Magdalene redress: ‘No one gave the authority to take my mother away from me’

“We were all slaves to the nuns and the Church, no more, no more.”

These are the words of Mary Merritt, a survivor of the Magdalene laundries.

She was speaking on the steps of Áras an Uachtaráin yesterday, as President Michael D Higgins welcomed 230 Magdalene laundry women to his official residence as part of a series of events called Dublin Honours Magdalenes.