The Bon Secours home worked closely with something called “Magdalene Laundries.” These were places were, like Bon Secours, supposed to help women. But in reality, they were prisons where women were forced to work cleaning laundry. The name gives an idea of how the places were viewed. Named after the famous repentant prostitute from the Bible, Mary Magdalene, they were a place to put “fallen women.” A woman who had come to Bon Secours pregnant but unwed was seen as a sinner. And if the woman left and returned pregnant a second time, she would be placed in a Magdalene Laundry to pay for sinning again.
So, these Magdalene Laundries were basically run like religious institutions. They were a place where “sinful women” were trained to be good Christians. Women were required to remain silent for most of the day. And they were required to refer to the nuns as “mother” no matter how old the woman was. If they had children when they came, they would probably never see them again. Their days were split into long hours of work and prayers. And the women were often punished for breaking any of the rules in the laundries.
Both the Bon Secours Home and the Magdalene Laundries were part of something called “Magdalene asylums.” They were designed to prevent desperate women from turning to prostitution. But women were often confined to the asylums by their families for being “too flirtatious,” or even for being the victims of sexual assault. It was seen as better for their souls that they were locked away than that they be forced to live “sinful” lives. Once inside the Magdalene asylums, the women were largely forgotten by society.
They were seen as social outcasts, sinners, or prostitutes. And that meant that no one spent much time worrying about how they, or their children, were treated. This made them easy targets for abuse. Many were raped or sexually assaulted. Others were physically abused. And the poor conditions, violence, and malnutrition meant that many women died. Their bodies were usually dumped unmarked into mass graves. The only way to escape from an asylum alive was to have a relative convince the authorities that they could keep you from sin. That meant that women without relatives were sometimes held there for life.
For women who got out, there was a life-long sense of shame at being forced into the asylums. Other people assumed that they had been placed there for being prostitutes. And in conservative and religious Ireland, that meant they would have a hard time finding work or getting married. Ironically, this probably pushed many of the survivors into prostitution to survive. As society changed, the asylums began to be shut down. But the last asylum didn’t close until 1996. Still, the country wasn’t ready to look at this dark chapter of its past. It wasn’t until the mass graves began to turn up in the 21st century that the Government issued an official apology to the women who were held in the asylums. But for many, it was too little too late.
Where did we get this stuff? Here are our sources:
The Guardian: Mass grave of babies and children found at Tuam care home in Ireland
BBC News: Tuam mother and baby home ‘chamber of horrors’ – Irish PM