Orders cannot deny the suffering inflicted
IN APRIL 1955, a Scottish writer researching a book about Ireland talked his way into the Magdalene laundry in Galway. First he had to obtain the permission of the Bishop of Galway, Dr Michael John Browne, the same man who a decade later would refer to the RTÉ broadcaster Gay Byrne as “a purveyor of filth” for the sin of discussing the colour of a lady’s nightgown on The Late Late Show.
True to form, Bishop Browne warned the Scotsman, “if you write anything wrong it will come back on you”, adding as a condition of entry to the laundry that anything intended to be published about the visit would have to be approved in advance by the Mother Superior of the Sisters of Mercy.
