Dimensions
157 x 204 x 20mm
Inside the Hell Of Ireland's Notorious Magdalen Sisters' Laundries
The evening before her first Communion, Kathy O’Beirne was raped. She was seven years old. Diagnosed as a ‘troubled child’, she was removed from the family home and incarcerated in a reformatory school, where she was raped again - by a priest. When she tried to get help, she was sent to a psychiatric hospital. The abuse continued, along with the administration of drugs and electric shock treatment.
At twelve, Kathy was sent to a Magdalen laundry. These grim Church-run workhouses operated in Ireland throughout the twentieth century. Thousands of girls, some orphans, some pregnant and some considered ‘at risk’, were forced to work as virtual slaves. Hidden from the public gaze, many girls were cruelly punished and sexually abused by the staff or lay visitors.
Kathy was raped, became pregnant and gave birth to a baby before her fourteenth birthday. The child had a serious illness and lived only to the age of ten, but provided the only light in Kathy’s blighted life.
Kathy O’Beirne recounts her tragic experiences in unflinching detail but what is most remarkable is the strength of character that shines through such a dark tale. It is this strength that has enabled her to survive and fired her continuing struggle for justice for the forgotten Magdalen girls.
