Times were hard. Life was cheap, we had chimney boys who had fires lit under them to sharpen their youthful skills

Now certain cultures just leave their rubbish outside on the pavement and the bins are full of rubbish etc? Same as the sewage system full of nappies or wet wipes flushed down the toilet by certain cultures? Where i lived we had signs in the parks re defication problems or used tampaxes left in the road/pavement/ street? Some shops stopped people going into changeing rooms due to them being used as toilets? Even the back of buses were a breeding ground for defication etc along with supermarkets shut down to clean where defication had taken place etc Many people did not beleive me and i was off course called a " stirrer" or " national front member" or " racist" etc. However once these doo gooders volunteered to work in some of these charity shops they were shocked when they experienced the diverse and embraceing toilet habbits in the shop they worked etc but woukdnt take my word 4 it?

Never heard about this before, thanks for another slice of history.

This is why I love this channel, so much to learn every day!

The Irish have under the auspices of the likes of Varadkar, developed a self loathing second only to liberal Brits. It has been the bread and butter of the news industry to report the horrors of the Magdalene laundries, whilst conveniently ignoring this: “In January 1920, there were 2,783 unmarried mothers in workhouses in England and Wales. Some particularly unfortunate mothers found themselves consigned to mental hospitals. The Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, allowed local authorities to certify and institutionalise, generally unmarried, pregnant women who were deemed ‘defective’, at this time of heightened panic over ‘racial degeneration’ and eugenic concern about the perpetuation of ‘unfit’ genes. ‘Mental defect’ was believed by some to have caused the women’s ‘immorality’…The numbers are unknown and probably few, but some sad victims were discovered in mental hospitals as late as 1971, having been there since the 1920s.“ I met a woman who had been confined under this legislation and was released into “care” in 1969. This was England. Not Ireland and this is how Britain treated these “fallen” women.

They had them in the U.S.A. too The first American Magdalene Laundry opened in Louisville in 1843 and others followed, including the Indianapolis Convent of the Good Shepherd and St. Joseph Laundry in 1873. Women were frequently sent to work at these laundry in lieu of prison.

You mean, you mean some of our own ancestors were treated almost like slaves by our own country, shocking, but keep it quiet though, some people might kick up rough about it all being falsehoods.......

In Ireland the first Magdalene laundry was founded in Dublin in 1765 by Lady Arabella Denny, a philanthropist. It was solely for young Protestant women who had worked as prostitutes or were destitute. They received two years of shelter and training, after which they were discharged to find employment as servants. After 1922, the Magdalene Laundries were operated by four religious orders (The Sisters of Mercy, The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Charity, and the Good Shepherd Sisters) in ten different locations around Ireland.

Not the same thing..... But my 83 year old mother used to walk to school with a girl who's family lived in the workhouse!! I was shocked when she told me. I had no idea these places operated into the mid 20th century.

I am Irish and fairly well clued-in as to the back stories of these Magdalen laundries. In the midst of the drama-rama perhaps I could point out that it was the girls' parents who sent them to these institutions (workhouses). Also, many of these unfortunate girls were made pregnant by members of their OWN families, incest being not that uncommon. Or by a family friend. The girls came from what could be termed the lower socio-economic sector of society. These were appalling places, outrageous, and unbelievably, operated well into the 1970s. The babies were given in adoption, very often to American couples. It must be made clear that the State, and its institutions, colluded in this whole sorry episode. The laundries (workhouses to be exact) Mandated by the Irish state beginning in the eighteenth century. There is a reasonably good book: Ireland's Magdalen Laundries and the Nation's Architecture of Containment by James M. Smith

we judge the past by todays standards failing to understand that at the time a lot of things we deem bad were acceptable, but instead of dealing with it on those terms and ensuring they do not happen again we ignore current problems and protest the past.

Whatever the conditions in these places they were clearly less bad than the alternatives available to the women concerned.

Ironic that they are so well known by the Magdalen laundry and yet the Catholic Church most definitely doesn’t wash its dirty laundry in public

"The Midnight Court" by Brian Merriman, written in the 1700s certainly depicts a different kind of Ireland, quite raunchy, to the strangled fearful place of the early and mid 20th century . "A fairy court has convened to hear the grievances of the women of Ireland. Chief among the women's complaints is sexual neglect.". A small excerpt: "...the first woman to plead her case at the Midnight Court: My cheeks need no blusher or powder or puff - The skin I was born with is still fair enough; My hands and my throat, my fingers, my breast - Each bit of my body competes with the rest. Next to speak is a "dirty old josser", with a predictable catalogue of grievances of his own. His accuser is on the make, he counters, exploiting her wiles to haul herself out of the gutter, and interested in marriage only for the respectability it lends to the illegitimate child she has foisted on him. At this point the poem takes an unexpected turn as the old man stands up for bastards, praising their hardiness and condemning the hypocrisy of the clergy. Could this be, as some have speculated, because Merriman was the natural son of a priest?" There is a Merriman Summer School held now every year in Ireland.

The reason they existed is because the governments of the days delegated the work to the Church, and it wasn’t just so called fallen women were institutionalised, my great great grandmother died,leaving behind two young daughters one my great grandmother and her sister, they both received an education in the good shepherd convent in cork city,my grandmother went on to become a great business woman, gave birth to 14 children,her first born died at 2years old, best wishes from Cork City Ireland 🕊✝️🙏🇮🇪☘️

Did not know about this, everyday is a school day with Simon.

Some of the Magdalene laundries were connected to the Catholic Church...

My father was born in the 'Mothers Hospital' in Hackney in 1931. The hospital had a separate ward for unmarried mothers. What chance did those women and their new born children have in life when stigmatized like that. Shocking. My grandmother was married but had to get married to my grandfather because she was pregnant. So, she could have ended up in the 'wrong' ward. BTW, when my Irish mother fell pregnant with me she wasn't married to my father. My grandmother was fiercely opposed to him marrying an Irish catholic, and even made him doubt that the child (me) was his. My mother walked away. Such were the stigmas and prejudices in those days. BTW, never met 'Granny Bitch!'

In the fifties there were many unmarried young women who had babies out of wedlock, but unlike now, this was a huge stigma back then, even in my own family there were two instances of this, both of my aunts never revealed who the real fathers were, not even to the children, Shocking!

It is fascinating the way that the name of Mary Magdalen was besmirched by the later fathers of the Church in a way quite contrary to how she her relationship with Jesus was portrayed in the Gospels excluded from the modern day Bible.

Interesting to know as my mother was a young girl in such an institution over in Ireland during the thirties ,i always believed it was an Irish thing but i was aware that boys in England did indeed stay in such places under a brotherhood ,i would say Liverpool had such places

i am almost 80 years old i still wake at night disturbed and in fear from my childhood in a catholic orphanage st marys TC school in londons walthamstow in the 50s and 60s from the age of 6 i remember the beatings scoldings being shouted and sworn at i saw every kind of abuse imaginable there was one male teachera mr fox who was a sadist and pervert like the head nun sister peter

In Tottenham in the late 50s we had what was called a bag wash in Scotland green near the spurs ground, oh yes. Also in Edmonton we had three workhouses in the 20s and 30s.

Are any if these Magdalene laundries srill in business? I would like to get my shirts done and my trousers pressed.

How am I supposed to link this to the Austrian Painter?

When people condemn this or any other institution they need to compare it to the alternatives available at the time not what is available now. My grandmother was working in a factory at 13. Life expectancy for a male born in 1901 was 48.5 years The natural state for people throughout history has been grinding poverty, violence & early death

This is a small excerpt from a Dáil hearing on foot of a report presented there: "One member said women were not just treated as second-class citizens as described in the report. “They were a caste apart,” she said. “They were untouchable even by their own parents.” Another was close to tears as he quoted from a 1943 health inspector’s report describing babies in one home as “miserable scraps of humanity, wizened, some emaciated and almost all had rash and sores all over their bodies, faces, hands and heads”. The home in question only closed in 1999.

It is the same here in Australia. Melbourne resembles Weston-super-Mare at times.

Needless to say it was not just these girls from the lower socio-economic echelons of Irish society who became pregnant out of wedlock! The daughters of the well off did too, but there was a difference. they were not packed off to the Magdalens. The girl would be sent off for a long holiday to her Aunt Mary/Margaret/Agnes who lived in the U.K. where she would stay for the duration, the baby would be adopted and the girl would return looking happy and healthy from her holiday at her Aunt's . No one the wiser. The poorer families of course did not have such resources, and hence the girls went to the Magdalens.

Hello again; nice to see you..

The Irish writer, John McGahern, lost his teaching job when ‘The Dark’, which dealt with child abuse, was banned. That was Ireland in 1965. 260 advance copies of John McGahern's second novel, The Dark, were seized by Irish Customs and Excise officers. The Censorship of Publications Board would deem that the novel posed a risk to public morality because of its "indecent or obscene" content. "The Dark" is far from pornographic in its probing of the problems its main protagonist, Mahoney, has with masturbation and related issues. But the fact that McGahern was a primary school teacher, a profession that came under the direct jurisdiction of the Catholic Church did not help his cause. Worse than that is the unwanted sexual attentions of the protagonist's father, with whom he is forced to share a bed. The rhythmic massaging of his stomach and genitalia by Mahoney Senior is referred to as “the dirty rags of intimacy”. Much sexual abuse took place in the home, so not all by clerical deranged misfits. Likewise, many of the girls sent to the Magdalen laundries had been made pregnant by a very close family member.

One of those laundries was still in operation in 83 in cork city Ireland right opposite the north monastery secondary school..as kid's we passed it every day with these subjuded young women looking at us in a kind of shock.

up until the late 1950s the history of most european countries was quite dark & a lot of stuff was swept under the carpet only to have a light shone on these events in later decades, even the squeaky clean nordic countries were not immune, there were magdalene type laundries in both norway & sweden you also had the awful practices of lobotomies & forced sterilisation in both countries and in sweden mental patients were force fed sweets & chocolates as an experiment into the effects of dental disease & decay.

Leaving aside the Magdalen laundries for a moment, could I mention that orphanages in Ireland were frightful places, hell for the unfortunate children placed there through no fault of their own. But a blind eye was turned (in general) by society.

Nowadays we have the welfare state. A grand idea at the time and no doubt saved many a life and improved the quality of life for millions. Sadly, the time has come to severely restrict access to taxpayers money and something akin to these laundries may be an option.

Respectability is not something I have ever been guilty of

I have been telling the great unwashed this for years.

Off topic, but what is the Shom Ron ?

Ive never heard of this before, presumably it was operated on a similar basis to a workhouse?

The Gospels only tell us that Mary Magdalene had had seven demons cast out of her by Jesus, and along with several of other (rich) women, worked to support the ministry. Probably by opening their homes as bases where Jesus and the disciples could stop by for supplies when they were in the area and by preparing places near Jerusalem for them during the feasts, when all men (and in the case of the feast of Tabernacles, the familes also) were required to go to the city where the Temple (or the Tabernacle tent before the Temple was built) was located at.

Funny isn't it without these laundries lots of these women would have been left on the street. No blame for the families but full blame to those who took them in

another picture showing a lack of diversity must be the sign on the door

Out of sight out of mind.

The Irish Magdalen Laundries gained a great deal of traction in the decades after the Famine. Catholicism was considered holier than run of mill Protestantism and a whole institutional network was developed to ‘control and correct’ the flock from within; thereby creating a unique hell for Irish people by Irish people.

It's an institution that scared women for life!!! With regard to Irish women, the power the Catholic church held over them left them terrified!!! Terrified of what their Fathers would do if they were to fall pregnant out of wedlock!!! Terrified of how God would see them after they'd supposedly fallen from grace!!! Far from being a place of protection and salvation, a presence of punishment and eternal retribution!!! This is a subject closer to my heart than I'd like it to be....

We have gone from one way to another, men promised marriage, girls were to trusting, now girls have many kids from different men, but no fathers for their kids because they can get free houses, I read books about the laundrys, and it broke my heart that they suffered but men weren't

In Ireland they only closed in 1997.

Spot on

This is new to me too.

British protestants were catholic for around a thousand years before they became protestants, it took centuries for most people to change their hardwired strict values thats why theres always similarities to be found, i think most people probably thought we could even end up going back until the bill of rights then 1701 act of settlement put n end to the idea imo.

Interesting. I genuinely thought it was exclusively an Irish institution

People were grappling with some of the biggest changes to life in human history back then, a shift away from traditional christian farming society into a new urbanised society, populations were exploding n all sorts of morality based discussions were happening to figure out how to manage this new society that was being created, there was no manual definitively telling people how to do things this was all new, id say they got it all mostly right until we started to reverse everything imo.

My ultimate disgust with the RC Church came in Guernsey, in St. Peter Port, there is a plaque commemorating 3 or rather 4 martyrs burned at the stake under the Marian Terror (Queen Mary). Three were burned, one heavily pregnant, she gave birth during her burning to a live baby, which was then thrown onto the pyre to die. There's no way back from that, at all, ever.

Mary Magdalene was one of the women who supported the ministry of Jesus out of their private means. She would have been a woman of wealth and high social status.

We have laundries even today…a good service and business with regular jobs as long as you are not importing the 3rd world practices and people.

I would disagree about Mary Magdelene. She may well have been a prostitute, all we know is she was a former sinner but that matters not one jot in Christ's Kingdom. Indeed, reformed sinners enter the kingdom while many of the supposed "righteous" are excluded. Those who try to "defend" Magledene by claiming she was not a prostitute are judging by earthly standards and missing the point entirely.

Good bit of advice never approach a horse from the rear or a bull from the front or a papist from any direction

The Gospels do tell us that Jesus drove seven devils out of Mary Magdalen, although where it says it at the very end of Mark was part of a later addition.

I love both "The Magdalene Sisters", and "Philomena". They're interesting establishments to learn lessons from. A shame they manipulated Christian doctrine.

It's too easy to forget what the alternatives were for unmarried women before the modern utopia of the welfare state. The population of single mothers and fatherless children nowadays, all dependent upon the loveless hand of the state, may help to explain what those institutions were intended to help avoid, regardless of abuses then and now. The (ab)use of this issue in Ireland was largely/entirely to attack a strong Church and thereby strengthen state power. It's still wheeled out now and then because the propagandists love to relive their victories, among other psycho reasons. Was this issue ignored/covered up in England for similar reasons?

Quite, strict "moralistic" thinking - in the UK - was alive and well (depending on your opinion) in another sphere - prosecution in the early 1960s of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" - ok - the prosecution failed - but some "high up"s thought it had a chance of success.

Cheap labour for the Catholic Church in Ireland for sure. They did their damdest to keep it quiet for years, but it all came out in the wash in the end.

It would be good if Simon could tell us what the actual conditions in such places were like and compared to normal living and working conditions

I had never heard of "Magdalen laundries". I had to "look it up". To me, they were a form of chattel slavery. Slavery, in all its forms, including "wage slavery", which in reality, most people are, is the essence of Civilization.

I'm sure the Protestant laundries in England were every bit as bad as the ones in Ireland, despite the glowing article in the link in the description. Of course, England must always be seen as Perfect in all its ways, that its shyte never stinks. If people don't know about the Protestant laundries in England it's because England has always had a tendency never to air its dirty laundry, so to speak. Well I don't believe England was always Perfect in all its ways. Ireland, of course, was CATHOLIC, so it stands to reason that the Madelein Sisters operated a Catholic-run laundry.

St Mary Magdalene was an aristocrat, not a prostitute, who took lovers as a consequence of the attention paid to her beauty and intelligence - she is the Patron saint of Hairdressers and Perfumers. St John Eudes, who founded refuges for fallen women and prostitutes in 17th century, is the Patron saint of fallen women and prostitutes - the so-called Magdalene laundries owe their origin to St John Eudes.

Catholic clergy coming run children run 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️🏃

Pity they ever ended! I could do with getting some of my shirts 👔 done and no one knows how to get lipstick 👄 💄 off a collar better than a who-re! 😅

1st

2nd

Gt britain not such a great place for the poor working class.

Could we call the m...Christian Laundries ?

Superstitious hype. It belongs in the Middle Ages. Leave it there.

Simon seems to lurch from racism, homophobia and general good old fashioned bigotry to occasionally, very occasionally, attempting to debunk some history!

I remember these laundries they were still common in the 1970s, The last Magdalene Laundry closed on 25 September 1996 on Sean MacDermott Street in Dublin, Belfast, Northern Ireland, your slipping a bit with your facts and information Mr Webb, something the other day you were way off factually, forgot what that was now but several people corrected you, your not going senile are you ?

Boring crap Simon. 😮

Stop lying for KZfaq

Or to put it another way the laundry’s were common in Ireland well into the 70s but there was one similar laundry in England in the 1950s therefore we shouldn’t criticise the Catholics for what they did

Infamous Protestantism and its heinous crimes worldwide, weigh heavily in the balance compared with beneficent Catholicism, Deo Gratias.

Simon, Jack of all trades, master of none 😂😂😂