Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

"We could not believe she was only 42 because she looked so old-fashioned. She was wearing one of those polyester dresses. These were her good clothes and she had a handbag. When she opened it there was nothing inside. It was just for decoration because when one is going to something fancy one should have a handbag. She looked like a pensioner. She had the face of hard work, the face that one sees in so many women who have just had to work too hard and never had anyone to take care of them. She was just lovely and she was asking extremely innocent questions. It was the first time she ever had coffee, which she found exciting, and she had not seen brown sugar before. Obviously, in the Gresham there was brown and white sugar cubes on the table which was all very fancy to her. She was overjoyed to be there and absolutely wowed by everything."

This is Theresa’s impression of Anne, her natural mother, at their reunion. Incarceration in a Magdalen laundry deprived Anne of her daughter, Theresa of her mother and a young woman of her liberty and the endless possibilities of life and love. I believe the women of the Magdalen laundries. Anne’s testimony did not find its way into the McAleese report. I am challenged to take a leap of faith to accept the full extent of the awfulness, the human tragedy and suffering experienced in these religious and State-supported pain factories as covered in this report, welcome as it is. The State must sincerely and fully apologise. So too should those religious orders and the church hierarchy which presided over these shameful operations. Services must be provided and an efficacious and appropriate recompense and redress process must be agreed with the survivors. The women who were sold out by the State and the church, which professed to love them and respect their God-given dignity, must not be sold short now. I know the Minister of State and the Government knows this. I urge those in positions of responsibility to take swift action to address this issue and close this sorry, sad and heart-breaking chapter of recent Irish history.

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