Magdalene group tells Government: Go back to the drawing board
Women who were held in one of the Magdalene laundries rejected
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Members of Magdalene Survivors Together want all the women detained to be given a basic payment of €50,000 for the emotional and psychological damage suffered, with compensation for work done on top.
They also want all the money paid in one bulk, instead of an initial lump sum followed by weekly amounts making up the balance.
Maureen Sullivan, the youngest known survivor admitted to one of the laundries, said women were forced to work from morning till night – washing floors from 7.30am, in a laundry throughout the day, and then making rosary beads at night.
“I think they totted it up all wrong,” she said.
“They need to go back to the drawing board.”
The Sisters of Mercy ran two laundries, one in Dun Laoghaire which closed in 1963 and one in Galway which closed in 1984.
It said its archives will be open for women to check how long they spent in the institutions.
The congregation also said it supported the possibility of mediation between nuns and surviving women.
“We will welcome the opportunity for such interaction mindful that all Sisters who held positions of responsibility and worked in Galway or Dun Laoghaire are now deceased,” they said.
