` convents. No wonder trade unions and

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commercial laundries complained at the time. They were competing

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against the nuns, whose overheads didn't include wages. They had free

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and forced labour. And for how long were the women forced to work?

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According to the report, the average or median duration of stay in the

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laundries was approximately seven months.

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By comparing headstones with electoral rolls, Clare discovered

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that four on ten year period most women at the Hyde Park laundry were

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therefore a minimum of eight years. We've looked at electoral registers

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for example from 1954 on till 64 and looking at Hyde Park in particular

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we have been able to show that at least 46% of these women from 1954

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on till 64 never got out. Also, you've got a woman in memory can be

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spent 74 years. In 1911 we have had their at 18. So, again, it tells a

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completely different story to that of the report and the figures are

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presented is frankly misleading and is not respectful of the lived

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experience of these women. And, as if to confirm her point, I stumble

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across a newly dug grave for a former laundry worker due to be

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buried the next day. Like these women, she went from working in the

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laundry to living in the convent. Another example of how the enquiry

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was less than thorough with the figures, they counted as workers in

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the Magdalene laundries only those who were there when they shut down.

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Forgetting that hundreds had become so institutionalised that they never

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left. They were there, still, under the care of the nuns were they died.

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`` when they died. I wanted to talk to the nuns about this and other

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matters. I asked the four main orders involved about the

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allegations made by Mary and other women but they all refused to be

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interviewed. So, Mary and I called on the headquarters of the sisters

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of our Lady of charity in Dublin, where an administrator came to the

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gate. Good morning. I'm here from the BBC and this is Mary, a former

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Magdalene laundry worker. You have already sent in a request and you've

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had your answer to that request. No, we have been refused an

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interview but we still have some important questions to ask. All I

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wanted was for somebody to give me an apology for what happened to me.

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That's all I wanted! Have you been in touch with our PR people? We

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have. This is not my job. We were clearly not going to be invited in.

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Goodbye. Mary and other survivors are getting

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compensation from the government for time served in the Magdalene

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laundries but they feel betrayed by the report. The senator turned down

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my request for an interview, however the government has apologised and I

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was invited to meet Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister, who was herself born

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to a single mother and put up for adoption by the nuns. Her mother

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died before she managed to find her. I recall sitting in kitchens in

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rural areas of Ireland and women crying and just saying to me, and

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they had known my birth mother and my birth father, that things were so

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different now and it was so difficult, it was impossible. When

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mostly to these women, what they want is for the truth to be told. We

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now have the process for preparing a full official report by very

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experienced judge who has been involved. Do you admit the McAleese

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enquiry was less than thorough? It was an enquiry at a point in time.

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The critical thing that it achieved was recognition for what women had

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experienced and what women had gone through. At the women themselves say

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it didn't. For example, the glossing over of the abuse, the duration of

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stay. I have met personally a huge number of women, through my own

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personal knowledge, and I do know that what is important for a lot of

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the women is that they would receive redress payment and as I said that's

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one of the critical things to happen. The cost of paying

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compensation, or redress as it's called in Ireland, is expected to

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run into tens of millions of euros. For those responsible for running

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the laundries, the nuns are not being asked to pay. `` those

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responsible. Not only were they making money from the laundries, but

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after they closed the nuns made even more from property sales. They now

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have assets estimated at over 1.5 million euros. `` million. What

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about the nuns? They have the money. Why aren't a made to pay? Over the

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years, property has been forthcoming but nothing like the amounts of

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funding and compensation and partaking in the rigourous scheme to

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the tune that we would like. `` redress scheme. That's a continuing

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conversation. That's you, when you were a baby. When they took you away

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from me. After Mary was raped, she gave birth to a daughter. The baby

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was taken by the nuns and put up for adoption and Mary was sent back to

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work in the laundry. For 40 years is she only had a photo. You have to

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keep them forever now. I will. I will treasure them. Mary now lives

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in the UK. A few years ago, with the help of British social workers, she

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found her. Mary is desperate to assure her daughter that she didn't

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give her away willingly. You don't blame me for anything? No, God, no.

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It wasn't my fault. Know one has ever been prosecuted.

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The nuns haven't paid up and they've been reluctant to find the records

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which could unite survivors of the mother and baby homes with their

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families. Now these people await an enquiry into their past. Justice for

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mothers and for the babies. But the indications are that the new

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government enquiry will not look again at the laundries. I would love

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to get to the route but they won't. They won't enquire a properly. I

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know what the government is like. They cover up. The church and state

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work together. I want somebody to apologise to me. The nuns, the

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church, the priest, somebody to apologise to me before I die.

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This very dry September continues. Very little rain this weekend. A few

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light showers but most places will be dry. There will be a lot of

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cloud. Where the sun pops out it will be warm. The main issues will

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be thick morning fog patches. Quite dense and thickening up further in

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the south, especially south`west

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