Magdalene Laundries were workhouses run by the Roman Catholic Church for so-called 'fallen women', unmarried mothers and orphans. They are rightly considered a cruel and dark stain on Ireland's history – one that must never be repeated, nor forgotten.
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The former Gloucester Street laundry |
The laundry's Site of Conscience status recognises that the building is a historic site where initiatives on-site aim to connect past struggles to today's movements for human rights, and was confirmed as part of the Dublin City Agreement between Fianna Fail, Labour, Green Party and Social Democrats, which was signed earlier this week. It reads: 'We will develop a multipurpose Site of Conscience at the location of the former Magdalene laundry on Sean McDermott Street that will seek to honour and commemorate the victims and survivors of Ireland's Institutional past.'
*in 1996