The Magdalene laundries have marked Irish history forever.
When we think of the Magdalene laundries our minds might throw us back to the 1950s, but if you’re over the age of 25 they were still open in your lifetime.
They were still open when films like Jurassic Park and Forrest Gump was in the cinema.
They were even still open when we welcomed our first female president into office.
The Magdalene laundries are far from ancient history and the after effects are still being felt to this day.
While the Magdalene laundries may not have been run in the 1990s like they had been before the 1960s, the fact that they still existed in an Ireland that we considered modern and progressive is shocking.
In 1993 the law in Ireland banning homosexuality was thrown out, but it wouldn’t be until three years later that Irish women fully felt like they were out of the shadow on the laundries.
For many victims of the laundries though, they will never fully be free of its shadow.
Still, to this day, very little has been done to help the victims of the many Magdalene laundries that were scattered around the country.
Dating back to 1922, countless women walked through the doors on the laundries, some never leaving and those that did walk away, left with endless years of trauma.
Those who were adopted from the laundries have also felt that their rights have been violated as they have been unable to have their adoption records released to them.
The laundries are a part of our history that we can’t ever hide from and we shouldn’t.
They should serve as a lasting reminding of what happens when a nation turns its back on its young women and children so that as a country we never make that mistake again.
