Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => News Items => Topic started by: Antigen on February 16, 2012, 12:33:25 AM
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http://www.independent.ie/opinion/colum ... 02937.html (http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/ruth-dudley-edwards/ruth-dudley-edwards-ceremony-for-forgotten-irish-marks-efforts-of-two-fighters-3002937.html)
I want to know more about this!
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We do acutally have links about this subject on the Ireland category page (http://http://wiki.fornits.com/index.php?title=Category:Ireland) on Fornits Wiki
One of them is for the Justice for Magdalenes (http://http://www.magdalenelaundries.com/index.htm) webpage.
Wikipedia does also have a page about the Magdalene asylum (http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_asylum)
The ironic part is that the system of putting at-risk teenage girls into these horrible places was not stopped because people wanted to help the girls. The system broke down because someone invented the Washing machine and made it so cheap that every household could have one. The work of the girls was no longer needed and the girls were released. Once they were out they grouped and led the authorities to graves of girls who have died in the system. Only then it became a scandal.
The last asylum closed down in 1993 and it was during the closure of this place 155 unmarked graves were discovered.
Sinéad O'Connor is one of the girls who have been confined to these asylums.
It seems that every country has their own dark chapter when it comes to handling at-risk teens. Here in Denmark we also have something to settle. A massive report covering abuse in the system since World War II was released last year. While the politicians have been busy insisting that it stopped in 1976, we know better and we are coming for them.
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Antigen - this is a great find. I wish the US had a fund like this to help survivors. Very inspirational that something like this is being done.
Oscar - I'm becoming interested in the history of sending kids away. Like the Native American boarding schools, the 'Stolen Generation' of Aboriginals in Australia, the Swiss 'Contract Children' (Verdingkinder). What's this about the Danes? I thought you guys were perfect, nnnooooooo!
I have a theory that teens have been sent away, oh, since the first unruly one came along. Cain was pretty troubled, eh? What did our ancestors do? Convents, monasteries, military, marriage, indentured slavery, shipworkers...what else? How far back does this 'tradition' go? Does anyone know if there's a thread on fornits about this?
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There is a thread somewhere on the Str8 survivors forum (or another forum) about the American Indian 'schools'...
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There is a thread somewhere on the Str8 survivors forum (or another forum) about the American Indian 'schools'...
There is a couple on the Canadian Residential Schools. Namely the one in the thought reform forum.
Also, these schools appear to be very class based. The French and American Revolutions, along with the Napoleonic Wars saw to the beginning of theory of legitimised force and the sloow dismantling of the class-based systems, but it has taken a long time for it to really establish for all members of society.
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http://www.independent.ie/opinion/colum ... 02937.html (http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/ruth-dudley-edwards/ruth-dudley-edwards-ceremony-for-forgotten-irish-marks-efforts-of-two-fighters-3002937.html)
I want to know more about this!
That article copied out for posterity's sake...
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Sunday Independent
Ruth Dudley Edwards: Ceremony for Forgotten Irish marks efforts of two 'fighters' (http://http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/ruth-dudley-edwards/ruth-dudley-edwards-ceremony-for-forgotten-irish-marks-efforts-of-two-fighters-3002937.html)
By Ruth Dudley Edwards
Sunday January 29 2012
'How many times can a man turn his head, pretending he just doesn't see?' asked Bobby McDonagh, Irish Ambassador to the UK, as he addressed supporters of the Forgotten Irish on Friday evening.
His Bob Dylan allusion was to that period in the Irish past when children suffered abuse in institutions, single mothers were enslaved in Magdalene laundries, and no one wanted to know. Many of the damaged young people who escaped to Britain are now among the thousands of impoverished and isolated elderly people being helped by a multi-million campaign driven by the Ireland Fund of Great Britain (IFGB).
But last Friday night, at an award ceremony at the House of Lords in London, it was an occasion to celebrate a much improved present, where recent emigrants are acknowledging and helping their predecessors who -- despite their hard lives -- sent as much as €3.57bn in today's terms to help the people struggling back home.
Since 2007, when the Forgotten Irish campaign began, €1.19m has been distributed to 50 organisations throughout the UK helping the vulnerable Irish with psychological and practical support.
As the ambassador said, the campaign reached new heights in May of last year, when the IFGB co-chair, Basil Geoghegan, whose career until recently was in merchant banking and is now in software, climbed Mount Everest and planted on top the flag of the Forgotten Irish.
So far, that climb alone has generated €132,146 for the fund.
The former victims of industrial schools, he said at the time, "have got their own Everest to climb every day and that was one that was thrust upon them".
The Forgotten Irish award was shared by two doughty fighters for the Irish vulnerable. Both brought up in Irish institutions, Phyllis Morgan had a tough time. But although Sally Mulready was decently treated, she saw other children living in fear and was inspired by the revelations of the late Mary Raftery to seek out and help emigrant victims of institutional abuse.
Both women have a distinguished record of selfless hard work for various support organisations and success in forcing those in authority to pay attention to groups they would rather ignore: they are key figures in the Irish Elderly Advice Network.
Until the mid-1990s, said Ms Mulready, she and people like her would never have had invitations to the Irish Embassy: now she is on the Council of State.
On Friday night, they were upbeat, with Ms Mulready telling the audience that the Justice ministerial team, Alan Shatter and Kathleen Lynch, were close to a decision on how to help to bring justice for the Magdalene survivors.
- Ruth Dudley Edwards
©Independent.ie
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Comments (http://http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/ruth-dudley-edwards/ruth-dudley-edwards-ceremony-for-forgotten-irish-marks-efforts-of-two-fighters-3002937.html) left for the above article, "Ceremony for Forgotten Irish marks efforts of two 'fighters' (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=39077&p=413597#p413596) " (by Ruth Dudley Edwards, January 29 2012, Sunday Independent):
Fortyniner · 2 weeks ago
Good article. Looking forward at last to seeing these issues openly discussed and resolved for everyone's benefit, especially the victims.
guest · 2 weeks ago
..and did you make a donation Ruthie....?
Oneildg · 2 weeks ago
Why should she, she's not Irish.?
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Yermanover there · 2 weeks ago
Justice for the Magdalene women long overdue.
Rose Obrianrogers · 1 week ago
All victims should be offered an apology and Redress. Why has all this cherry picking been going on? What has happened to the outreach workers? Sally set up a women's group and male victims were refused admission - why the prejudice?
Mary Raftery's Documentary referring to St Luke's Mental Hospital Clonmel confirms what I saw there while locked up for three years all because my uncle and eldest brother joined the British Army (Spitting on a Soldier's grave) By Robert Widders explains this further and makes a bit of Irish History come alive.
The Irish Government and the Catholic Church acted like Moses
They held High Office..........They fell on their knees and in some cases charged high Fees
And out childhood was what they took off us
Doctor R.M Rogers Chairperson of Templemore Forgotten Victims
©Independent.ie
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It seems that the Magdalene Asylums were not confined to Ireland.
Australia
I found this youtube video about a home in South Australia:
In The Shadow of Eden by Rachael Romero 2005 short film.m4v (http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPfU5lpMfhA)
Denmark
I also know that a Bethesda in the Danish town Aarhus started as a Magdalene home in 1894. However it left the Christian movement in 1895. The building exists today and it used by the department of social services as family training center where mothers can be forced to live with their newborn child while the therapist determine whether the mother is unfit to her new role based on a 24/7 observation lasting 8 weeks to 6 months.
United States:
Society of Philadelphia (http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalen_Society_of_Philadelphia)
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Rotsne decided to put up what he had about the Magdalene Sisters on the Fornits Wiki and created this datasheet (http://http://wiki.fornits.com/index.php?title=Magdalene_asylum).
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There is a great documentary about this, called "sex in a cold climate". you can find it on youtube or better you can download it from torrent sites. It's the story of four survivors.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGcy-6SjeF4&feature=fvst (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGcy-6SjeF4&feature=fvst)
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Great info! I had no idea the Magdalene asylums existed outside of Ireland. Wiki sheet looks amazing.
One of these days I'll start a thread on the historical institutions for children. This type of thing seems to have gone on for a long, long time.
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Well, you'll have to look at the orphanages which have been around for centuries, if not millenia. It's the issue of the pharmakon (to lift from Szasz) - what do you do with those who are too much of a burden?