Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will conclude. However, the committee also went beyond its brief to provide information on the living and working conditions in the laundries and on their financial viability. The report implies that little physical abuse took place in the laundries. However, as Amnesty International has pointed out, the report also cited psychological punishments, which also should be deemed to be physical, namely, the use of solitary confinement cells and the deprivation of food for those girls and women who refused to work. Furthermore, the committee did not include in its report the 800 pages of written testimony provided by the Justice for Magdalenes advocacy groups.

These testimonies, both from survivors and other witnesses, illustrate that many women experienced physical punishment during their times in the laundries. I would like to finish with a quotation from a woman whose testimony was published in the Ryan report:

The older I get I find these years haunt me, I will carry it to the grave with me... The nuns made you feel as if you’re a nobody and you never have any roots... As the years go by you try not to be spiteful, I try not to be bitter... I have bad days and then I have good days.

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