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1962: A story set in one of the city’s Magdalen Laundries
The Magdalen Girls
What you need to know before your trail
Dublin, 1962. Within the gated grounds of the convent of The Sisters of the Holy Redemption lies one of the city’s Magdalen Laundries. Once places of refuge, the laundries have evolved into grim workhouses. Some inmates are “fallen” women–unwed mothers, prostitutes, or petty criminals. Most are ordinary girls whose only sin lies in being too pretty, too independent, or tempting the wrong man. Among them is sixteen-year-old Teagan Tiernan, sent by her family when her beauty provokes a lustful revelation from a young priest.Teagan soon befriends Nora Craven, a new arrival who thought nothing could be worse than living in a squalid tenement flat. Stripped of their freedom and dignity, the girls are given new names and denied contact with the outside world. The Mother Superior, Sister Anne, who has secrets of her own, inflicts cruel, dehumanizing punishments–but always in the name of love. Finally, Nora and Teagan find an ally in the reclusive Lea, who helps them endure–and plot an escape. But as they will discover, the outside world has dangers too, especially for young women with soiled reputations
Travel Guide
Ireland and the Magdalene Laundries
The Magdalene Laundries were also known as Magdalene asylums, run by Roman Catholic orders. They were there to house so called fallen women, and they have been the subject of controversy ever since. The religious orders who ran the institutions were accused of abusing and torturing those they were supposed to be looking after.
The Irish government created a £50 million compensation scheme for survivors and an apology was issued in 2013. In Belfast, the Magdalene Asylum was located on Donegall Pass. Similar institutions were run by Catholics on Ormeau Road and by Presbyterians on Whitehall Parade.
In Dublin in 1993, 133 corpses were found in a mass grave. There was another mass grave at Glasnevin Cemetery.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Magdalen Girls
Destination :Dublin, Ireland Author/Guide: V S Alexander Departure Time: 1960s
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