Magdalene survivors seek compensation

Another shameful chapter in the sadly ongoing saga of the Magdalene Laundries looks set to begin, following confirmation from Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe that women who were 'resident' in the country's Magdalene Laundries are not eligible for compensation from the Residential Institutions Redress Board. Naturally, the remaining surviors and those who support them are incensed and have held a protest march calling for compensation from the Government and the religious institutions in question. Campaigner Christine Buckley, who attended the march, noted that most of the survivors were children at the time and should be compensated in the same way as survivors of institutional abuse have been (Magdalene women were excluded from both the Residential Address Board and the Ryan report). She also rejected the use of the term 'employees' to describe the Magdalene women, pointing out that most had been sent to the institutions by the courts and other State bodies, in collusion with religious authorities. Facts that would seem self-evident given all we now know about the repugnant history of the Magdalene Laundries, but facts that must be stated time and again in the face of stubborn, damning refusals on the part of the Government and the religious authorities to take reponsibility for the systematic imprisonment, torture and even murder of innocent women that occured in this country. Compensation is one thing, but the fact that those in power have yet to even properly recognise the status of these women as survivors of institutional abuse is sickening.