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A Woman’s Work is… Unfinished Business: Justice for the Disappeared Magdalen Women of Modern Ireland

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Abstract

In this article I explore one core feature of contemporary campaigns for justice for Ireland’s Magdalen women concerning their deaths and disappearances, which continue to be denied by a State that has only recently started to acknowledge civilian deaths in other contexts such as armed conflict. I examine the treatment of the disappeared and deceased Magdalen women in the economic and political context of the Irish use of religious institutions and consider the significance of this regime for women’s citizenship in the postcolonial nation-building processes of the twentieth century. I aim to illustrate the connections between gender, violence and citizenship that are implicated in outcomes for justice for Magdalen survivors and victims, as well as conceptions of Irish women’s citizenship in general. In this discussion I consider the Magdalen campaigns for justice as significant for the individual women and families involved, as well as the entire nation’s conception of self as represented in history.

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Notes

  1. The Good Friday Agreement is the common name for The Belfast Agreement (Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or Comhaontú Bhéal Feirste) – the historic agreements made between the major political parties of Northern Ireland (the Multi-Party Agreement) and between the British and Irish governments (the British-Irish Agreement). Along with establishing the system of government of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, the Good Friday Agreement was a pivotal moment for the Republic of Ireland in establishing its relationship with Northern Ireland, as well as the relationship between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. In its focus on questions of sovereignty, civil and cultural rights and the decommissioning of weapons, the Good Friday Agreement is understood as a peace treaty that led to peace in Northern Ireland for the first time in over 30 years.

  2. The Commission for Victims and Survivors was established with the broad mandate, inter alia, to promote awareness of matters relating to the interests of victims and survivors of the late 20th century 30-year conflict in Northern Ireland over the country’s constitutional and sovereign status. The conflict is commonly known as ‘The Troubles’.

  3. In 2013 Northern Ireland established the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

  4. In determining the duration of stay, and conditions of exit, of inmates, the McAleese Report was only able to use data provided by religious orders in relation to 42 percent of Magdalen women. For 58 percent of admissions there was no exit date recorded, hence McAleese declared there to be ‘no usable data’ relevant to determining the duration of stay, or mode of exit of this cohort. There are no other State records. McAleese also did not consider women admitted prior to 1922, or those who remain institutionalised. The possibility that 58 percent of post-1922 Magdalen women, for whom there are ‘no usable data’, might have died while incarnated was not considered by McAleese. For a detailed analysis and critique of the data used and presented in the McAleese Report, see McGettrick 2015.

  5. Between 1831 and 1856 the same order ran Mary Magdalen Asylum (a laundry) at a different site in Drumcondra (McAleese Report 2013).

  6. The burial site in question had been in use from 1889 to 1976 and was the location for burial only of ‘consecrates’ from High Park: other women who died at High Park were buried at Glasnevin Cemetery: (McAleese Report, 2013).

  7. It reads ‘To the women who worked in the Magdalen laundry institutions and the children born to some members of those communities – reflect here upon their lives’.

  8. Murray v Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse [2004] IEHC 102.

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Acknowledgements

Research for this article was undertaken while I was a visiting fellow at Trinity Law School, and the School of Political Science and Sociology, National University of Ireland Galway. I am indebted to the numerous legal representatives who generously shared their time to advise me of the legal situation in Ireland. Thanks go to James Gallen for advice on deaths and disappearances, and eternal thanks go to Fiona Neary and Cliona Saedler for maximum feminist hospitality.

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  1. Macquarie Law School, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

    Kate Gleeson

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  1. Kate Gleeson
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Correspondence to Kate Gleeson.

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Throughout this article I use the traditional spelling of ‘Magdalen’, although ‘Magdalene’ is also in current use.

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Gleeson, K. A Woman’s Work is… Unfinished Business: Justice for the Disappeared Magdalen Women of Modern Ireland. Fem Leg Stud 25, 291–312 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-017-9357-9

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