Justice for Magdalenes
- by: Claire McGettrick
- recipient: Bertie Ahern, An Taoiseach (Prime Minister of Ireland), The Irish Government
We are calling on the Taoiseach (Prime Minister of Ireland), Bertie Ahern, to establish a public inquiry into the unexplained deaths of women who were unjustly incarcerated in Ireland's Magdalene Laundry system. We are calling for justice for these women who were disrespected in life and are now disrespected in death.
Dear Taoiseach,
I am writing to you to appeal for justice and to add my voice to the call for a State Inquiry into the case of the Magdalene Laundries; specifically into the mystery surrounding the bodies exhumed from the graveyard of the Laundry in High Park, Drumcondra, in your own constituency.
The Sisters of Charity, who ran the Laundry, sold the land containing the graveyard in 1993. They sought an exhumation license for the 133 bodies supposedly buried there. Yet 155 bodies were found. There are no Death Certificates for these women. The names on the gravestone do not match those on the exhumation license. The Department of the Environment supplied a second license allowing exhumation of all remains without seeking any further information from the nuns.
The Sisters of Charity claim not to know the names of all of the women. The law has been broken it is illegal not to report a death to the authorities yet the State appears to be turning a blind eye. Do not let the injustices done to the women and girls incarcerated in the Laundries in life continue in death. Establish a State Inquiry. Who were these women and what were the circumstances of their deaths? Find out the facts and publish them. Give these women justice.
