The Good Shepherd Convent, Magdalen Asylum, Sunday’s Well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l7yTzawED4&t=88s
Videos are unedited taken Saturday 29th. September 2018
I take a keen interest in this Magdalene Laundry because I’m informed that my Mother, Nora Mccarthy or Norah Mccarthy was dumped with hundreds of other Women and Children into a mass grave at the back of this Magdalene Laundry at Sunday’s Well, in Cork City, as was, I believe my Brothers and Sisters. I will always look for any and all information about my Mother, Brothers and Sisters.
The Good Shepherd Convent, Magdalen Asylum, Sunday’s Well, in Cork City, opened on the 29th July 1872. Sunday’s Well Magdalen Laundry was also the site of orphanage, and remained open until the late 1977. The Victorian buildings have been derelict ever since a serious fire in 2003. The laundry was one of buildings that were destroyed. Thousands of Women and children passed through during it's 105-year history. Good Shepherd Sisters ran the huge institution until its closure in 1977. All the women and children were incarcerated against their will at the request of family members or Priests for reasons such as prostitution, being an unmarried mother, being developmentally challenged or raped. Even young girls as young as four who were considered too promiscuous and flirtatious were sometimes sent to this Magdalen Asylum. The three main buildings were - a Laundry, Convent, and Orphanage have been in a derelict condition since a serious fire which took place in 2003. The laundry building was among a number of buildings that were destroyed in that fire. The Good Shepherd Convent, Sunday’s Well, was sold to developers in 2005 for €20 million. In May 2010 the Good Shepherd Convent became another casualty of the collapsing Irish property bubble; the undeveloped site was seized by Ulster Bank.
Let their be no mistake, their are thousands of women and children secretly buried on the vast grounds surrounding the Magdalen Asylum, at Sunday’s Well. As we know, judging by another Convent in County Galway, in Tuam Town. The Tuam Mother and Baby Home, were there are at least 800 children and babies who were disposed of into a septic tank, and probably 1,800 more women and children buried in secret burial plots on their former lands. Be sure that the same is here in the Good Shepherd Convent, Magdalen Asylum, and Orphanage at Sunday’s Well, Cork City. We cannot afford to take the Good Shepherd Nuns word or any Nun’s word for that matter. In another Convent and Magdalen Asylum, known as the Park Convent and Laundry in Dublin City in the early 1990s, construction workers found an undeclared secret grave where 133 women, unknown, who the nuns claimed they didn't know about, who were disposed of into a hidden grave, and another 22 unknown women and children found in another secret undeclared grave, nearby . So you see we have a known history of secret grave disposal plots with women and children on the former lands of Magdalene Laundries. This triggered a public scandal and became local and national news in 1999, so please let’s not take the word of any Nun. All these Victorian Institution for the same period, around 1870s all have huge septic tanks, we need to investigate all of them Immediately.
3 Articles below please read.
“Little Nellie of Holy God” by Owen Felix O'Neill.
This vast edifice of a grand Victorian red-brick gothic horror, called the Good Shepherd Convent and Magdalene Laundry Asylum ruin looms, like a haunted sarcophagus over Cork’s north-side. A funeral receptacle for bad memories and the horror sustained within, the flesh-eating stones of red brick and grey corner stones fastened to the church like windows and exterior doors serve as a further indication of warped christian severity. The toxic religion that flourished within, served like limestone that was used to decompose the dignity of the flesh of living corpses, trapped and enslaved, forever within it. This columbarium building was a disrespectful place for holding the living cadavers of slave women and their children, compartmentalised in religious housing.
On the north-west corner of the three hectare site, above and away from the ruined neo-gothic horror, of the Convent, lies a memorial, overgrown with hate and rage, sealed behind ten-foot high, razor-wired walls of death. The vandalised memorial marks a mass grave, containing hundreds and maybe thousands of women and their children, who lived despairing lives of divine religious drudgery in the Good Shepherd Magdalene Laundry, ignored in life, and now, it seems, determinedly forgotten in death. A little away across this stark mass gravel pit, and the other side of the complex, lies an immaculately-maintained graveyard. Each grey stone cross beautifully records the individual life of one woman, a Nun, who lived, presumably, a life of confused prayer and sexual frustration, which enabled beatings, slavery, sexual abuse, humiliation and finally death of fallen women and their children, dumped by the hundreds in mass, into the bleak gravel pits that lay but a few feet to her right, the contrast could not be clearer.
The centre-piece of the Nuns’ cemetery is a shrine to Cork’s unofficial patron saint, “Little Nellie of Holy God”. Little Nellie, was a little girl called Ellen Organ who was born in County Waterford in 1903. As a baby, already a delicate child, she displayed signs of severe disability, it seems a serious fall as a baby had left its mark, Her spine had become crooked, her hips and back, out of joint, caused her constant pain and as she grew up she became unable to sit up straight. Little Nellie suffered serious spinal injuries which left her in constant pain. When Nellie was two, she moved with her family to Spike Island in Cork, where her mother, Mary, became fatally ill with tuberculosis. In her delirium, Mary became fervently religious. When Mary died, the local Priest exploited the delirium Mary’s children and placed them in care of the Holy Nuns, of the Good Shepherd Convent and Magdalene Laundry Asylum. At the age of four, Little Nellie was in the Good Shepherd’s Convent infirmary, suffering from whooping cough and tooth decay so bad that her jaw disintegrated. Worse, she had contracted TB and had less than six months to live. Little Nellie, lived for eight months under the care of the Good Shepherd Sisters, who refused to give her any medical drugs to ease her pain and suffering. According to the Nuns, Little Nellie, referred to God as "Holy God", and the Nuns believed that she was having some form of religious experience. She loved to visit the Church which she called "the House of Holy God", and she was fascinated by the statues and images on display, and in particular by the Stations of the Cross.
When the manipulative Nuns told Little Nellie, the story of the suffering and death of Jesus, Little Nellie burst into tears. The unscrupulous Nuns claimed that Little Nellie developed a mysterious awareness of the Blessed Sacraments. One story told by the Nuns, relates how Little Nellie knew a member of staff, a Nun had not been to Mass that day, even though the young Nun said she had. "You did not get Holy God today" Little Nellie said. Meanwhile, Little Nellie began to claim to have visions. She related how she saw Christ, usually as a little child, of four, like herself, and of course the Blessed Virgin Mary, all in white with a bright blue sash. On a number of occasions Little Nellie claimed to have also seen the Infant of Prague dancing for her. This wax coated wooden statue of baby Jesus, with wooden base and silver erector, the statue of Infant Jesus is ornate, studded with diamonds and crowned with gold, with his left hand holding a golden orb symbolising kingship and the right hand raised with the palm in a blessing posture. Little Nellie ’s already precocious faith was growing, and those who came to know her testified to her holiness.
Astonished at feeding Nellie’s ludicrous religiosity, the canny Nuns exploited the little girl’s naivety as an opportunity to make money by successfully petitioning the then-Bishop of Cork City, Bishop O’Callaghan, to grant Little Nellie, Holy Communion, then reserved for children over 12. When Little Nellie died from neglect, and hunger, the wily Nuns again petitioned Pope Pius X who in his stupidity declared Little Nellie a sign from God, the natural laws of nature were suspended yet again and Pope Pius X ordered the age of Communion be reduced to seven. A year after Little Nellie’s death, the astute Nuns had her re-buried on their property, in a grand grave, in their own private little cemetery. They foolishly claimed that when they opened Little Nellie’s coffin, her body was perfectly preserved. The deceitfully Nuns then and to this day exploited Little Nellie to further enrich their coffers while the rest of the women and children slaves of the Magdalene Laundry Asylum died from basic neglect, hunger, beatings, and human care, and the Merciful God allowed the little girl of 4 to suffer for the four years of her life. Holy God's forgiveness of his creatures' offences and who personally thrived on Little Nellie’s personal pain, never for once relieved her suffering. Little Nellie was known according to the Nuns for Piety, Mystical experiences, or her precocious spiritual awareness and alleged mystical life, particularly dedicated to the Eucharist. All at the under age of 4. The Nuns talked about Little Nellie’s strong faith, knowledge of Catholic doctrine, and holiness.
Now I ask, was Mercy coupled with other attributes of Holy God in “You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” or Holy God’s mercy was rooted in His love for Little Nellie, by allowing her to suffer a most painful death. He is merciful, in large part, because He is love, itself, so explained the Nuns. As a sinner, Little Nellie deserved all the punishments inflicted on her, according to the Nuns, Little Nellie was a true sinner, even at the tender age of four. Again the Nuns explained, Holy God’s righteousness requires punishment for sin, even in a child of four or a child just born, Little Nellie wouldn’t be holy otherwise. Since God does love Little Nellie and is merciful, He sent His Son also to suffer for our sins. The fullness of His mercy, Jesus is brutally beaten and murdered on our behalf, just like Little Nellie was, Jesus received our just condemnation, and we received God’s mercy, and Little Nellie received our blessings, prayers and we allowed her pain and suffering to continue because it was Holy God’s preordained gift to humankind. This was the rational I learnt when I spoke to two Nuns a few weeks ago, incredible.
Little Nellie died in the Convent in 1908 and was buried in St Joseph’s Cemetery, some distance away, but when her body was exhumed by the Nuns for reburial in the convent grounds a year later, 1909, it was found by the Holy Nuns to be intact. For many years afterward, the gravy train of pilgrims from around the world visited Little Nellie’s grave, and the Nuns made buckets of money, while the other children slaves and their mothers, toiled in the backbreaking Laundry, hidden away from the all seeing eyes of the visiting pilgrims. As I pointed out that Little Nellie and the ingenious Nuns are not the only people buried in the Good Shepherd Laundry Asylum. It seems obscene that Little Nellie, a 4 year child, whose head was filled with nonsensical religious rubbish and who lived a short, painful life, is celebrated by the Irish Catholic Church, even as it does everything in its still considerable power to forget the approximately 60,000 women and children it enslaved, with many thousands dying in the Irish Magdalene Laundries between 1922 and 1996. In the 8 months that Little Nellie was in the Good Shepherd Laundry Asylum, 77 women and children died.
The Good Shepherd Laundry Asylum and the city of Cork was overflowing with poverty. With nutrition so poor in the city and with so many people living in poverty and poor housing, there was a great flu epidemic, widespread occurrence of this infectious disease in a community at that particular time in Cork City. Among the significant institutions in Cork were the Workhouses in Blackrock, in Cork city. There was also St. Patrick’s Hospital and the Good Shepherd Laundry Asylum in Cork city. On the evening the census of 1911 was taken, there were 5,408 persons in workhouses, and 2,457 people were recorded in the hospitals, and 4,750 in the different Mother and Baby Homes and Industrial Schools, and Magdalene Laundries which were recorded in the Census of 1911, this was out of a population of the Cork city of about 80,000. A grand total of about 12,615 people in the different Catholic Religious Institutions in Cork City alone, over 12.% of the population of Cork city were in Catholic Religious Institutions. Owen Felix O'Neill
The Good Shepherd Convent, Magdalen Asylum, Sunday’s Well, in Cork City, opened on the 29th July 1872. Sunday’s Well Magdalen Laundry was also the site of orphanage, and remained open until the late 1977. The Victorian buildings have been derelict ever since a serious fire in 2003. The laundry was one of buildings that were destroyed. Thousands of Women and children passed through during it's 105-year history. Good Shepherd Sisters ran the huge institution until its closure in 1977. All the women and children were incarcerated against their will at the request of family members or Priests for reasons such as prostitution, being an unmarried mother, being developmentally challenged or raped. Even young girls as young as four who were considered too promiscuous and flirtatious were sometimes sent to this Magdalen Asylum. The three main buildings were - a Laundry, Convent, and Orphanage have been in a derelict condition since a serious fire which took place in 2003. The laundry building was among a number of buildings that were destroyed in that fire. The Good Shepherd Convent, Sunday’s Well, was sold to developers in 2005 for €20 million. In May 2010 the Good Shepherd Convent became another casualty of the collapsing Irish property bubble; the undeveloped site was seized by Ulster Bank.
Let their be no mistake, their are thousands of women and children secretly buried on the vast grounds surrounding the Magdalen Asylum, at Sunday’s Well. As we know, judging by another Convent in County Galway, in Tuam Town. The Tuam Mother and Baby Home, were there are at least 800 children and babies who were disposed of into a septic tank, and probably 1,800 more women and children buried in secret burial plots on their former lands. Be sure that the same is here in the Good Shepherd Convent, Magdalen Asylum, and Orphanage at Sunday’s Well, Cork City. We cannot afford to take the Good Shepherd Nuns word or any Nun’s word for that matter. In another Convent and Magdalen Asylum, known as the Park Convent and Laundry in Dublin City in the early 1990s, construction workers found an undeclared secret grave where 133 women, unknown, who the nuns claimed they didn't know about, who were disposed of into a hidden grave, and another 22 unknown women and children found in another secret undeclared grave, nearby . So you see we have a known history of secret grave disposal plots with women and children on the former lands of Magdalene Laundries. This triggered a public scandal and became local and national news in 1999, so please let’s not take the word of any Nun. All these Victorian Institution for the same period, around 1870s all have huge septic tanks, we need to investigate all of them Immediately.
3 Articles below please read.
“Little Nellie of Holy God” by Owen Felix O'Neill.
This vast edifice of a grand Victorian red-brick gothic horror, called the Good Shepherd Convent and Magdalene Laundry Asylum ruin looms, like a haunted sarcophagus over Cork’s north-side. A funeral receptacle for bad memories and the horror sustained within, the flesh-eating stones of red brick and grey corner stones fastened to the church like windows and exterior doors serve as a further indication of warped christian severity. The toxic religion that flourished within, served like limestone that was used to decompose the dignity of the flesh of living corpses, trapped and enslaved, forever within it. This columbarium building was a disrespectful place for holding the living cadavers of slave women and their children, compartmentalised in religious housing.
On the north-west corner of the three hectare site, above and away from the ruined neo-gothic horror, of the Convent, lies a memorial, overgrown with hate and rage, sealed behind ten-foot high, razor-wired walls of death. The vandalised memorial marks a mass grave, containing hundreds and maybe thousands of women and their children, who lived despairing lives of divine religious drudgery in the Good Shepherd Magdalene Laundry, ignored in life, and now, it seems, determinedly forgotten in death. A little away across this stark mass gravel pit, and the other side of the complex, lies an immaculately-maintained graveyard. Each grey stone cross beautifully records the individual life of one woman, a Nun, who lived, presumably, a life of confused prayer and sexual frustration, which enabled beatings, slavery, sexual abuse, humiliation and finally death of fallen women and their children, dumped by the hundreds in mass, into the bleak gravel pits that lay but a few feet to her right, the contrast could not be clearer.
The centre-piece of the Nuns’ cemetery is a shrine to Cork’s unofficial patron saint, “Little Nellie of Holy God”. Little Nellie, was a little girl called Ellen Organ who was born in County Waterford in 1903. As a baby, already a delicate child, she displayed signs of severe disability, it seems a serious fall as a baby had left its mark, Her spine had become crooked, her hips and back, out of joint, caused her constant pain and as she grew up she became unable to sit up straight. Little Nellie suffered serious spinal injuries which left her in constant pain. When Nellie was two, she moved with her family to Spike Island in Cork, where her mother, Mary, became fatally ill with tuberculosis. In her delirium, Mary became fervently religious. When Mary died, the local Priest exploited the delirium Mary’s children and placed them in care of the Holy Nuns, of the Good Shepherd Convent and Magdalene Laundry Asylum. At the age of four, Little Nellie was in the Good Shepherd’s Convent infirmary, suffering from whooping cough and tooth decay so bad that her jaw disintegrated. Worse, she had contracted TB and had less than six months to live. Little Nellie, lived for eight months under the care of the Good Shepherd Sisters, who refused to give her any medical drugs to ease her pain and suffering. According to the Nuns, Little Nellie, referred to God as "Holy God", and the Nuns believed that she was having some form of religious experience. She loved to visit the Church which she called "the House of Holy God", and she was fascinated by the statues and images on display, and in particular by the Stations of the Cross.
When the manipulative Nuns told Little Nellie, the story of the suffering and death of Jesus, Little Nellie burst into tears. The unscrupulous Nuns claimed that Little Nellie developed a mysterious awareness of the Blessed Sacraments. One story told by the Nuns, relates how Little Nellie knew a member of staff, a Nun had not been to Mass that day, even though the young Nun said she had. "You did not get Holy God today" Little Nellie said. Meanwhile, Little Nellie began to claim to have visions. She related how she saw Christ, usually as a little child, of four, like herself, and of course the Blessed Virgin Mary, all in white with a bright blue sash. On a number of occasions Little Nellie claimed to have also seen the Infant of Prague dancing for her. This wax coated wooden statue of baby Jesus, with wooden base and silver erector, the statue of Infant Jesus is ornate, studded with diamonds and crowned with gold, with his left hand holding a golden orb symbolising kingship and the right hand raised with the palm in a blessing posture. Little Nellie ’s already precocious faith was growing, and those who came to know her testified to her holiness.
Astonished at feeding Nellie’s ludicrous religiosity, the canny Nuns exploited the little girl’s naivety as an opportunity to make money by successfully petitioning the then-Bishop of Cork City, Bishop O’Callaghan, to grant Little Nellie, Holy Communion, then reserved for children over 12. When Little Nellie died from neglect, and hunger, the wily Nuns again petitioned Pope Pius X who in his stupidity declared Little Nellie a sign from God, the natural laws of nature were suspended yet again and Pope Pius X ordered the age of Communion be reduced to seven. A year after Little Nellie’s death, the astute Nuns had her re-buried on their property, in a grand grave, in their own private little cemetery. They foolishly claimed that when they opened Little Nellie’s coffin, her body was perfectly preserved. The deceitfully Nuns then and to this day exploited Little Nellie to further enrich their coffers while the rest of the women and children slaves of the Magdalene Laundry Asylum died from basic neglect, hunger, beatings, and human care, and the Merciful God allowed the little girl of 4 to suffer for the four years of her life. Holy God's forgiveness of his creatures' offences and who personally thrived on Little Nellie’s personal pain, never for once relieved her suffering. Little Nellie was known according to the Nuns for Piety, Mystical experiences, or her precocious spiritual awareness and alleged mystical life, particularly dedicated to the Eucharist. All at the under age of 4. The Nuns talked about Little Nellie’s strong faith, knowledge of Catholic doctrine, and holiness.
Now I ask, was Mercy coupled with other attributes of Holy God in “You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” or Holy God’s mercy was rooted in His love for Little Nellie, by allowing her to suffer a most painful death. He is merciful, in large part, because He is love, itself, so explained the Nuns. As a sinner, Little Nellie deserved all the punishments inflicted on her, according to the Nuns, Little Nellie was a true sinner, even at the tender age of four. Again the Nuns explained, Holy God’s righteousness requires punishment for sin, even in a child of four or a child just born, Little Nellie wouldn’t be holy otherwise. Since God does love Little Nellie and is merciful, He sent His Son also to suffer for our sins. The fullness of His mercy, Jesus is brutally beaten and murdered on our behalf, just like Little Nellie was, Jesus received our just condemnation, and we received God’s mercy, and Little Nellie received our blessings, prayers and we allowed her pain and suffering to continue because it was Holy God’s preordained gift to humankind. This was the rational I learnt when I spoke to two Nuns a few weeks ago, incredible.
Little Nellie died in the Convent in 1908 and was buried in St Joseph’s Cemetery, some distance away, but when her body was exhumed by the Nuns for reburial in the convent grounds a year later, 1909, it was found by the Holy Nuns to be intact. For many years afterward, the gravy train of pilgrims from around the world visited Little Nellie’s grave, and the Nuns made buckets of money, while the other children slaves and their mothers, toiled in the backbreaking Laundry, hidden away from the all seeing eyes of the visiting pilgrims. As I pointed out that Little Nellie and the ingenious Nuns are not the only people buried in the Good Shepherd Laundry Asylum. It seems obscene that Little Nellie, a 4 year child, whose head was filled with nonsensical religious rubbish and who lived a short, painful life, is celebrated by the Irish Catholic Church, even as it does everything in its still considerable power to forget the approximately 60,000 women and children it enslaved, with many thousands dying in the Irish Magdalene Laundries between 1922 and 1996. In the 8 months that Little Nellie was in the Good Shepherd Laundry Asylum, 77 women and children died.
The Good Shepherd Laundry Asylum and the city of Cork was overflowing with poverty. With nutrition so poor in the city and with so many people living in poverty and poor housing, there was a great flu epidemic, widespread occurrence of this infectious disease in a community at that particular time in Cork City. Among the significant institutions in Cork were the Workhouses in Blackrock, in Cork city. There was also St. Patrick’s Hospital and the Good Shepherd Laundry Asylum in Cork city. On the evening the census of 1911 was taken, there were 5,408 persons in workhouses, and 2,457 people were recorded in the hospitals, and 4,750 in the different Mother and Baby Homes and Industrial Schools, and Magdalene Laundries which were recorded in the Census of 1911, this was out of a population of the Cork city of about 80,000. A grand total of about 12,615 people in the different Catholic Religious Institutions in Cork City alone, over 12.% of the population of Cork city were in Catholic Religious Institutions. Owen Felix O'Neill
The Stench of Silence by Owen Felix O'Neill.
Truth hides, buried behind a dour stone grey wall, and only a stench of its silence reveals it ignominy, a mass grave of forgotten children, now lie vulnerable, the dead corpses were piled, naked, one on top of the other, in an unmarked hidden barrow, a dark place of Catholic shame, where broken and discarded women and children hide, consigned to oblivion. A secret undercroft, a mound of dirty secrets and a shameful Church’s criminal acts and unscrupulous misdeeds, their grievous sins, prepared and buried by christian apologetics. Burying their guilt is an important factor by the Catholic Church in perpetuating their obsessive compulsive disorder, there is always the crushing guilt. A small stone Celtic Cross, droops into the gravel pit, and the two black mirror marble tablets on either side, listing some of the names, lies also in ruins, knocked in half by some furious grieving family member, or a wanton act of enraged vandalism.
It is crucial that each child’s and each woman’s final resting place is accurately recorded. Thousands of children and women died behind Magdalene Laundry enclosures, never stopped to see the outside world again. It’s hard to believe that some of the destitute women, spend well over 70 years in these horrendous Religious Institutions, as slaves. The Magdalene Laundries in Ireland were Institutions run by Irish Nuns, which first set up shop in 1922 when Ireland became independent. Until the last laundry closed in 1996 around 50,000 to 60,000 women were forced into these brutal workhouses in which they were often referred to only as a number. Long before the Nazis in Germany’s death camps, used tattooed numbers on the inmates in their work camps, the inventive Irish Nuns introduced a new series of registration numbers which was introduced in 1920’s and remained in use until 1996 when the last Magdalene Laundry closed. In some cases, the Nuns even wrote the numbers in ink on the woman’s arm or her child’s arm. The numbering scheme was divided into “regular,” 1001 for example 1002..and onward, covering all the women and children in their Magdalene Laundries. The “regular” series consisted of a consecutive numerical series that was used to identify the women, their children.
The numbers were then entered into a hand- written ledger by the duty Nun, against the handwritten name of the woman or child. Following the introduction of other categories of women, like older women, teenage girls or if their was a child with her, be either a boy or girl into the Magdalene Laundries, the numbering scheme, became more complex. In many cases the number was sown into her work apron and would in all cases, she would be address by that number. In addition the ink ledger which was 18 inches by 12 inches, and 4 or 5 inches thick had other information about the women, for example her county, village or town, her crime, her children, her new job within Magdalene Laundry, even her attitude, for example, was she difficult, rebellious etc…then her date of birth, religion, secret codes the Nuns used within the ink ledger for themselves, about the inmates, for example her appearances, whether she would read or write, type of family, lower classes or middle class, and most important her proposed crime.
The use of the serial numbers in the Magdalene Laundries on the women and their children, was the way the Nuns used the numeral system of un-making and dehumanising the impecunious women and their hapless children as normal human beings. Yet the numbers the Nuns used in the Magdalene Laundries also became the routinisation and rationalisation of the large bureaucracy that was our Magdalene Laundries system. The Irish Nuns numeral ideas were based on conformity, and the suppression of personal individuality by being a number, and wearing the Religious Institution’s uniform, removed the woman’s identity, she would forever be trapped in the matrix of the Magdalene Laundries. What a brilliant way to underscore the depersonalisation of Magdalene women and their children, so powerful. The serial numbers were used as a way to dehumanise the women and their children, as was the whole shearing of a flock of waiting women and other special victimisation including, beating, forced rape and sexual slavery. In addition sterilisation experiments targeted some of the women, and their children in the Magdalene Laundries by the medical drug companies, while some of the medical experiments were ongoing, the nuns subjected the captive women to further inhumane and degrading treatment.
The Nuns knew the value some of the women placed on their beautiful hair and features, so the spiteful Nuns sheared the women's hair with glee within a few days of their entry into the Magdalene Laundries, and that, with the effect of a starvation diet on their menstrual cycles added to the humiliation of the Magdalene Laundries experience. Particularly striking and beautiful looking women, also received special targeting and further brutal treatment at the hands of a few of the vindictive Nuns in the Magdalene Laundries. The punishment of shaving a woman's head had biblical origins, so the acrimonious Nuns were told by the Magdalene Laundries visiting Priests, this barbaric act of shearing women hair, dates back to the dark ages, with the Visigoths, and approved by God and the Catholic Bible, the Nuns were told.
During the middle ages, this mark of shame, denuding a woman of what was supposed to be her most seductive feature, was commonly a punishment for adultery, which was melted out gleefully in all the Magdalene Laundries, with the approval of the visiting, agitated Priest. It’s the correct punishment for these impudent and immoral hussies and prostitutes in your wonderful care, was the encouragement shouted out from the pulpits by the imbecilic, sexually frustrated Priests in the Magdalene Laundries Churches, that the humiliated women were also forced to attend. So shaving women's heads was a mark of retribution and humiliation, endorsed by the wider Irish Catholic Church which was a standard feature of all the Magdalene Laundries, run by the Nuns. For the Nuns that ran the Magdalene Laundries shaving the heads of the slave women, was a sacred duty and acceptance in treating the women as nothing more than basic animals, and that was the norm.
Incoming new women and their children were assigned a Magdalene Laundry serial number which was sewn to their laundry uniforms and as I said earlier some of the women had hand-written numbers by ink brio, on their arms, written by the Nuns. If a woman or child died in the Magdalene Laundries, the bodies of the women or child was stripped of their clothing bearing the Magdalene Laundries serial number. Any and all person letters of the dead, mementos, like a locket, gold rings, gold or silver crosses and photos and any history were confiscated, the letters and photos were burned, the jewellery was either kept or sold by the Nuns, another lucrative side business for the Nuns, stealing and selling of stolen jewellery from the dead. Its even more grotesque, when learning about this evil of the Nuns that ran the Magdalene Laundries, this species of evil, was a further exploitation of the dead. To add further insult, the woman or child’s family were never informed, and if by chance they were, it was because the Nuns wanted money from the grieving family to pay for the burial of the woman or child. Other personal effects like clothing, shoes and handbag of the dead person had great value at the time, and would now be sold for profit in their charity shops. Wallets with photos, other engraved rings, or fashion jewellery, hats, shawls, scarfs, and overcoats, skirts, blouses, stockings, knickers, etc.. The women were usually allowed to carry the few things they had on them at the time of their imprisonment in the Magdalene Laundries.
Many personal belongings, the grotesque theft, that were taken from the women when they arrived first at the Magdalene Laundries, were the so called “personal effects. Many personal belongings generally have little material value but a high sentimental value for the woman and her family members. More often than not they are a last personal memento they had, all the rest of the person’s assets were immediately sold on by the Nuns that ran the Magdalene Laundries, another highly lucrative business.
Given the mortality rate at the Magdalene Laundries and practice of removing all clothing, there was no way to identify the bodies after all the clothing was removed, and this was the intent of the Nuns as the Nuns dumped the women or children into mass graves, behind the Magdalene Laundries with no name, no identity, and certainly no serial number, total dehumanisation was the intent.
The hand-written ledger with the dead woman or child serial number was then altered and maybe her death noted, normally, entered would be, “she died from flu”, or some other known medical condition, and not the beatings in which she or her child usually died from. The Nuns knew it was an affront upon personal dignity of the women and their children, in particular, humiliating and degrading the women and their children so as to gain total control over them. This is why, when mass graves are found in Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby Homes, the newer Nuns who came into the Magdalene Laundries system, were unable to identify or name the person in the mass grave, years later, how could they, the buried women and children had no identifications or serial numbers, or any other identifications on them. All personal identification, including jewellery were removed by the Nuns.
Any correspondent numbers with initial names or full names in the ledger never matched, any and all other documents were similarly destroyed by fire. The wily Nuns intended to erase not just the body, but any lingering memory of the women, or child haven’t been in the Magdalene Laundries. The alteration of all documents was to confuse all and anybody who would research or ask questions, years later. So a few hundred bodies dumped in a mass grave at the back of all Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, when discovered, would never have an identity, or any DNA, to match. The now outraged Nuns when they learnt about the mass grave would show their indignation that others, outsiders, found the mass graves, and the peeve Nuns would then lie, like the pros they are, the lies would tip right of their righteous tongues with furious indignation…
Most of the women in the Magdalene Laundries were denied adequate food, forbidden from making friends and suffered hard labour for 14 hours a day. Half of the women were under 23. Named after the Bible's redeemed prostitute, Mary Magdalene, the workhouses were ostensibly run to reform 'fallen women' but their remit widened to house girls who were considered 'promiscuous' along with unmarried mothers, the criminal, mentally unwell, and girls who seen as a burden on their families. Most Survivors say that they were treated as mere slaves, and in many cases the girls' families were told by the Nuns that ran the Magdalene Laundries, that their daughters were studying at school and many families even received falsified reports from the Nuns.
Babies born to the unwed women were taken from them at birth and illegally adopted, or harvested, most of the women found themselves imprisoned and unable to leave the Magdalene Laundries. The last Magdalene Laundry closed in 1996 but it took until 2003 for the Government of Ireland to issue an apology to the thousands of these women and their children, it was to late, the enormous damage had begun. The Irish State was directly and fundamentally involved in the Magdalene Laundry Institutions with the conniving of the Irish Catholic Church, even the Irish State awarding the Magdalene Laundries, lucrative Government contracts. Sadly the vast majority of the women spoke of their deep outrage they felt due to their loss of their personal freedoms, the loss of their family, their children either dead or stolen, sold off near or abroad, their hopeless and wasted lives. What was even worse was that they were never informed why they were there, they had no information on when they could leave and were denied all contacts with the outside world, including their children, family and friends. The legacy of the ineradicably evil Magdalene Laundries of Ireland since the 1920s, was that tens of thousands of women and their children, one time or other were imprisoned and humiliated in these State run Religious Institutions, sanctioned by both the misogynistic Irish Catholic Church and the spineless and easily led Irish State, all to control women bodies and their reproduction rights, and worse still all for profit to enrich the Roman Catholic Church . Owen Felix O'Neill.
Truth hides, buried behind a dour stone grey wall, and only a stench of its silence reveals it ignominy, a mass grave of forgotten children, now lie vulnerable, the dead corpses were piled, naked, one on top of the other, in an unmarked hidden barrow, a dark place of Catholic shame, where broken and discarded women and children hide, consigned to oblivion. A secret undercroft, a mound of dirty secrets and a shameful Church’s criminal acts and unscrupulous misdeeds, their grievous sins, prepared and buried by christian apologetics. Burying their guilt is an important factor by the Catholic Church in perpetuating their obsessive compulsive disorder, there is always the crushing guilt. A small stone Celtic Cross, droops into the gravel pit, and the two black mirror marble tablets on either side, listing some of the names, lies also in ruins, knocked in half by some furious grieving family member, or a wanton act of enraged vandalism.
It is crucial that each child’s and each woman’s final resting place is accurately recorded. Thousands of children and women died behind Magdalene Laundry enclosures, never stopped to see the outside world again. It’s hard to believe that some of the destitute women, spend well over 70 years in these horrendous Religious Institutions, as slaves. The Magdalene Laundries in Ireland were Institutions run by Irish Nuns, which first set up shop in 1922 when Ireland became independent. Until the last laundry closed in 1996 around 50,000 to 60,000 women were forced into these brutal workhouses in which they were often referred to only as a number. Long before the Nazis in Germany’s death camps, used tattooed numbers on the inmates in their work camps, the inventive Irish Nuns introduced a new series of registration numbers which was introduced in 1920’s and remained in use until 1996 when the last Magdalene Laundry closed. In some cases, the Nuns even wrote the numbers in ink on the woman’s arm or her child’s arm. The numbering scheme was divided into “regular,” 1001 for example 1002..and onward, covering all the women and children in their Magdalene Laundries. The “regular” series consisted of a consecutive numerical series that was used to identify the women, their children.
The numbers were then entered into a hand- written ledger by the duty Nun, against the handwritten name of the woman or child. Following the introduction of other categories of women, like older women, teenage girls or if their was a child with her, be either a boy or girl into the Magdalene Laundries, the numbering scheme, became more complex. In many cases the number was sown into her work apron and would in all cases, she would be address by that number. In addition the ink ledger which was 18 inches by 12 inches, and 4 or 5 inches thick had other information about the women, for example her county, village or town, her crime, her children, her new job within Magdalene Laundry, even her attitude, for example, was she difficult, rebellious etc…then her date of birth, religion, secret codes the Nuns used within the ink ledger for themselves, about the inmates, for example her appearances, whether she would read or write, type of family, lower classes or middle class, and most important her proposed crime.
The use of the serial numbers in the Magdalene Laundries on the women and their children, was the way the Nuns used the numeral system of un-making and dehumanising the impecunious women and their hapless children as normal human beings. Yet the numbers the Nuns used in the Magdalene Laundries also became the routinisation and rationalisation of the large bureaucracy that was our Magdalene Laundries system. The Irish Nuns numeral ideas were based on conformity, and the suppression of personal individuality by being a number, and wearing the Religious Institution’s uniform, removed the woman’s identity, she would forever be trapped in the matrix of the Magdalene Laundries. What a brilliant way to underscore the depersonalisation of Magdalene women and their children, so powerful. The serial numbers were used as a way to dehumanise the women and their children, as was the whole shearing of a flock of waiting women and other special victimisation including, beating, forced rape and sexual slavery. In addition sterilisation experiments targeted some of the women, and their children in the Magdalene Laundries by the medical drug companies, while some of the medical experiments were ongoing, the nuns subjected the captive women to further inhumane and degrading treatment.
The Nuns knew the value some of the women placed on their beautiful hair and features, so the spiteful Nuns sheared the women's hair with glee within a few days of their entry into the Magdalene Laundries, and that, with the effect of a starvation diet on their menstrual cycles added to the humiliation of the Magdalene Laundries experience. Particularly striking and beautiful looking women, also received special targeting and further brutal treatment at the hands of a few of the vindictive Nuns in the Magdalene Laundries. The punishment of shaving a woman's head had biblical origins, so the acrimonious Nuns were told by the Magdalene Laundries visiting Priests, this barbaric act of shearing women hair, dates back to the dark ages, with the Visigoths, and approved by God and the Catholic Bible, the Nuns were told.
During the middle ages, this mark of shame, denuding a woman of what was supposed to be her most seductive feature, was commonly a punishment for adultery, which was melted out gleefully in all the Magdalene Laundries, with the approval of the visiting, agitated Priest. It’s the correct punishment for these impudent and immoral hussies and prostitutes in your wonderful care, was the encouragement shouted out from the pulpits by the imbecilic, sexually frustrated Priests in the Magdalene Laundries Churches, that the humiliated women were also forced to attend. So shaving women's heads was a mark of retribution and humiliation, endorsed by the wider Irish Catholic Church which was a standard feature of all the Magdalene Laundries, run by the Nuns. For the Nuns that ran the Magdalene Laundries shaving the heads of the slave women, was a sacred duty and acceptance in treating the women as nothing more than basic animals, and that was the norm.
Incoming new women and their children were assigned a Magdalene Laundry serial number which was sewn to their laundry uniforms and as I said earlier some of the women had hand-written numbers by ink brio, on their arms, written by the Nuns. If a woman or child died in the Magdalene Laundries, the bodies of the women or child was stripped of their clothing bearing the Magdalene Laundries serial number. Any and all person letters of the dead, mementos, like a locket, gold rings, gold or silver crosses and photos and any history were confiscated, the letters and photos were burned, the jewellery was either kept or sold by the Nuns, another lucrative side business for the Nuns, stealing and selling of stolen jewellery from the dead. Its even more grotesque, when learning about this evil of the Nuns that ran the Magdalene Laundries, this species of evil, was a further exploitation of the dead. To add further insult, the woman or child’s family were never informed, and if by chance they were, it was because the Nuns wanted money from the grieving family to pay for the burial of the woman or child. Other personal effects like clothing, shoes and handbag of the dead person had great value at the time, and would now be sold for profit in their charity shops. Wallets with photos, other engraved rings, or fashion jewellery, hats, shawls, scarfs, and overcoats, skirts, blouses, stockings, knickers, etc.. The women were usually allowed to carry the few things they had on them at the time of their imprisonment in the Magdalene Laundries.
Many personal belongings, the grotesque theft, that were taken from the women when they arrived first at the Magdalene Laundries, were the so called “personal effects. Many personal belongings generally have little material value but a high sentimental value for the woman and her family members. More often than not they are a last personal memento they had, all the rest of the person’s assets were immediately sold on by the Nuns that ran the Magdalene Laundries, another highly lucrative business.
Given the mortality rate at the Magdalene Laundries and practice of removing all clothing, there was no way to identify the bodies after all the clothing was removed, and this was the intent of the Nuns as the Nuns dumped the women or children into mass graves, behind the Magdalene Laundries with no name, no identity, and certainly no serial number, total dehumanisation was the intent.
The hand-written ledger with the dead woman or child serial number was then altered and maybe her death noted, normally, entered would be, “she died from flu”, or some other known medical condition, and not the beatings in which she or her child usually died from. The Nuns knew it was an affront upon personal dignity of the women and their children, in particular, humiliating and degrading the women and their children so as to gain total control over them. This is why, when mass graves are found in Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby Homes, the newer Nuns who came into the Magdalene Laundries system, were unable to identify or name the person in the mass grave, years later, how could they, the buried women and children had no identifications or serial numbers, or any other identifications on them. All personal identification, including jewellery were removed by the Nuns.
Any correspondent numbers with initial names or full names in the ledger never matched, any and all other documents were similarly destroyed by fire. The wily Nuns intended to erase not just the body, but any lingering memory of the women, or child haven’t been in the Magdalene Laundries. The alteration of all documents was to confuse all and anybody who would research or ask questions, years later. So a few hundred bodies dumped in a mass grave at the back of all Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, when discovered, would never have an identity, or any DNA, to match. The now outraged Nuns when they learnt about the mass grave would show their indignation that others, outsiders, found the mass graves, and the peeve Nuns would then lie, like the pros they are, the lies would tip right of their righteous tongues with furious indignation…
- Famine women and children, a few hundred years old, a famine grave.!!
- We holy Nuns would never do that, un-christian, its monstrous.!!
- What women, What children.!!
- Nobody here remembers that, we spoke to the older frightened Nuns, it’s grotesque to even think of it.!!
- We went thoroughly through our archives and we have no records in the archives.!! (most archives were burned)
- There are no Nuns here aware of this hideous grave.!!
- It must be an invention of the media and a few unhappy women we helped out with, looking for free money from us poor Nuns.!!
- We can’t discuss any of this now, because of the data protection act.!!
- It was another era, it’s time to move on, there is nothing here, nothing to see, it’s private land. !!
- We sold the land, it’s the developers problem, we removed our beloved Nuns, to rebury in consecration land.!!
- It’s an outrageous, wicked, wicked lie.!!
- We don’t have any files anymore here, they are with the HSE Ireland, you have to ask them.!!
- Sorry I can’t help, I’ve only been a Nuns a few years, I spoke to the older Sisters, they are shocked, they have no memory of this, no memory.!!
- We don’t talk to the media, we are praying and talking to God.!!
- Nuns wouldn’t do that, Nuns don’t do that, it’s horrendous, my god they are in their 80’s, leave them in peace.!!
Most of the women in the Magdalene Laundries were denied adequate food, forbidden from making friends and suffered hard labour for 14 hours a day. Half of the women were under 23. Named after the Bible's redeemed prostitute, Mary Magdalene, the workhouses were ostensibly run to reform 'fallen women' but their remit widened to house girls who were considered 'promiscuous' along with unmarried mothers, the criminal, mentally unwell, and girls who seen as a burden on their families. Most Survivors say that they were treated as mere slaves, and in many cases the girls' families were told by the Nuns that ran the Magdalene Laundries, that their daughters were studying at school and many families even received falsified reports from the Nuns.
Babies born to the unwed women were taken from them at birth and illegally adopted, or harvested, most of the women found themselves imprisoned and unable to leave the Magdalene Laundries. The last Magdalene Laundry closed in 1996 but it took until 2003 for the Government of Ireland to issue an apology to the thousands of these women and their children, it was to late, the enormous damage had begun. The Irish State was directly and fundamentally involved in the Magdalene Laundry Institutions with the conniving of the Irish Catholic Church, even the Irish State awarding the Magdalene Laundries, lucrative Government contracts. Sadly the vast majority of the women spoke of their deep outrage they felt due to their loss of their personal freedoms, the loss of their family, their children either dead or stolen, sold off near or abroad, their hopeless and wasted lives. What was even worse was that they were never informed why they were there, they had no information on when they could leave and were denied all contacts with the outside world, including their children, family and friends. The legacy of the ineradicably evil Magdalene Laundries of Ireland since the 1920s, was that tens of thousands of women and their children, one time or other were imprisoned and humiliated in these State run Religious Institutions, sanctioned by both the misogynistic Irish Catholic Church and the spineless and easily led Irish State, all to control women bodies and their reproduction rights, and worse still all for profit to enrich the Roman Catholic Church . Owen Felix O'Neill.
The Cover-Up at High Park Magdalene Laundry, Dublin by Owen Felix O'Neill.
The faces of the past always comes back to haunt us, the past must not be easily forgotten. And please let’s be clear these Women and Children were murdered, why else would the Nuns dispose of the dead through cremation, the 155 newly discovered bodies of the Women and Children when they were found, really, the only excuse offered to cremate the bodies would be to destroy the forensic evidence to cover up an atrocious mass crime.
The Good Sister, were on a roll, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity sold a tract of land for £1.5m from the same High Park Convent Magdalene Laundry, Dublin, to developers in early 1993. The Building which housed the Laundry was sold seven years later in the year 2000 for €6.68m, and finally six years later in 2006 the rest of the land was sold to Barina Construction, (How ironic Barina Construction, once a significant major developer in Dublin is now placed in receivership by Nama.) which paid €55m for a 2.7-hectare green area inside the compound, for a grand total of €63,180,000 million euros for The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity. Not bad when you consider that the Convent and Magdalene Laundry used slave labour, both women and children for free, never paid out a red cent to any of the slaves that worked for them and got away with mass murder. So in 1993 the developers moved into the tract of land they bought to develop and the horrified construction workers found a dark secret burial pit where 133 women were buried in a secret underground vault and another 22 were discovered nearby by accident. The good Nuns conveniently forgot their were secret burial pits on that part of their land.
The outraged construction workers found that many of the bodies of the women and children were buried with their broken bones still in plaster-casts on their ankles, elbows, wrists, and hands, when they were dumped in the communal pit. One of the bodies was headless and the head was never found. Why these bodies had casts on them is no mystery as these women were serving penal servitude for life because they were found to have had sexual relations without the express permission of the Irish Catholic Church. The workers stopped working while an outraged property developer called the Nuns, who then called the Archbishop of Dublin for help, the Archbishop of Dublin, called a friend in the Irish Government, who then called a friend a Superintendent in An Garda Síochána, the whole thing was covered up quickly.
The Department of the Environment called in and ordered the Undertakers to exhuming the bodies of 133 women and children at the notorious Sisters of Our Lady of Charity convent, than the Undertakers took out 133 bodies of women and children out of the ground and by accident the Undertakers dug deeper after they were told there was no more bodies by the Nuns, but one of the Undertakers kept digging and digging and found another 22 other unknown bodies. And almost 60 of the deaths at one of the now at this infamous Magdalene Laundry in Dublin were never registered. The shocking revelations did prompt calls for a Garda probe into who these Women and Children were, and how they died and buried, but to no avail. The Department of the Environment granted a special licence to the Nuns for the removal and cremation of the bodies at nearby Glasnevin Cemetery. But the poor Undertakers who began removing the bodies found an extra 22 bodies, in another pit. It is claimed that when they were discovered, the Department of the Environment simply issued an extra licence covering the other 22 remains and did not launch an investigation into who they were. Failing to register a death is a criminal offence in Ireland, except when it come to the Irish Catholic Church. But of the 133 original bodies, just 75 death certificates existed. All 155 bodies were removed and all but one of the woman were cremated. They can now NEVER be identified in the event of a investigation into their deaths. The then Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell was asked to initiate a criminal investigation into the unregistered and unexplained deaths. A spokeswoman said: “That’s a matter for the Garda.” A Garda spokesman said: “There will be no investigation into these unexplained deaths at the moment, it is really a problem for the Irish Catholic Church, nothing to do with us the Irish Police spokesman said to astonished reporters.
The Department of the Environment was reported as saying that “no trace” forms were issued for 34 of the dead women and it could not search for the identities of 24 others because of “insufficient details.” In the case of the 34 women, the department added: “It appears that the statutory registration procedures were not complied with at the time of their deaths.” Of the 22 extra bodies, it said it only had details of 14 of them. The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity defended its actions. Spokeswoman Sister Ann Marie Ryan, said “that the exhumation and re-interring of all 155 women was “approved by all relevant authorities”. She added: “We have had no queries from families about our decision in the intervening time”. One family took the remains of a deceased relative to a family plot at the time. The remaining 154 were respectfully cremated and laid to rest at a secret ceremony.” The secret of the unidentified women, and many others whose dignity was ignored both in life and death, lies in a double grave in Glasnevin. It may never be known who they were.
A grey headstone marked “St Mary’s High Park, In Loving Memory Of” features 175 names and dates of death, the first in 1858, the last December 1994. But the names on the headstone bear little resemblance to the list supplied to the Department of the Environment by the nuns to secure the exhumation licence. So we have a total of 330 bodies, of woman and children but not many names, and maybe according to the construction workers a few other pits were even more bodies are still secretly buried. The Nuns got their blood money.
Only 27 of the names and dates correctly match up.The Nuns’ willingness to opt for quick cremation has also been questioned, it was viewed by many as a act of desperation to cover up the heinous crimes and mutilation of the bodies of the women and children. The powerful Irish Catholic Church rush into defensive mode immediately by using its powerful influence in the background very effectively to hid the reprehensible crimes on behalf of the Nuns and also to shut down any potential official inquiry by cremating the 155 newly discovered bodies, the Irish Catholic Church knew, that Corpus delicti was and is one of the most important concepts in a murder investigation. When a person disappears and a body cannot be produced the many investigative agencies cannot initiate a case. If, during the course of the investigation, detectives believe that he/she has been murdered, then a "body" of evidentiary items, including physical, demonstrative and testimonial evidence, must be obtained to establish that the missing person has indeed been murdered before a suspect, (The Nuns) can be charged with murder. The best and easiest evidence establishment in these cases is the physical body of the deceased. No body, no crime was the motto of many in the Irish Catholic Church at the time with ample enablers in both An Garda Síochána (the Irish Police) and the Irish Government. The site, High Park Convent Magdalene Laundry, in Dublin, of the newly discovered 155 bodies was quickly covered up and rebuild on, so that forensic evidence would be forever lost. Both An Garda Síochána (the Irish Police) and the Irish Government collude with the powerful Irish Catholic Church to shut down any investigation. The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity immediately started to burn any official documentation they had stored or they could locate in their archives, this is why little is known about the 155 bodies of women and children discovered on their land. The corrupt Irish Catholic Church began to wage every effort to tarnish any opposition should it surface.
The powerful Irish Catholic Church has always frowned upon the practice of cremation preferring burial instead. For most of its history, the Roman Catholic Church had a ban against cremation. It was seen as the most sacrilegious act towards Christians and God not simply blaspheming but physically declaring a disbelief in the resurrection of the body. To this day the Irish Catholic Church still officially prefers the traditional interment of the deceased. Despite this preference, cremation is now permitted as long as it is not done to express a refusal to believe in the resurrection of the body.
What was even more scandalous was the Nuns did not even appear to know the names of many of the women buried in their pits on their Convent grounds, listing them as Magdalene of St Cecilia, Magdalene of Lourdes, and so on and on. The final number so callously disturbed from their resting place was 155. All had died as slaves in the service of the Nuns, working long hours in their large commercial laundry for no pay, locked away by a patriarchal church and society ruthlessly determined to control women’s sexuality.
Below is a list of the known names of the Women & Children who were dumped within the secret burial pits on the grounds of High Park Convent Magdalene Laundry, Dublin & later exhumed when the criminal Nun’s sold the land to developers. Of 133 bodies only 75 death certificates were found to exist. It was and remains a criminal offence in the State of Ireland to fail to register a birth that occurs in one’s premises, but in Ireland as is now known, secular law does not apply to Church property, it never did, only Cannon Law. All but one of the bodies was cremated and re-interred in Glasnevin cemetery. Owen Felix O’Neill
THESE ARE THE NAMES OF THE CHILDREN AS FOLLOWS:
1. Thomas A O Neill 7/01/1943
2. James McCormack 24/01/1945
3. James Christopher Doran 2/06/1944
4. Brigid walsh 4/09/1943
5. Margareth Mary Caffrey 5/07/1943
6. Thomas Matthews 3/02/1947
7. John Haslam 7/05/1947(3 years old)
8. Teresa Haslam 7/05/1947(19 months old)
9. John Malachy Boyle 23/10/1944
10. Philomena Frances Byrne 13/11/1943
11. Michael Corry 4/11/1942
12. Noel Peter Brown 26/09/1941
13. Patrick Lyons 27/03/1947, DIED 11/05/1947
14. Margareth Venables 14/11/1942
15. Margareth Mary Conway 5/05/1936, died 8/08/1936
16. Anthony Keating 13/03/1947 age 3 weeks
17. James McCormack 22/04/1947
18. Laurence & Mary Waters (who both died on) 6/05/1942
19. Damien John Sullivan 14/03/1944
20. Lilian and Kathleen Watters 6/06/1936
21. Rosaleen Donnelly 20/12/1943 age 2 years
22. John Augustine Kearns 17/03/1931
23. Anna Bernadette Kearns 26/04/1932
24. Thomas Anthony Kavanagh 12/11/1940, Died on 14/12/1940
25. Teresa Christina O Connor twin of Peter 29/04/1941 aged 8 months
26. Joan Margareth Duignan 27/05/1944 died 7/06/1944
27. Rita Mary Duignan 27/05/1944 died 3/06/1944 twin sisters
28. Mary Bishop 18/07/1934
29. Christina Bishop 5/05/1939
30. Martin Bishop 24/08/1952
THESE ARE THE NAMES OF THE WOMEN AS FOLLOWS:
76. Catherine Mulhall……3/02/1914
77. Sophia Barnes…..14/11/1914
78. Elizabeth Mckinley……3/04/1915
79. Mary Kavanagh…..13/02/1916
80. Mary Maher……26/12/1916
81. Kate Murphy…..19/02/1917
82. Mary F Smith…..4/08/1917
83. Charlotte Foster……5/01/1919
84. Johanna Dunphy…….28/02/1919
85. Ellen Ryan….3/03/1919
86. Mary Jane Grey……5/05/1919
87. Kate Quigley……26/12/1919
88. Elizabeth Culliton…….18/02/1920
89. Alican Ennis…….21/02/1920
90. Mary Dunne……23/05/1920
91. Elizabeth Duffy……21/06/1920
92. Eliza Mcnally……30/06/1921
93. Jane Leadon…..20/03/1923
94. Julia O Brian…..29/09/1923
95. Elizabeth Cogan…..18/10/1924
96. Kate Kiernan……5/09/1925
97. Mary Kelly…..8/12/1925
98. Emily Collins….18/08/1926
99. Isabelle Clarke….8/10/1926
100. Margareth Hayden….15/08/1927
101. Julia Byrne….22/11/1927
102. Margareth Mc’cormack 6/05/1930
103. Mary Ball…..18/06/1930
104. Joan Maguire……7/06/1933
105. Jane Kenna….9/06/1933
106. Margareth Martin…..10/06/1936
107. Mary Kinsella…..9/05/1937
108. Mary Margareth Nally…..13/06/1937
109. Margie Plunkett……15/06/1937
110. Julia Holmes….4/10/1938
111. Brigid Masterson…..19/10/1938
112. Lizzie Quinn…..30/08/1940
113. Ellen Murphy….28/03/1943
114. Martha Murray…..28/10/1943
115. Julia Somers……2/03/1944
116. Mary Clare Farrell…..27/04/1944
118. 117. Mary Ann Morgan…..25/06/1947
119. Alice Bolger…….31/04/1948 ( there is no such date 31 April)
120. Katie O Loughnane…….16/10/1951
121. Ann Teresa Hickey….29/05/1952
122. Wilma Mary Hertzburg…..27/07/1952
123. Bella Kemp……14/05/1955
124. Annie Brooks……2/10/1955
125. Catherine McConnell…..10/04/1956
126. Molly Moore….17/11/1960
127. Anne Hallinan…..2/01/1961
128. Brigid Howe…..30/09/1962
129. Mary Mahan…..10/04/1963
130. Susan Bateman…….6/05/1963
131. Mary Mooney…..30/05/1963
132. Helena Tropey……21/09/1964
133. Esther Byrne……6/01/1966
134. Bella Smith …..8/04/1966
135. Margareth Corcoran……..21/05/1967
136. Agnes Dunne…..4/08/1967
137. Annie Lutton…..5/08/1967
138. Elizabeth Mooney……22/12/1967
139. Brigid Supple…..13/10/1968
140. Rose ann Maguire…..15/04/1969
141. Ellen M Mc’kearney…..10/05/1969
142. Ellie Guest….19/05/1969
143. Christina Butler……4/09/1969
144. Louise Grayson…..11/01/1970
145. Catherine Tighe……12/01/1970
146. Josephine Kavanagh…..3/10/1970
147. Lizzie Kiernan….5/01/1971
148. Mary Brehany…..28/01/1972
149. Edith Haverty…..16/03/1972
150. Mary Wilkinson……22/09/1974
151. Alice Igoe……14/03/1975
152. Mary Mulhall….16/03/1975
153. Ellen Mc’kenna….17/09/1979
154. Christina Harrison….21/03/1982
155. Jane Murphy…..22/08/1986
156. Peggy Cummins……14/09/1987
157. Julia Treacy……5/11/1987
158. Eileen Mc’girr…..15/01/1988
159. Kathleen Floyd……27/01/1988
160. Rose Kavanagh……6/03/1989
161. Una Mc’Donald…….12/05/1989
162. Teresa Murray…..15/07/1989
163. Sally Bridge…..25/02/1990
164. Mary White…..26/02/1990
165. Annie Pollard…….29/03/1990
166. Kitty Govan……4/05/1990
167. Nora Gregan……17/02/1991
168. Nancy Gilbert……1/05/1991
169. Tessie Fallon…….8/11/1991
170. Nellie Harrison…..29/12/1991
171. Brigid Kelly…….6/04/1992
172. Mary Anne Scott…….10/10/1992
173. Elizabeth Power……i/08/1993
174. Mary Quinn……21/11/1994
175. Brigid Doody…..28/12/1994
176. Julia Kelly…….3/10/1995
177. Christina O Brien…..28/03/1997
178. Philomena Doyle……3/04/1998
The faces of the past always comes back to haunt us, the past must not be easily forgotten. And please let’s be clear these Women and Children were murdered, why else would the Nuns dispose of the dead through cremation, the 155 newly discovered bodies of the Women and Children when they were found, really, the only excuse offered to cremate the bodies would be to destroy the forensic evidence to cover up an atrocious mass crime.
The Good Sister, were on a roll, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity sold a tract of land for £1.5m from the same High Park Convent Magdalene Laundry, Dublin, to developers in early 1993. The Building which housed the Laundry was sold seven years later in the year 2000 for €6.68m, and finally six years later in 2006 the rest of the land was sold to Barina Construction, (How ironic Barina Construction, once a significant major developer in Dublin is now placed in receivership by Nama.) which paid €55m for a 2.7-hectare green area inside the compound, for a grand total of €63,180,000 million euros for The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity. Not bad when you consider that the Convent and Magdalene Laundry used slave labour, both women and children for free, never paid out a red cent to any of the slaves that worked for them and got away with mass murder. So in 1993 the developers moved into the tract of land they bought to develop and the horrified construction workers found a dark secret burial pit where 133 women were buried in a secret underground vault and another 22 were discovered nearby by accident. The good Nuns conveniently forgot their were secret burial pits on that part of their land.
The outraged construction workers found that many of the bodies of the women and children were buried with their broken bones still in plaster-casts on their ankles, elbows, wrists, and hands, when they were dumped in the communal pit. One of the bodies was headless and the head was never found. Why these bodies had casts on them is no mystery as these women were serving penal servitude for life because they were found to have had sexual relations without the express permission of the Irish Catholic Church. The workers stopped working while an outraged property developer called the Nuns, who then called the Archbishop of Dublin for help, the Archbishop of Dublin, called a friend in the Irish Government, who then called a friend a Superintendent in An Garda Síochána, the whole thing was covered up quickly.
The Department of the Environment called in and ordered the Undertakers to exhuming the bodies of 133 women and children at the notorious Sisters of Our Lady of Charity convent, than the Undertakers took out 133 bodies of women and children out of the ground and by accident the Undertakers dug deeper after they were told there was no more bodies by the Nuns, but one of the Undertakers kept digging and digging and found another 22 other unknown bodies. And almost 60 of the deaths at one of the now at this infamous Magdalene Laundry in Dublin were never registered. The shocking revelations did prompt calls for a Garda probe into who these Women and Children were, and how they died and buried, but to no avail. The Department of the Environment granted a special licence to the Nuns for the removal and cremation of the bodies at nearby Glasnevin Cemetery. But the poor Undertakers who began removing the bodies found an extra 22 bodies, in another pit. It is claimed that when they were discovered, the Department of the Environment simply issued an extra licence covering the other 22 remains and did not launch an investigation into who they were. Failing to register a death is a criminal offence in Ireland, except when it come to the Irish Catholic Church. But of the 133 original bodies, just 75 death certificates existed. All 155 bodies were removed and all but one of the woman were cremated. They can now NEVER be identified in the event of a investigation into their deaths. The then Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell was asked to initiate a criminal investigation into the unregistered and unexplained deaths. A spokeswoman said: “That’s a matter for the Garda.” A Garda spokesman said: “There will be no investigation into these unexplained deaths at the moment, it is really a problem for the Irish Catholic Church, nothing to do with us the Irish Police spokesman said to astonished reporters.
The Department of the Environment was reported as saying that “no trace” forms were issued for 34 of the dead women and it could not search for the identities of 24 others because of “insufficient details.” In the case of the 34 women, the department added: “It appears that the statutory registration procedures were not complied with at the time of their deaths.” Of the 22 extra bodies, it said it only had details of 14 of them. The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity defended its actions. Spokeswoman Sister Ann Marie Ryan, said “that the exhumation and re-interring of all 155 women was “approved by all relevant authorities”. She added: “We have had no queries from families about our decision in the intervening time”. One family took the remains of a deceased relative to a family plot at the time. The remaining 154 were respectfully cremated and laid to rest at a secret ceremony.” The secret of the unidentified women, and many others whose dignity was ignored both in life and death, lies in a double grave in Glasnevin. It may never be known who they were.
A grey headstone marked “St Mary’s High Park, In Loving Memory Of” features 175 names and dates of death, the first in 1858, the last December 1994. But the names on the headstone bear little resemblance to the list supplied to the Department of the Environment by the nuns to secure the exhumation licence. So we have a total of 330 bodies, of woman and children but not many names, and maybe according to the construction workers a few other pits were even more bodies are still secretly buried. The Nuns got their blood money.
Only 27 of the names and dates correctly match up.The Nuns’ willingness to opt for quick cremation has also been questioned, it was viewed by many as a act of desperation to cover up the heinous crimes and mutilation of the bodies of the women and children. The powerful Irish Catholic Church rush into defensive mode immediately by using its powerful influence in the background very effectively to hid the reprehensible crimes on behalf of the Nuns and also to shut down any potential official inquiry by cremating the 155 newly discovered bodies, the Irish Catholic Church knew, that Corpus delicti was and is one of the most important concepts in a murder investigation. When a person disappears and a body cannot be produced the many investigative agencies cannot initiate a case. If, during the course of the investigation, detectives believe that he/she has been murdered, then a "body" of evidentiary items, including physical, demonstrative and testimonial evidence, must be obtained to establish that the missing person has indeed been murdered before a suspect, (The Nuns) can be charged with murder. The best and easiest evidence establishment in these cases is the physical body of the deceased. No body, no crime was the motto of many in the Irish Catholic Church at the time with ample enablers in both An Garda Síochána (the Irish Police) and the Irish Government. The site, High Park Convent Magdalene Laundry, in Dublin, of the newly discovered 155 bodies was quickly covered up and rebuild on, so that forensic evidence would be forever lost. Both An Garda Síochána (the Irish Police) and the Irish Government collude with the powerful Irish Catholic Church to shut down any investigation. The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity immediately started to burn any official documentation they had stored or they could locate in their archives, this is why little is known about the 155 bodies of women and children discovered on their land. The corrupt Irish Catholic Church began to wage every effort to tarnish any opposition should it surface.
The powerful Irish Catholic Church has always frowned upon the practice of cremation preferring burial instead. For most of its history, the Roman Catholic Church had a ban against cremation. It was seen as the most sacrilegious act towards Christians and God not simply blaspheming but physically declaring a disbelief in the resurrection of the body. To this day the Irish Catholic Church still officially prefers the traditional interment of the deceased. Despite this preference, cremation is now permitted as long as it is not done to express a refusal to believe in the resurrection of the body.
What was even more scandalous was the Nuns did not even appear to know the names of many of the women buried in their pits on their Convent grounds, listing them as Magdalene of St Cecilia, Magdalene of Lourdes, and so on and on. The final number so callously disturbed from their resting place was 155. All had died as slaves in the service of the Nuns, working long hours in their large commercial laundry for no pay, locked away by a patriarchal church and society ruthlessly determined to control women’s sexuality.
Below is a list of the known names of the Women & Children who were dumped within the secret burial pits on the grounds of High Park Convent Magdalene Laundry, Dublin & later exhumed when the criminal Nun’s sold the land to developers. Of 133 bodies only 75 death certificates were found to exist. It was and remains a criminal offence in the State of Ireland to fail to register a birth that occurs in one’s premises, but in Ireland as is now known, secular law does not apply to Church property, it never did, only Cannon Law. All but one of the bodies was cremated and re-interred in Glasnevin cemetery. Owen Felix O’Neill
THESE ARE THE NAMES OF THE CHILDREN AS FOLLOWS:
1. Thomas A O Neill 7/01/1943
2. James McCormack 24/01/1945
3. James Christopher Doran 2/06/1944
4. Brigid walsh 4/09/1943
5. Margareth Mary Caffrey 5/07/1943
6. Thomas Matthews 3/02/1947
7. John Haslam 7/05/1947(3 years old)
8. Teresa Haslam 7/05/1947(19 months old)
9. John Malachy Boyle 23/10/1944
10. Philomena Frances Byrne 13/11/1943
11. Michael Corry 4/11/1942
12. Noel Peter Brown 26/09/1941
13. Patrick Lyons 27/03/1947, DIED 11/05/1947
14. Margareth Venables 14/11/1942
15. Margareth Mary Conway 5/05/1936, died 8/08/1936
16. Anthony Keating 13/03/1947 age 3 weeks
17. James McCormack 22/04/1947
18. Laurence & Mary Waters (who both died on) 6/05/1942
19. Damien John Sullivan 14/03/1944
20. Lilian and Kathleen Watters 6/06/1936
21. Rosaleen Donnelly 20/12/1943 age 2 years
22. John Augustine Kearns 17/03/1931
23. Anna Bernadette Kearns 26/04/1932
24. Thomas Anthony Kavanagh 12/11/1940, Died on 14/12/1940
25. Teresa Christina O Connor twin of Peter 29/04/1941 aged 8 months
26. Joan Margareth Duignan 27/05/1944 died 7/06/1944
27. Rita Mary Duignan 27/05/1944 died 3/06/1944 twin sisters
28. Mary Bishop 18/07/1934
29. Christina Bishop 5/05/1939
30. Martin Bishop 24/08/1952
THESE ARE THE NAMES OF THE WOMEN AS FOLLOWS:
- 1. Anne Fisher…27/6/1897
2. Kate Delmore…14/12/1897
3. Esther Reilly….28/5/1898
4. Mary Hayden…20/11/1898
5. Mary Quinn….22/10/1899
6. Maria Walsh….12/01/1877
7. Margareth Callaghan…15/03/1877
8. Margareth Farrell…11/06/1877
9. Emma Buckley….29/09/1880
10. Mary Leonard…..7/04/1881
11. Margareth Keogh…..7/04/1884
12. Mary Kelly….27/11/1884
13. Catherine Coyle….7/7/1887
14. Eliza Cafferty….10/03/1888
15. Julia Clarke…..5/11/1888
16. Margareth Lewis…..30/1/1889
17. Teresa Finn…..1/04/1858
18. Henrietta Hussey 7/03/1860
19. Mary Anne Kavanagh….29/10/1860
20. Rose Cavanagh….16/04/1862
21. Brigid Brady…20/04/1863
22. Eliza Collins….5/03/1863
23. Mary Connor….1/05/1863
24. Elizabeth Dunne….25/11/1863
25. Marie Byrne…13/05/1866
26. Mary Burnett….29/04/1867
27. Sarah Connor….26/08/1870
28. Mary Mc’mahon…..3/07/1889
29. Margareth Diamond…18/10/1889
30. Sarah Bennett…..14/04/1890
31. Ann Carroll….7/06/1890
32. Sarah Hanlon…29/06/1890
33. Elizabeth Byrne….18/10/1890
34. Mary Scully…29/11/1890
35. Mary Anne Lawlor…21/02/1892
36. Catherine Grehan…..23/07/1893
37. Margareth Myars….6/09/1894
38. Teresa O Neill….19/10/1894
39. Mary Ayland….1/01/1895
40. Bridget Bates….2/05/1896 - 41. Anne Grady…20/05/1900
42. Margareth Brady…..16/10/1900
43. Sarah Grey….24/05/1901
44. Johanna Prendergast…..14/06/1902
45. Eliza Kelly….20/10/1902
46. Frances Hackey….20/12/1902
47. Anne Reilly…..6/02/1903
48. Alison Brady…..8/03/1903
49. Elizabeth Fagan….28/04/1903
50. Brigid Donovan…27/07/1903
51. Martha May….15/11/1903
52. Lizzie Mockley….28/12/1903
53. Mary Ann Quinn….14/02/1904
54. Alice M’cauley….8/10/1904
55. Esther Keenan…30/11/1904
56. Brigid Mcnally….6/06/1905
57. Margareth Dunne….10/08/1905
58. Ellen O Hanlon…..10/01/1906
59. Eliza Mc’nully…..10/01/1906
60. Anne Giblin…..6/02/1907
61. Catherine Odea…..6/04/1907
62. Mary Doyle….4/03/1908
63. Cecila ann Brady….17/04/1908
64. Elizabeth Caufield….28/01/1909
65. Margareth Savage….7/08/1909
66. Anne Dunne…..16/11/1910
67. Brigid Ward….12/12/1910
68. Kate Tierney….5/11/1911
69. Anne Barlow….20/03/1912
70. Anne Burton….30/03/1912
71. Sarah Davidson….8/04/1912
72. Belinda Leonard…..4/05/1912
73. Anne Morrissey…..27/06/1912
74. Mary Connell……13/12/1912
76. Catherine Mulhall……3/02/1914
77. Sophia Barnes…..14/11/1914
78. Elizabeth Mckinley……3/04/1915
79. Mary Kavanagh…..13/02/1916
80. Mary Maher……26/12/1916
81. Kate Murphy…..19/02/1917
82. Mary F Smith…..4/08/1917
83. Charlotte Foster……5/01/1919
84. Johanna Dunphy…….28/02/1919
85. Ellen Ryan….3/03/1919
86. Mary Jane Grey……5/05/1919
87. Kate Quigley……26/12/1919
88. Elizabeth Culliton…….18/02/1920
89. Alican Ennis…….21/02/1920
90. Mary Dunne……23/05/1920
91. Elizabeth Duffy……21/06/1920
92. Eliza Mcnally……30/06/1921
93. Jane Leadon…..20/03/1923
94. Julia O Brian…..29/09/1923
95. Elizabeth Cogan…..18/10/1924
96. Kate Kiernan……5/09/1925
97. Mary Kelly…..8/12/1925
98. Emily Collins….18/08/1926
99. Isabelle Clarke….8/10/1926
100. Margareth Hayden….15/08/1927
101. Julia Byrne….22/11/1927
102. Margareth Mc’cormack 6/05/1930
103. Mary Ball…..18/06/1930
104. Joan Maguire……7/06/1933
105. Jane Kenna….9/06/1933
106. Margareth Martin…..10/06/1936
107. Mary Kinsella…..9/05/1937
108. Mary Margareth Nally…..13/06/1937
109. Margie Plunkett……15/06/1937
110. Julia Holmes….4/10/1938
111. Brigid Masterson…..19/10/1938
112. Lizzie Quinn…..30/08/1940
113. Ellen Murphy….28/03/1943
114. Martha Murray…..28/10/1943
115. Julia Somers……2/03/1944
116. Mary Clare Farrell…..27/04/1944
118. 117. Mary Ann Morgan…..25/06/1947
119. Alice Bolger…….31/04/1948 ( there is no such date 31 April)
120. Katie O Loughnane…….16/10/1951
121. Ann Teresa Hickey….29/05/1952
122. Wilma Mary Hertzburg…..27/07/1952
123. Bella Kemp……14/05/1955
124. Annie Brooks……2/10/1955
125. Catherine McConnell…..10/04/1956
126. Molly Moore….17/11/1960
127. Anne Hallinan…..2/01/1961
128. Brigid Howe…..30/09/1962
129. Mary Mahan…..10/04/1963
130. Susan Bateman…….6/05/1963
131. Mary Mooney…..30/05/1963
132. Helena Tropey……21/09/1964
133. Esther Byrne……6/01/1966
134. Bella Smith …..8/04/1966
135. Margareth Corcoran……..21/05/1967
136. Agnes Dunne…..4/08/1967
137. Annie Lutton…..5/08/1967
138. Elizabeth Mooney……22/12/1967
139. Brigid Supple…..13/10/1968
140. Rose ann Maguire…..15/04/1969
141. Ellen M Mc’kearney…..10/05/1969
142. Ellie Guest….19/05/1969
143. Christina Butler……4/09/1969
144. Louise Grayson…..11/01/1970
145. Catherine Tighe……12/01/1970
146. Josephine Kavanagh…..3/10/1970
147. Lizzie Kiernan….5/01/1971
148. Mary Brehany…..28/01/1972
149. Edith Haverty…..16/03/1972
150. Mary Wilkinson……22/09/1974
151. Alice Igoe……14/03/1975
152. Mary Mulhall….16/03/1975
153. Ellen Mc’kenna….17/09/1979
154. Christina Harrison….21/03/1982
155. Jane Murphy…..22/08/1986
156. Peggy Cummins……14/09/1987
157. Julia Treacy……5/11/1987
158. Eileen Mc’girr…..15/01/1988
159. Kathleen Floyd……27/01/1988
160. Rose Kavanagh……6/03/1989
161. Una Mc’Donald…….12/05/1989
162. Teresa Murray…..15/07/1989
163. Sally Bridge…..25/02/1990
164. Mary White…..26/02/1990
165. Annie Pollard…….29/03/1990
166. Kitty Govan……4/05/1990
167. Nora Gregan……17/02/1991
168. Nancy Gilbert……1/05/1991
169. Tessie Fallon…….8/11/1991
170. Nellie Harrison…..29/12/1991
171. Brigid Kelly…….6/04/1992
172. Mary Anne Scott…….10/10/1992
173. Elizabeth Power……i/08/1993
174. Mary Quinn……21/11/1994
175. Brigid Doody…..28/12/1994
176. Julia Kelly…….3/10/1995
177. Christina O Brien…..28/03/1997
178. Philomena Doyle……3/04/1998
