Magdalene scandal - A just and swift remedy is required

THE campaign for justice for the Magdalenes, for the so-called “fallen women” who were grossly mistreated in a chain of laundries run by nuns, has been resoundingly vindicated by the call for an independent investigation into the scandal from the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT).

As with many other cases of abuse involving the religious orders and the secular clergy, this controversy has been compounded by institutional hypocrisy on the part both of the Church and the state in the face of compelling evidence that conditions in the laundries were often more akin to those of concentration camps.

Doubtless, it will be argued that Ireland already has more than its share of statutory inquiries and cannot afford yet another one in the current economic climate. However, that contention should not undermine the overwhelming case for a probe as recommended by the UN committee.

Nevertheless, there is an obvious need to set a fixed deadline on the duration of such a probe and also to impose a clearly defined ceiling on legal costs. It is time the legal profession accepted that the days of open-ended gravy-train inquiries are over.

A probe of the Magdalene regime is long overdue. Ten years have passed since the Government grudgingly conceded that women who worked in the laundries were victims of abuse. Notwithstanding that admission, the state resisted demands for an investigation and compensation, claiming the laundries were a private venture.

This despite evidence that judges automatically consigned women convicted of petty crimes to work in the system, which served also as asylums for pregnant single women and others. Besides getting a readymade workforce, the nuns received lucrative laundry contracts from the state. Yet, no Government oversight existed to ensure the women, who worked without pay, were protected or treated fairly.

According to UNCAT the Government should issue a public apology to Magdalene survivors, set up an investigation, extend the State redress system to victims, and “prosecute and punish the perpetrators with penalties commensurate with the gravity of the offences committed”.

Having turned a blind eye to the punitive system, neither Church nor state have apologised. Justice delayed is justice denied. Justice Minister Alan Shatter should respond swiftly and engage positively with the UN committee. There is also a strong case for opening up the secret records behind this long festering controversy. It is patently clear that harsh treatment was doled out to many of the 30,000 or more women who worked in the laundries. Instead of receiving compassion and support, as one might expect in a venture run by nuns, it was as if the victims were being made to atone endlessly for perceived “sins”.

As in numerous other instances of abuse involving nuns, priests or brothers, the Church stands accused of dragging its feet by failing to accept responsibility for what happened under its sightless gaze. Surely by now, the religious orders and the bishops should realise that scandals of this magnitude cannot simply be swept under the carpet in the hope that they will go away. Nor will the public be denied the right to know the truth of what happened in the Magdalene laundries.