Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I have outlined before, Sinn Féin welcomed the apology from the Taoiseach on behalf of the State to the women incarcerated in the Magdalen laundries. While we commend those involved in putting together the McAleese report, it really only scratches the surface of what went on in Ireland during that time. This should be seen as a starting point in the healing process of the wounds inflicted on the women of Ireland, particularly poor women, by the apparatus of the State. The women who were the victims of barbaric symphysiotomy practices are still waiting for their apology. The apparatus of the State actively facilitated the injuries inflicted on them. Women's bodies were seen as things that needed to be contained and fixed. Poorer women were held in contempt in Ireland. We still have a constitutional provision that refers to women's duties as being within the home and are still living with the effects of these attitudes.

Too many people on this island are due apologies from the State. Considering what happens now within the care system, and going by previous Governments' form on these issues, there will be an apology owed to them too.

However, it is not only the State that is required to say it is sorry. The religious orders are glaringly absent from this. Too many sets of financial records from the laundries have gone missing. There must be further investigations into this, and prosecutions must be initiated where appropriate. Slave labour was tolerated in these laundries and women suffered unspeakable injuries as a result. Many of them never recovered. Some of them never got out and were buried in unmarked graves because their lives were not worth as much as an individual headstone to the nuns or the State. The burying of those poor women in unmarked graves is the aspect that has really struck a nerve. The State and religious orders had such contempt for these women that there were girls who did not even have names. I have heard of women who merely had numbers allocated to them. There were no birth certificates and by virtue of accidents of birth, class and gender they were consigned to laundries. Women who should not have been in the laundries and tried to escape were promptly rounded up by the Garda and returned to their lives of slave labour.

There was a bizarre culture of deference in Ireland whereby the people - the State - allowed clerics to dictate what should or should not be social norms in society. It was a society that allowed women to be locked up because they happened to be too pretty. It is actually mind-boggling. Religious orders facilitated the incarceration of people they disapproved of in institutions built on systematic cruelty and torment. They were violent, as attested to by the pages of testimony from women that were not included in the McAleese report.

When I think of Christ, I think of the Christ of love, compassion, understanding, empathy and courage, who was not afraid to speak up to the powerful and reached out to the dispossessed and those on the margins of society. He was a true inspiration through the ages, spiritually and in every way. What in the name of God had the message of Christ to do with the institutions run in his name or that of the Virgin Mary? What in the name of God would have led anybody involved with those institutions to believe they were acting in God's name or following the path and message of Jesus Christ? Their actions, attitudes and control over our people in that period was everything that is opposite to the message of Jesus Christ. What they must closely reflect on is the damage they did to the good name of Christianity and to acting in the name of Christ and that of the Virgin Mary over the years. Shame on every one of them. Shame on them for claiming that mantle as theirs.

There must be an apology for this. However, these institutions were not just about the social or moral policing of women in Ireland. Let us make no mistake - the Magdalen slaves were financial assets to the laundries. The laundries were businesses. Any business that was given access by the State to almost unlimited free labour would have done very well; one need not be an economist to know that. Plenty of people did very well indeed out of the unmerciful cruelty that was inflicted on these women, just as there were well-to-do people in Ireland at the time who did well from not having to pay children from industrial schools who were sent to do unpaid domestic and agricultural work. Ireland has seen plenty of forced labour over the years. The religious orders did not run the laundries out of the goodness of their hearts. These women are owed compensation and their unpaid wages and pensions. They are owed proper redress, and to hear word "sorry" from the religious orders.

There are huge questions about how the redress scheme will operate. Experience in these matters indicates that the Irish State is not one that makes these structures victim-centred. Some who went to the residential institutions redress board found the experience horrific and felt it was only another opportunity for legal practitioners to make money. The religious orders pleaded that they had no money. The State has failed to deal with this quickly. The terms of reference must be published immediately. The fact that there will be an ex gratiascheme that does not accept liability on behalf of the State is disappointing. The State was culpable, so it is liable. The redress mechanism must be put on a statutory footing and it must have an independent appeals process. Women who emigrated to get away from the trauma of their experience in Ireland must also be included. The matter of those who were incarcerated in Bethany Home must be addressed. The Taoiseach has said that Mr. Justice Quirke will report back in three months. That is unacceptable. We owe it to the women of the laundries to expedite this as a matter of urgency.

I wish to return to the issue of faith and to the abuse of the privilege that comes with being a leader who has the huge honour of being a vehicle for the message of Christ and a pathway to God. That is how these people presented themselves. I have had the privilege of knowing many fine people of faith from when I was a young lad and throughout my life. There were some fantastic priests. Fr. Jimmy Doherty, RIP, who died of multiple sclerosis, was a wonderful man who worked with young people in my home town of Buncrana. I think of the people who, to me, represented the message of Christ throughout my life, such as the priests and nuns who served as missionaries, fought against oppressive regimes and stood side by side with the people in Africa, Latin America and Asia. They are inspirational; they follow the path of Christ. However, far too many in the institution of the Catholic Church and other Christian institutions have walked away from that path, have besmirched the name of Jesus Christ by acting maliciously and cruelly, and have left this legacy.

I pose a challenge to the Catholic Church, as the conclave of cardinals gathers shortly to select a new Pope. The church must drive away cruelty, malice, protection of the powerful and greedy and the refusal to stand up against an unjust and unequal system in which people are starving and dying while others live in incredible wealth in this country and across Europe, the United States and the developed world. The world we live in is a shameful insult to the message of Christ, and the church is not doing enough about that. When a house assigned to Travellers was burned down recently in Ballyshannon, where was the church? Where were the voices of Christ to challenge that bigotry and indifference? Even in 2013 there are too many in the church who are failing in their responsibilities. There are also wonderful and courageous voices in the church who truly follow the path of Christ. Rather than have all this debate in the Vatican about protecting the orthodox and so-called tradition, it is time to knock it down and rebuild it. It is time to start from scratch. There is no better place to start than with the message of Christ that it is better to live in poverty than to live in opulence and wealth. Consider the Vatican, St. Peter's Square and St. Peter's Basilica. Are they modest structures? Do they reflect the modesty of Christ? I believe the missionaries living in modest accommodation in Africa and Latin America are the vehicles of Christ. If people are looking for the centre of faith, they should not go to the Vatican or to any of the big cathedrals in the world, but to the missions, where people are delivering love, empathy and support.

The issue of the Magdalen laundries, other institutions and all the challenges we see throughout the world show it is time to revisit the issue of faith. It is time for modesty and humility. It is time to start again. It is also time to talk to the people who genuinely follow the path of Christ in our missions, who work with the poor and stand up against oppression, and who say the capitalist system in place across the world is in defiance of his message. It is time for real courage. If the church goes there, it will then win the hearts and minds of people across the world and will truly follow in the path of Christ again.

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