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A UNITED NATIONS committee has criticised the government for its failure to undertake an independent investigation into allegations of ill-treatment at Magdalene Laundries.
It said that it “deeply regrets” that the Irish State has failed to prosecute and punish perpetrators, which was a recommendation it had made previously.
Last month, Minister David Stanton told the UN Committee Against Torture that Ireland had a “strong human rights record” and hailed positive developments that have been made since the last report on the matter submitted to the UN in November 2015.
On the issue of investigations, accountability and redress in the context of Magdalene Laundries, the UN committee said that it had noted the creation of an “ex-gratia scheme that has provided over €25.5 million to 677 former Magdalene women to date”.
However, the committee also criticised the government for not undertaking an “independent, thorough and effective investigation” into the alleged ill-treatment of women and children in these institutions.
It said: “The committee is concerned at reports that the State party has not undertaken sufficient efforts to uncover all available evidence of abuses held by private institutions, nor taken adequate steps to ensure that victims are able to access information that could support their claims.
The committee is also concerned that the State party’s ex gratia payment scheme does not apply to all women who worked in the Magdalene Laundries.
The UN issued a number of recommendations to the government to address these failings.
This includes a “thorough, impartial investigation” into allegations of ill-treatment at these institutions, and ensuring that victims have the right to bring civil actions even if they’ve participated in the redress scheme.
On Mother and Baby Homes, the committee urged the government to “ensure that information concerning abuses in these institutions [...] be made accessible to the public to the greatest extent possible”.
The committee also recommended that the independence and effectiveness of the Garda Síochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) be strengthened and that efforts are made to reduce overcrowding and violence among Ireland’s prisoner population.
Recommendations are also made in the context of violence against women in Ireland, including guaranteeing that allegations of sexual and domestic violence are promptly investigated and the provision of sufficient funding for victims to access medical and legal services.
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre CEO Noeline Blackwell said: “The recommendations that have come out from the Committee would definitely help to reduce the risk of harm from sexual violence for victims.
The recommendations are sensible, balanced and modest. They can be implemented if there is political will to do so.
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There will never be any genuine effort to hold the religious orders or their members to account for the institutionalised slavery, abuse and crimes against humanity carried out in the laundries, as long as the government of the day depends on the votes of God fearing elderly Catholics to stay in power. The magdeline laundries could not have operated without the deference of politician and assistance of our police force, so it’s not surprising that the children and grandchildren who took their relatives seats in the Dail are so reluctant to to the right thing.
@The Risen: Nailed it. It always comes down to votes and cash. The criminals will continue to get away scot free as long as their tribe of devoted followers have votes. There’s no political will in Ireland to prosecute criminals in the Catholic church.
@The Risen: I agree. Its odd though that when the journal published an article on the similarities between how the church and the provos treated their abuse victims you attacked the author of the article. What’s different now?
@The Risen: Very well put
@The Risen: when do expect these God fearing Catholics to expire? And who will they replace the parties with?
@The Risen: I agree but society also needs to hold their hands up and take some blame. Families would willingly hand over siblings etc to the authorities. It amazes me how much control the church had on generation’s. But from the laundries to the mental institutions the people are not blameless. Ok it could be argued that their was a group think mentality at the time but still.
@The Risen: it will never happen in an Ireland governed by the FF/FG merry go round. The main tenet of such governance being that the ‘ establishment protects the establishment at all costs’. NOTHING ever changes in the Status quo.
@The Risen: The redress scheme was projected to get 3,000 application and got 30,000. That cost something like €3 bill. Who is there to be prosecuted? Some old dear in her 90′s with failing memory? I’d prosecute the people responsible for dishing out €3 bill and the lawyers who drew up the statements of claim.
Every nun,priest ,”christian” brother,bishop, cardinal and pope should be dragged before a UN human rights abuse court for what the did in this country ..
@dangermouse: True. Absolute slime.
The govt not prosecuting is an embarrassing they are complicit
@dangermouse: Slime. Govt not prosecuting renders them complicit in my eyes
@Chris Finn: Far more to than that Chris. Doctors, barristers, Gardai, and politicians either knew or were directly involved to some extent, or at least the cover-ups afterwards.
To prosecute members of the church, they also have prosecute others outside the church. That’s why we’ll never see anyone held to account.
@dangermouse: Should’a, could”a, would’a. And let’s be realistic. Dramatisation helps nobody.
@Good Early: The families of these poor souls would have also been well are of what was going on in these places and yet continued to send many women there. No one was forced to hand their daughters over to these people. My own mam knows women who got pregnant in these times. The priests would come looking for them and many of the families told the priests where to go and that no uncertain terms would their daughters be going anywhere.
@dangermouse: UN human rights? They are doing the same themselves with girls in Africa
the people of ireland and families didnt care about these “fallen” women at the time. they were shunned and left on the streets. the only place to take them in was the laundries. ireland of the time was a tough and cruel place. these women greatly suffered but it was everyones fault.
@p kilgannon: More lies. Lonely people working away from home in a country with no contraception and no published information? Of course you had some secret pregnancies. Why worry a family who already had too many children to feed and needed money sent home? I am sure that most of those women never knew what had happened to them at first. It certainly wasn’t something to write home about. It’s such a lie to say they were abandoned by their families. I doubt they ever knew. I see not a single word of blame for the lads who fathered a child in these tough cruel times. That’s so charitable of you.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: no i didnt specifically blame the lads nor did i blame the ladies. no need for you to get so defensive. you are wrong, many women were abandoned by their families when they became pregnant. this is well known and told by the women themselves. this was happening regularly in ireland even in the 1980s.
Who are they going to prosecute. Who is responsible for the laundries . The church , nuns , government . The laundries provided a service that public was quiet happy to use .
Would be difficult to get a conviction…However the state should gave tried a test case….Bring a nun in her 80′s before a court….Find some witnesses to what she did to the women in the laundry…..Leave the decision to a judge…..Defence would be that was accepted culture of the time…..
@John003: piss away money for nothing to come of it. You don’t prosecute unless there is a reasonable chance it will be successful.
@John003: then the civil side of it. The thousands of families who dumped their daughters would need to reconcile inheritance monies with their as yet unknown families.
@lavbeer: Why would the State want to challenge any wills? Those women had no money – otherwise they would have had rights.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: I was thinking of the children themselves challenging Willa they would have been disinherited from? Why not? I would be looking for my rightful place
@lavbeer: And good luck to you if that’s your choice. But I think any independently wealthy family wouldn’t have let a child of theirs be basically sent to the workhouse to be abused. They would be the only people with any assets to pass on. My guess is that most working women were sent into service because there were too many children to feed already. Most had no resources or any voice to begin with. You don’t seriously think that the church split the adoption fee with the girl’s family? I’m pretty sure that they kept every penny of it. Sure they didn’t even bury the children they starved.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: But maybe finance wasn’t the reason for the dis-owning? Only saying families were split and children denied. Wouldn’t you want to know?
The UN has no standing on human rights when some of their council members have the worst record on human rights. I can’t take any of it seriously when the Saudi’s are involved.
So let’s release all the “excitable boys” into the community. Or let’s build more jails to house the current inmates. Let’s worry about the cost later. A sure why not tax all those pesky workers even more…
The UN…one of the most pointless & useless organisations around… who cares what they say?
I dont believe in tarring everyone with the same brush ,lets not forget there was good nuns and priests doing sterling work in all fields .The mob mentality does nothing but divide us as a people .there are many storys i can recollect of wrong done ,personal stories ,but others where great human kindness was shown .there will always be legacy issues ,those that done terrible things and got away with it ,but lets not be judge and jury .society in those days had a victorian mindset ,IS it not wonderful to see how our social and moral values have changed for the better .
Human rights for all except single mothers and their babies.
The price of sin is the surrender of basic human rights.
That time has passed and the generation that were so fearful…respectful… of the religious are dying out literally, like myself. By all means prosecute, if there is evidence against any individual which can be proven, but take small comfort in the fact that no child today is afraid of a priest, nun, brother, or anyone higher up the God chain.it is over.
The chances of legal accountability of the perpetrators are zero.
@Tony Daly: Yes, you can tell by the way that the ‘sinful’ fathers-to-be were locked up, humiliated and beaten until they were able to provide for their natural child. Oh, wait.
The chances of legal accountability of the perpetrators are zero.
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