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'I'm still angry': Survivors to discuss how Magdalene Laundries should be remembered

“I was taken in by the nuns at 15 – I hadn’t even kissed a boy”: Elizabeth Coppin told RTÉ about her experience in a Cork Laundry.

Magdalene Laundry stock Niall Carson via PA Images Niall Carson via PA Images

Updated at 2.45pm

A NUMBER OF Magdalene Laundry survivors arrived in Heuston Station this afternoon ahead of a gathering at Áras an Uachtaráin to meet President Michael D Higgins.

Around two or three dozen women and some family members arrived from Cork this morning and will attend an event at the Áras later this afternoon. Other women arrived at Dublin Airport yesterday and at Citywest this afternoon.

The women, most of whom wish to remain anonymous, are gathering in Dublin for the next two days as part of a consultation to discuss how women’s experiences of Magdalene Laundries should be remembered. Around 220 women are expected to attend the event at the Áras today; many of those women are aged in their 80s.

Magdalene Laundries were institutions run by the Catholic Church which took in so-called ‘fallen women’ and gave them manual labour to do. Many survivors said they were cruelly and brutally treated during their time there, with reports of women being beaten, put into solitary confinement, their hair cut, threatened, and verbally abused.

Josie Keane from Cork, who was at The Good Shepherds Magdalene Laundry in Limerick from the age of 15, told reporters gathered at Heuston that “it felt brilliant” to be at an event like this and to be able to meet other women.

She said that she was still angry about what had happened to her. She and her twin sister had been sent to two separate Laundries, and didn’t meet again until they were 21. Her sister died three years ago.

I’m sad that she’s not here and I feel bad about that now.

She said she did think people should know about the stories of women who were in the Laundries.

“Yes I think they should to be honest. I was 15 when I went in there and I was torn apart like. I’m always thinking that I’m back there again.”

She said her life after the Laundries was “miserable really, very untrustworthy and everything and still to this day like”.

It wasn’t my fault that I was put in there, but I do feel angry.

Flowers for Magdalenes remembrance The third annual Flowers for Magdalenes remembrance event in Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin. PA Archive / PA Images PA Archive / PA Images / PA Images

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan spoke to Morning Ireland about the long battle for redress that many for the women had to go through, saying that anyone who suffered the “horrific Magdalene Laundries” should have an opportunity to apply for redress sooner rather than later.

He said that over 700 women had applied for a redress scheme, but added that a hundred women had been excluded “because of a narrow interpretation” of the scheme, such as those who had worked in the Laundries but lived in institutions next door.

He said that there were also disputes “over the length of their stay at the Laundries, and women who lacked capacity because of the seniority of age”.

Flanagan said that it was “essential that everybody involved in Magdalene Laundries applies to the scheme”.

It’s important that we move forward, and today’s events represent a very important part of that.

Elizabeth Coppin, who was born in a mother-and-baby home and was subsequently sent to three different Magdalene Laundries, told Morning Ireland that she didn’t hesitate to attend the event.

Today is overwhelming, I’ve so many mixed emotions. I can’t believe I’m sitting here and I’m going to meet the President.

She said it was great “to actually feel that we can voice our opinions” and thanked the Justice for Magdalenes Research group and Dublin Honours Magdalenes for their work.

Elizabeth’s story

Elizabeth’s mother gave birth to her at the age of 19 in 1949.

She was housed in the industrial school, and would see her mother “once every two or three years for about an hour, which was always supervised”.

When asked why she was put in Laundry after the school, Elizabeth said that her interpretation was that when a woman who worked in a Laundry died, the nuns would “get onto the Education Department and they would ring around” to find a replacement.

I was taken in by two nuns from the industrial school. I was only 15 – I hadn’t even kissed a boy.

Describing her first impression of the Peacock Lane Laundry in Cork, she said:

It’s just total shock first, it was surreal what was happening. At nighttime we were all locked into this cell, they were like prison cells. Once you went in there at night the bolt was closed shut from the outside.
If you wanted to go to the toilet there were was a pot… In the morning you had to go and slop out – I feel sick now thinking about it.

She said that when she was 16, her and another girl tried to run away.

I ran away from that place – we jumped out from the first floor windows. There were bars on most windows, but the ones facing for the public to see had no bars and we jumped out the windows.

They went to the Bon Secours hospital, but were taken back to The Good Shepherd’s Laundry in Cork where they changed her name to Enda. “I discovered after that that it was a boy’s name.”

There, they shaved my hair and said ‘Now you will never run away’.

She said that after five months there, she was told “she wasn’t settling in properly” and would be sent to another Laundry in Waterford. “They were excellent at trafficking,” she said.

Asked about the effect living in the Laundries had on her, Elizabeth said:

It stays with you for life. You’re overprotective of your children, I’m especially overprotective of my daughter.
We didn’t even get a chance to be educated. I was 12 years old when I finished my education.

She said she now has a “love-hate relationship” with the Irish State and Catholic Church.

“When I came back to Ireland, I came back with mixed emotions – excitement and anticipation. Sometimes it seems what happened to me is like a dream, it’s surreal and to think it was a so-called Free State, so-called good-for-all Catholicism – but they were evil deeds they did.”

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    Mute Ballybunion
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:32 AM

    So how did this man die? It’s reported that he died from being homeless, but that’s hardly a cause of death? If he succumbed to the elements then what elements exactly were these? It was a warm night and not the middle of January, but it’s easy to blame the fact he was homeless as the only factor at play here.

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    Mute Shawn O'Ceallaghan
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:37 AM

    @Ballybunion: hang lets jump to conclusions before the facts come out again.

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    Mute Michael O'Neill
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:40 AM

    @Ballybunion: I was thinking that too. We’ve had 3 homeless people die last week. How many people with homes died?
    Should we have a vigil for them.

    Certainly, being homeless may have been (and probably was) a factor but we don’t know this because of the knee jerk responses by our media and bleeding hearts.

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    Mute Ísla Carabine
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:56 AM

    @Ballybunion: well he was convicted for knowingly passing HIV to a woman in Australia so I can’t imagine he was using his anti retroviral drugs himself and not selling them etc. That’s just a guess.

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    Mute White Rabbit
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:11 AM

    @Michael O’Neill: come back to us Michael when you’re down on your luck.

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    Mute Mary Murphy
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:36 AM

    @Ballybunion: Ahh sure h was a saint when he died. The fools couldn’t praise him enough when all they had to do was ask themselves why he wasn’t rehomed? And it would be nice for the media to actually find the truth about homelessness and most of the stories behind it instead of promoting lies. E.g. how many were offered homes and refused them because they want certain areas

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    Mute Michael Geraghty
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:47 AM

    @White Rabbit: he wasn’t just down on his luck though was he? According to the reports he has 40 convictions in 19 yrs in Australia and three very serious ones, sexual assaults and knowingly infecting a woman with HIV.

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    Mute Eugene Comaskey
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:49 AM

    @Michael O’Neill: we need to hear what was the cause of death in each case, I’m sure PMs were held in each case, the weather was not cold, apparently one died in a hotel room. There may have been other factors at play , we simply don’t know. Anyway, homelessness is not a disease, but stress and fear might contribute. Substance abuse could be a factor , we just don’t know.

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    Mute Kevin Moylan
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:59 AM

    @Michael O’Neill: the bleeding hearts cough has been softened since it emerged that he was a pervert .gone very quiet all of a sudden

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    Mute Benny McHale
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    Sep 6th 2017, 10:25 AM

    @Michael O’Neill: I don’t think you’d need to be a bleeding heart to assume you’ve a greater chance of survival in a bed than you have on the street.

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    Mute Mike
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:50 AM

    The journal has been slow to go with this story. Often times the those on the streets have refused help from the state and NGOs. There is often drug abuse and other issues. In this country those who work with the state/NGOs (funded by the state and others) have no reason to be on the streets.

    Supposedly sad cases like the man in this article are used to push for socialist model of housing in Ireland. Homeless now includes those picking and choosing where the state houses them for free who live in hotels as the taxpayers expense as they have refused everything put their way. Hotels should be a last resort where someone would be on the street not because someone doesn’t like the accommodation offered.

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    Mute Mary Murphy
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:47 AM

    @Mike: Exactly. But why won’t the media give us the real stories instead of the crap they insist on feeding us. People who stay in hotels after refusing the help of a place to stay until they get back on their feet need to be charged for staying in hotels. Why should the taxpayer foot the bill. It’s not the taxpayers job to rehome all in their preferred area after all there are many taxpayers commuting hours everyday to keep these ungrateful lazybones in hotels

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    Mute John Kehoe
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:05 AM

    Where are all the do gooders saying what a lovely gentle man this guy was now?

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    Mute Shawn O'Ceallaghan
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:43 AM

    I find it funny how the file photo changed from him modeling for a photoshoot to a mugshot. Its like “oops we defended a child abuser”.

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    Mute Micheal S. O' Ceilleachair
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:17 AM

    @Shawn O’Ceallaghan: definitely a man of conviction!!!

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    Mute Paul Flood
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:35 AM

    Good enough for him.
    But what a bunch of fickle bleeding heart liberals ‘the moaners’ and ‘everything for free’ groups really are.

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello.
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:50 AM

    @Paul Flood: If by “fickle” you mean “lose the will to memorials you after it emerges you’re a convicted child sex offender, then yes I suppose we are fickle.

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    Mute Paul O Riordan
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:32 AM

    At least 1 of the other homeless people who died recently had a dodgy past.

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:36 AM

    @Paul O Riordan: grow a pair and actually say something instead of doing equal damage to the good and the bad by not having the courage of your convictions

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    Mute Barry C Mc Govern
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:38 AM

    @Paul O Riordan: you sound very pleased that that might be the case.

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    Mute Brinster
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:34 AM

    Doesn’t change the fact that we need more social housing to be built. Now.

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    Mute Paul Flood
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:52 AM

    @Brinster: SOLUTION TO SOCIAL HOUSING PROBLEM: get a job; work hard; cancel sky sports; lose the sense of entitlement chip on your shoulder; don’t expect the state to ‘mammy’ you and they’ll you’ll be able to buy a house like the rest of us.

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    Mute Ísla Carabine
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:57 AM

    @Paul Flood: how ignorant.

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    Mute Davids Levin
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:59 AM

    @Paul Flood: get back to work you. stop skiving on the Internet

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    Mute John Kennedy
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:03 AM

    @Brinster: Genuine question, How many social housing units do we need to build?, 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000?, where are the serviced sites to build the houses?, how much will it cost?, how will we fund it?. what amount of rent should we set to recover the financial outlay?. I don’t want to hear about Irish Water, the Foreign Aid budget or what we are giving to immigrants, or whatever other “whataboutery” come to mind.
    Like I say, genuine question

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    Mute Patricia Kennedy
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:17 AM

    @Paul Flood: pretty smug reply Paul nothing is that cut and dried. Shit happens and not everyone is in a position to buy a house. There should be an alternative and council housing was always there for that purpose.

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    Mute Ísla Carabine
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:21 AM

    @Patricia Kennedy: the rent to buy scheme always seemed like a brilliant idea to me. I don’t know if they’ve scrapped it entirely or if the restrictions are so much that there’s only a tiny amount of people who can avail

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    Mute Austin Rock
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:26 AM

    @Paul Flood: I did all of those things you say and very very successful too. But somehow I don’t think like you – which is a great relief to me.

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    Mute Paul Flood
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:27 AM

    @Patricia Kennedy: you’re right Patrica, it was smug. However, all the media coverage and rhetoric concentrates on the needs of the ‘everything for free’ brigade.
    What about the Majorie of people who can barely afford to pay for their own house never mind a free house for someone else -particularly if that someone else doesn’t have to work and sits on their arse all day and spends their life living off the state.
    Granted there are some genuine cases -and that’s what a social state should cater for – but the majority are spongers that have no intention of weaning off the state.

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    Mute Paul Flood
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:30 AM

    @Austin Rock: and may you find serenity in your relief. But I would suggest there are many other organisations that deserve your largesse -temple street children’s for example- rather than the free for all spongers on state aid.
    I, for one, would prefer to see my taxes going to a more worthy cause.

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    Mute Paul Flood
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:32 AM

    @Ísla Carabine: shut up you tool. I’ve as much insight to the issue as anyone else.

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    Mute Shane o rourke
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:38 AM

    @Austin Rock: virtue signal much?

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    Mute Mary Murphy
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:49 AM

    @Ísla Carabine: how is that ignorant? You think everyone should have everything handed on a plate to them!

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    Mute Mary Murphy
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:54 AM

    @Patricia Kennedy: Most people will make their own way in the world. But in recent years it’s become quit obvious that the taxpayer is being played for a fool. There are a lot of homeless living in hotels who just want to take and who will only take what they’d like not what’s offered. If you’re offered something to help you get back on your feet and you refuse it because you only want what you want then you should be homeless not living in a hotel on my dime

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    Mute Ísla Carabine
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:56 AM

    @Mary Murphy: not at all but it really is not as easy as that for everyone. There will always be people who need help

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    Mute Paul Flood
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    Sep 6th 2017, 10:25 AM

    @Ísla Carabine: how did you know? Have you hacked my camera phone again?
    Anyway, that’s sexist, or racist or at least discriminatory in some sort of way against us of the mono-active sexually aware cohort of society. My dignity is offended. Where’s my outrage?

    I shouldn’t have called you a tool btw. I suspect you are prob one of they few genuine cases but 95% are just spongers that will not make an effort to wean themselves of state handouts.

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    Mute Mairtin Antaine O Conaill
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:56 AM

    This is a prime example of why you can’t trust the media. No background information or investigations before the story is released. The media are only interested in the big headline.

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    Mute Blah blah
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:54 AM

    This is an example of what was wrong with the whole home sweet home debacle.
    This man was involved in the occupation, stayed in the building and was allegedly helping out…he was a sexual predator in a place with a lot of vulnerable people. An example why specialised services are needed for many homeless not just putting people in a unused unsuitable building

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    Mute Nick Allen
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:30 AM

    So is homelessness now acceptable if you have erred in your past? It would be nice if someone published a list of offences to explain which crimes are covered

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    Mute Barry Davidson
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:33 AM

    @Nick Allen: erred!!!!!

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    Mute Shawn O'Ceallaghan
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:40 AM

    @Nick Allen: sexual assault on a child is more than an “erred past”.

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    Mute Michael O'Neill
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:41 AM

    @Nick Allen: Yeah, I’d say child abuse would be in the list.

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    Mute Dave Murray
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:55 AM

    @Nick Allen: Wow….

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    Mute Shane o rourke
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    Sep 6th 2017, 8:59 AM

    @Nick Allen: erred in your past?he was convicted of raping two girls under 16 you absolute dirt bird.

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    Mute Nick Allen
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:54 AM

    @Shane o rourke:

    Quality post Shane

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    Mute Noel James Doherty
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:26 AM

    Was he Irish or what? “Amassed 40 convictions in Australia”?? The name would be common in Australia I’m presuming they didn’t deport one of their own & he ended up here (there might be people here think that it’s irrelevant to the story but it’s a fair ask)

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    Mute gerry fallon
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:42 AM

    Isint always the same in this country. We’re all ready to extend our sympathies but are made to look really foolish by the stupid inept reporters who never get their story right.
    Poor “Jack” was a criminal but hoodwinked everybody.Shame on him ok.
    He took advantage of our hospitality. We need to ask more questions before we pour our heart out in future.

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    Mute Nick Allen
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:57 AM

    Its quite amazing how so many people cannot compartmentalise two important issues

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    Mute bfreesun
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:59 AM

    Nice to see the Irish version of Charity is alive and well on these pages. Only the deserving poor are entitled to help. Anybody else can die on the streets.

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    Mute Fergus Sheahan
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    Sep 6th 2017, 10:12 AM

    @bfreesun: Yes sex offenders and criminals can die on the street. I’m happy enough with that.

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    Mute Eoin
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:24 AM

    If he is a sex offender well then to he’ll with him.

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    Mute Paul Santry
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    Sep 6th 2017, 10:11 AM

    @John Kennedy: they are good questions. But you should be asking your local TD for answers, not Brinster

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    Mute Michael O'Neill
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    Sep 6th 2017, 9:54 AM

    @White Rabbit: Nah. Just have a vigil for me when I die.

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