'A soiled child': Maureen Sullivan's traumatic childhood in the Magdalene laundries

Maureen Sullivan, who entered a Magdalene Laundry at the age of 12, is today's guest on The Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast

Maureen Sullivan is the author of The Girl in the Tunnel, a memoir recounting her traumatic childhood and incarceration in a Magdalene Laundry at the age of just 12.

Ireland's last Magdalene Laundry closed its doors 30years ago, on October 25, 1996.

Many of those who were subjected to the incarceration and systematic slavery of the laundries are still fighting for recognition and adequate redress.

Maureen Sullivan is the author of The Girl in the Tunnel, a memoir recounting her traumatic childhood and incarceration in a Magdalene Laundry at the age of just 12. Sexually and physically abused by her stepfather, she confided in a kind nun who taught in her primary school.

The next day, Maureen found herself in a laundry van en route to New Ross, the first day of what would be years of silence and slavery — two years in New Ross, two in Athy, and months in Dublin's School for the Blind.

When she began to look for evidence of what had been done to her many years later, a nun revealed that she had been kept away from other children as "a soiled child", for fear they would be tainted by the abuse she had suffered.

In this episode, Maureen describes the horror of her childhood, the silence and shame of the laundry, and how uncovering the secrets of her past has helped her to cope.

This conversation took place in front of a live audience at Creative Bandon's Banshee Festival.