The Good Shepherd Magdalen Laundry

The Good Shepherd Magdalen Convent, Sunday's Well, Cork.

The Good Shepherd Convent, Magdalen Asylum,Sunday's Well, Cork opened on the 29th July 1872. It remained the site of orphanage, Magdalen laundry until the late 1970s. The buildings have been derelict ever since a serious fire in 2003. The laundry was one of buildings that were destroyed.

The existence of the Magdalen asylums was little thought of until, in 1993, when an order of nuns in Dublin sold part of their convent to a real estate developer. The shocking discovery of 155 inmates buried in unmarked graves was made, all were exhumed and with the exception of one body were cremated and re-interred in communal grave.

This triggered a public scandal and became local and national news in 1999.

Mary Norris, Josephine McCarthy and Mary-Jo McDonagh, all asylum inmates, gave accounts of their treatment. The 1998 Channel 4 documentary Sex in a Cold Climate interviewed former inmates of Magdalen Asylums who testified to continued sexual, psychological and physical abuse while being isolated from the outside world for an indefinite amount of time.

The conditions in the Good Shepherd Convent, Magdalen Laundry Asylum, and treatment of the inmates was dramatized in the acclaimed film The Magdalene Sisters (2002), written and directed by Peter Mullan.

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Education

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• cork magdalen laundry

[REAPERSMTC]

Fabulous footage we must never forget all those poor women and children xxx

[sheilamaclean]

This story chokes me up everytime I hear another account. A whole country complicit in the abuse of its women and children and still functioning well into the 20th century, heartbreaking. God only know all of the childrens' stories, may their souls rest in peace and eternal damnation to their abusers.

[maps417]

This just makes me soo sad. I can't imagine how in the name of religon?? Self rightousness more like :(..how would one think they are doing ANYTHING good. <3 fo the lives lived in pain, sadness and sorrow and surviving...

[mslettys14]

@souly351 the laundry part was knocked to the ground but the living quarters for the nuns and the 5 story buildings where the "inmates" ate,slept etc still remain,, the buildings which were turned into a appartments are part of saint annes mental hospital which is situted on the same site as the good shepherd convent, one can still walk the grounds but all the windows are sealed up so the buildings cannot be accessed, the church is another building which remains on the ground

[souly351]

@johnymst sundays well cork city, its no longer there, its now a block of apartments, I have no doubt that many bodies lie beneath

[johnymst]

anyone know the exact location of this place? could you send me a link with google map or something? thanks

[OldHippieChickster]

@carrieluvv Just what sort of training does it take to know not to imprison and beat girls? I knew it was wrong at 2 years old.

[OldHippieChickster]

@SteelyTop Well said... I would add that IF women would just open a bible and read everything it says about WOMEN in that book, they would burn it and stand up against the church. It makes me sick to see churches full of women. Fools desperate for comfort willing to bow down to a misogynistic god ... sick.

[SteelyTop]

If there was a God, he wouldn't allow this sort of thing to happen in his name. Think about it. Religion is just a way to control people, mostly women. Religion is the enemy of all women, young or old. It was never true and it'll never be true. And the proof is what these children went through here.

[MrSkeath]

brilliant work...i can say no more..excellence that no one can top..loved the upload..

[mcserio]

@fairhillnorrie Just well said!