“Small Things Like These” and Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries

If you are a film buff, or if you are a fan of Irish native Cillian Murphy, you may have seen the trailer for his upcoming movie “Small Things Like These”. The movie, based on a book with the same name, follows Bill Furlong as he uncovers one of his town’s darkest secrets. While making a coal delivery to the local convent that also acts as a “training school for girls” and laundry service, Furlong discovers that the girls attending the school and working for the laundry service are living in destitute conditions; he discovers a Magdalene laundry.

While the movie and the book it is based on are fictional, Magdalene laundries were very much real. The first one was opened in 1765 by the Protestant Church of Ireland. While the Protestant church had a role in Magdalene laundries, they were mainly supported by the Catholic church and, unfortunately, the Irish government. The laundries were run by nuns and financed and otherwise supported by the state. While the laundries were started with decent intention: to house “fallen women” who would otherwise be homeless, and teach them skills so they could find work once they left the laundry, it eventually twisted to become a dark and corrupt way for families and towns at large to abandon undesirable women somewhere and forget about them.

Who Worked in the Magdalene Laundries?

While there were a few men who worked in these laundries, the majority of the institutionalized women in the laundries were so called “fallen women”: women who were pregnant out of wedlock, “promiscuous” women, the daughters of unmarried mothers, women who had been sexually abused, those who grew up in the care of the church, and women who were otherwise a burden to their family, church, or community. In the 1700’s and 1800’s, there was concern that women who were sexual in some way would become prostitutes, so they were sent to the laundries to unlearn their immoral ways and “redeem” themselves. They also took in women who were mentally handicapped or otherwise struggling.

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How did the Magdalenes “Redeem” Themselves?

The supposed purpose of the laundries was for Magdalenes, the women trapped in the laundries, to redeem themselves by lace-making, needlework, and, of course, by doing laundry for government institutions, hospitals and healthcare facilities, hotels and restaurants, education institutions, private businesses, religious institutions, and even individual customers. It was thought that learning these tasks would make them more valuable both for themselves (in the sense that they could get their own job and make their own money), and for their community. Outside of learning these skills the Magdalenes could “redeem” themselves by shaving their heads, wearing institutional uniforms, staying completely silent, only eating bread and water, restricting their visitation, only corresponding with the outside world under supervision, being in solitary confinement, and even being flogged and physically abused in other ways.

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How did Women Come to these Laundries?

Some women would work in the laundries voluntarily to learn a new, profitable skill, but many were forced to join by their families, communities, or even the state. Many women recall being driven to the laundries and forced in by their families and the nuns. According to McAleese report on Magdalene laundries, about 26.5% of residents were referred to the laundries or brought to the laundries by the Irish state. The government would bring in patients from psychiatric hospitals as well as inmates from jails to work in the laundries. They would benefit from the laundries by sending their laundry to be washed by these women as well.

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How Long were Women Kept in the Laundries?

The majority of the women were in the laundries for less than 5 years (85.6%). Some women would start off in the laundries, but then were eventually moved to homes for unwed mothers. In these homes, the women would give birth and spend a little time with their babies before the infants were given to other families or died due to infection, birth defects, or malnutrition. While the statistics say most women were only in the laundries for less than 5 years, many women would die in the laundries due to the abuse and painstaking work. According to Justice For Magdalenes Research, a research organization that investigates Magdalene laundries, at least 1,600 women died in the Magdalene laundries. It is hard to know the exact number of women who died because there is reason to believe that many women were buried in unmarked graves, and the women in the laundries were not very well documented from the start.

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How Many Women Went Through these Laundries?

According to the McAleese report, named after senator Martin McAleese who commissioned the report, up to 10,000 women went through the Magdalene laundries. But this is understood to be a gross under-estimate, since the report only included women in the laundries from 1922 onward. Considering the laundries have been active since the 1700’s, the number of women who stayed in the laundries is probably way higher than the 10,000 that we know of.

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How were Magdalene Laundries Perceived at the Time?

They were a sort of open secret in Irish communities, but they were seen as a good thing overall. The laundries were seen as a necessary resource for vulnerable groups of people that helped them lead better lives. Also, since the laundries were run by nuns and churches, no one could imagine the institutionalized being abused. There was a religious aspect to the laundries that cannot be overlooked. Since the laundries were so closely associated with the church, no one suspected any abuse or foul play, and it was only in the 90’s when there was a major paperwork discrepancy that this case broke open. The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity in Donnybrook wanted to sell some land and applied to have 133 bodies moved from unmarked graves, but 155 bodies were found. Not to mention, there were only 75 death certificates, so needless to say, this created a panic and need to learn more about these women, and what the convent was up to.

With that being said, there was still lots of justification for these laundries in the 90’s. In an article published in The Irish Times in 1996, one of the nuns, Sister Lucy, states “Many of the women didn’t have a hope in hell without us. The alternative in many cases was to go on the streets. Girls have gone on the streets and been murdered. I’ve seen it happen. It might have happened a lot more if it hadn’t been for the convent. You can’t judge those times by the standards of today. The Order came to Dublin in 1853, shortly after the Famine. What was the alternative for many women then but the streets?” While Lucy is not wrong, many of the women in the laundries would be homeless without them, that does not make the abuse and mistreatment of women, many who are mothers or disabled, okay. Those women still deserved respect and a basic level of care that simply was not met in the laundries.

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When and Where Can I See “Small Things Like These”?

“Small Things Like These” opens in Irish cinemas on November 1st, and worldwide on November 8th. The movie stars Cillian Murphy and Emily Watson, is produced by Murphy, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon, and is directed by Tim Mielants.

Now that you know the historical context, you can see the movie with a different kind of appreciation!