Answers still needed regarding laundries

I have no doubt Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s Magdalene apology in the Dáil was sincere and heartfelt.

The whole country welcomed it and it was wanted and deserved by the women who were incarcerated in these horrible places, the Magdalene Laundries.

Yet, as I watched this apology, my mind was asking “why now?”

All of these women were from the so-called lower class, the working class, and they were not from rich families. They were the downtrodden. I can’t help thinking how this Taoiseach, who is the ‘father’ of the Dáil, in more than 35 years he has never mentioned the Magdalene Laundries.

Last night, I took down a book I read 10 years ago, Do Penance or Perish, by historian Dr Frances Finnegan. The information in this book, when cross-referenced with McAleese, shows how much the report does not contain. I was astonished.

There are still many questions to be answered regarding the Magdalene Laundries

Paul Doran

Monastery Walk

Clondalkin

Dubin 22