Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Martin McAleese for the report that critically proved the State involvement that had been denied for so long. There are flaws in the way the report was constructed in that it was not independent and the terms of reference were very confined. In my opinion it also understated abuse in the laundries, which surprised me given how cruel even primary schools could be at the time. Also, as these women were locked up I cannot believe there was not serious and significant physical abuse.

I will read from the testimony from a former paid hand of the Sisters of Mercy laundry. Mary C came forward not only because she believed the women but because she witnessed the physical abuse. She stated:

It’s the beatings they got, that was uncalled for ... [if they broke the rules] ... [t]heir heads would be shaved. [I]f the ... nun would come down then at night, which she did ... and if she found two women in bed, I guarantee you wouldn’t see hair. I remember one girl came down and now, I don’t know where her eye was, I don’t know where her eye was, her face was all disfigured from the beating she got and the hair was shaved and the blood was still on the top of her head. And I was told that’s what happened, she found two of them in bed together ... I told you about ‘on the ran’, they got beat - they got physically beat. They were terrified, they were terrified.

That is fairly revealing.

It is important that these testimonies are heard. It is vital that at all stages we realise that these were real people who had months, years and sometimes decades stolen from their lives in the most cruel of environments. I cannot believe these laundries did not make a profit. I believe these women.

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