Magdalene women ‘not on remand for long’

THE Department of Justice has denied that women sent to Magdalene Laundries by the courts, on remand or on probation, were regularly kept at the institutions for protracted periods.

In meetings before Christmas with the Justice for the Magdalenes (JFM) group, department officials confirmed that after the publication of the 1960 Criminal Justice Bill, the department placed women “on remand” to the Sean McDermott Street Magdalene Laundry and Our Lady’s Home, Henrietta Street in Dublin.

This admission caused embarrassment for Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe, who had refused the Magdalene survivors any redress last September, arguing the State “did not refer individuals nor was it complicit in referring individuals to Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries”.