‘Hidden Ireland’ haunts us still

INSTITUTIONAL abuse and neglect is something we associate with the past, with that “Hidden Ireland” in which a deeply conservative quasi-religious ethos held sway.

An Ireland where children were sent to frightening industrial schools for stealing apples or mitching from school and single mothers could find themselves detained in virtual concentration camps. A time when any of these detainees could be subjected to humiliating punishment or ill-treatment by the people supposedly looking after them or responsible for their care.

Watching The Magdalene Sisters, we cringe in shame, embarrassment, or revulsion, but breathe a sigh of relief that we’ve moved on since those dark days of ignorance and terror.