Brady: Church wants to find ‘just solution’

ALL IRELAND Primate and Archbishop of Armagh, Cardinal Seán Brady has told a clerical abuse survivors group that the Church is committed to finding a “just solution” to the victims of the Magdalene Laundries.

A representative group from Survivors of Church Abuse (SOCA) met with the Cardinal yesterday where they raised the Magdalenes’ ongoing campaign for an apology and a redress scheme.

Cardinal Brady told the former clerical abuse victims that he personally believed the Pope’s pastoral letter and its apology placed a responsibility upon the religious orders to address what had happened in the country’s laundries.

“The cardinal told us the Church is committed to finding a just solution for the victims of the Magdalene Laundries,” said Patrick Walsh of SOCA.

Justice for the Magdalenes (JFM) contacted the cardinal to inform him of their proposed redress scheme last November.

Meanwhile, an ad-hoc Dáil committee met with Magdalene Survivors United, including five former laundry residents, Maureen Sullivan, Mary Collins, Marina Gambold, Mary Smyth and Maureen Taylor last week.

Labour deputy Kathleen Lynch, who is a member of the committee, said one of the women told how she had been sentenced to the laundries by the Children’s Court while another told the tale of how, when after a dispute with her British-based family, she was sent to relations in Dublin by her mother.

Upon arrival at Dublin airport, she was met by two gardaí who took her to a laundry.

Ms Lynch said that the Dáil committee is hoping to arrange a formal meeting with the Departments of Education, Justice and the Taoiseach to discuss the Magdalene survivors’ growing case for an apology and redress.

Since last November, 11 women have come forward to take a class action against the state for their role in sending women to the laundries.