No response for women in Magdalene laundry dates dispute

A group of women who wrote to justice minister, Charlie Flanagan, asking him to intervene in a dispute over the dates they worked in a Magdalene laundry has received no response.

A total of 14 women who were in An Grianán training centre post-1980 and worked in the attached High Park Magdalene laundry in Dublin have yet to receive a provisional offer for redress from Mr Flanagan’s department.

A number of these women said they have been told by the Restorative Justice Unit (RJU) in the Department of Justice, which administers the redress scheme, that the reason for the delay is that the order that ran the institution — the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge — has stated that it stopped sending girls from An Grianán to work in the main laundry in 1980.

Nine of the women wrote to Mr Flanagan at the start of March calling on him to intervene directly in the matter. To date, they have received no response.

On three separate occasions, the legal team for the women has requested information on the evidence given by the order to the RJU to support this claim from the department but has been refused it.

On April 1, solicitor Wendy Lyon, of criminal defence and human rights firm KOD Lyons, wrote to the principal of the RJU Noel Dowling once again seeking this information.

Mr Dowling had written to Ms Lyon asking that her clients might "reconsider" a request made of the women in February to attend an interview with the RJU in respect of their time in An Grianán. Mr Dowling said the "sole purpose" of the interviews was to allow the women "to provide to us as full a picture as possible of their time in the institution".

However, Ms Lyon responded by stating that it was "no good in asking them [the women] now to trust officials who, in their view, have treated them so unfairly in the past".

"My instructions are that they will not consent to be interviewed, especially in circumstances where the officials appear to give credence to an unsubstantiated allegation (the details of which they have consistently refused to share with me) that no children worked in the Laundry after 1980," states the letter.

Ms Lyon also expressed concern that seeking to interview women on the basis of allegations made by the Order is "entirely inconsistent with the spirit of restorative justice."

"There is no suggestion, I note, that the nun or nuns who made whatever allegations have led to this impasse have been required to attend similar interviews. Further, it is not clear how the application of fair procedures is to be ensured during these intended interviews," states the letter.

Ms Lyon then requests that officials forward the details of the allegation that children did not work in the Laundry post-1980 and a list of questions for her clients and that they would revert in writing.