The Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, also known as Magdalene asylums, were institutions usually run by Roman Catholic orders, which operated from the 18th to the late 20th centuries. Many Nuns pretended not to see or hear what was going on around them, but instead were passive, taking refuge in their work and silent prayers. June 2020 That is why I want to take them to court.". It's easy! The piece was based on hundreds of stories she heard from nuns. A few Nuns kicked women and children down the stairs and then took the opportunity to kick them as they lay injured or struggling to stand or crawl away. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Up to 20% off & extra perks with Booking.com Genius Membership, $6 off a $50+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 10% off selected orders over 100 - eBay voucher code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK March 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this March, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. The Nuns enjoyed certain privileges both in Irish society as a whole and in their palatial Convents where the daily tasks of cooking, cleaning, washing-up, ironing etc, were all performed by their slaves. When I couldn't make out what they were saying they thought I was being cheeky and I got slapped and punched a lot. The details of the patterns were kept so secret, in fact, that many of them were lost as the families either died or fled the poverty for other lands. After Duplessis received the provincial Church . She hated children and was always hitting us with a cricket stump she carried around. reflect on their experiences and this week's TRC report. A helper, a big 20-year-old girl, dragged me to the washroom. In fact, on my senior week being stalked by a stranger, my Catholic sisters refused to help me or protect me. The sexual assault was to be the first of many suffered by William at the hands of his supposed care-givers. They would see women who had sex outside marriage as being deviant. Unforgiving. Its no wonder nuns can be so cruel. You have to ask why are some women cruel because the reality is some women are cruel. However, nuns arent the cruel teachers they used to be. We were told, The priest will be up to bless you now.. Boston College's O'Neill Library says there's even a word for fear of nuns, and it's scenisciphobia. and Our Lady of Good Counsel in Yorkville, where the Sisters of Charity were), the Irish Christian Brothers that I had for high school could be a lot worse, being bigger and stronger, and having the same "philosophy" of punishment (seen by my Irish-born . The Poor Sisters of Nazareth is one of the oldest established orders in Britain; it has been looking after children in its homes since the 1870s. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Archaic teaching methods are now seen as barbaric. Your marriage needs to be annulled (not 'divorced') first. The slaves of Magdalene. I have not found many "nice" stories about nuns. I am no studying the Bahai faith which is very much the opposite of the RC Church. So theres hope in breaking this cycle completely, thus decreasing the cruelty that some nuns display. March 2021 August 2018 Survivors and researchers usually present the Magdalene Laundries as the ultimate example of a total institution. April 2019 Nowadays, since the 1970ies women had access to contracepton and nowadays abortionbeing a lone parent is acceptable and even part of the norm. I managed to buy my own house and pay the mortgage off. It raises the question of whether the difference between a. The Nuns total exercise of power included the daily use of extreme mental as well as physical violence as they believed that the women and the children were to be broken on the Catherine wheel, so to speak, and destroyed mentally, if possible, by the whims and acrimonious tempers of the sexually frustrated Nuns. Eleven nuns were among the 12 people who were arrested and charged on Thursday for years of alleged physical and sexual abuse against children at a Catholic orphanage in Scotland. We were beaten with big sticks - the bigger the better, she says. "When I left [the Cardiff home] at 18 I was just handed a suitcase with hardly anything in it and shown the door. Some thuggish Nuns who worked in the Magdalene Laundries and other Institutions were notorious for hitting the enslaved women and children for no reason, even beating some to death. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. i may have exaggerated a little. "The nuns never believed I was deaf. ), it wouldn't be hard to see why some Nuns are high-strung. 'sparing the rod' has nothing to do with punishment ..the rod mentioned in the bible was from the early times of agriculture & farming ..the oxes that pull the plough in order to stay on a straight line had the person with a long stick (called a rod) ..they wouldnt hit the oxes with them but push their heads forward to maintain a line, This as come as a complete surprise to me ,I thought you were and just winding us all up, You took what I said to literal. . Background. They were not battleaxes or crones. Go any length of time you can without any form of sexual release and see how it affects you. We did all the work in the convent, cleaning the windows, scrubbing floors, doing the laundry and washing out the bathrooms. People considered the. For the barbarous Nuns who lived there and in other Institutions, they were a great place in which to eat, drink, work and play once you locked the slaves away at night as any competent slave trader and owner would do. But it was all in the interest of getting you into heaven. Mrs Guerrier, who is now 73 and lives in Tottenham, north London, said: "The nuns were extremely harsh. I was lucky one. January 2020 We werent made wards of court until two years later so she actually had two years where she could have got us back if she'd been told the truth. I thought bugger that, I'm saying my piece.". Jesus dies for their sins, as He lived a perfect life. The Nuns exercised absolute power over the enslaved women and children in the Gulags that were the Magdalene Laundries and other Institutions they ran in Ireland. It gives a good idea of the standard of care. I hear stories about the nuns from non family members too and not many people have "Found memories" of their days with the nuns. Indeed, the twisting of limbs was a characteristically Christian torture method, as the shedding of blood was apparently discouraged by the Church. Which makes you think that older women who were long time inmates were in charge of the day to day running of the Laundry. There was church every day of the week. I went to a strict local school and the belt was used frequently, but nothing like on the same scale that the nuns used to beat us. We could see each others suffering and pain, while they took turns to abuse both of us a few times over the weekend.. Its not easy to always be modest. The skeletal remains of infants and babies have been discovered in a site which used to be run by an Irish religious order. The helpless lad and his severely-disabled sibling had been left alone with the sickening pair for the entire weekend, in the most horrific chapter of his decade at one of Ireland's infamous industrial schools. These emotions can eventually turn into anger and resentment. They were taught to be tough to survive in the world. If not you got another whacking. Yes, these sisters know there were cruel women among them and they live that sense of betrayal very painfully. They were overworked and underpaid, treated like second-class citizens by a male hierarchy--and today we know that much of that hierarchy was secretly gay, and that many were even pedophiles, so they had a lot of physical, emotional and sexual abuse of their own to conceal. "One of the worst things that ever happened to me was being locked in a cupboard as a punishment. Some 216,000 children - mostly boys - have been sexually abused by clergy in the French Catholic Church since 1950, a damning new inquiry has found. It was bad enough in Newcastle, but after the war broke out we were moved to Carlisle where it was much more cruel. The Widow's Pension did not come in til 1934. So nuns did their best to keep you from committing a mortal sin and their way of doing that was to enforce a sort of discipline by various means of which some were mean like hitting your knuckels with a ruler. "When the Sister died, we were told to pray for her in Heaven, but we all prayed that we were glad. I don't think my grandma knew exactly what he was sick with but she told me that the Nuns had NO empathy for a sick child. They had no rights, were (still are to some degree) exposed to all sorts of abuse of the Catholic hierarchy, who always were their superior and who always has to be present to some degree because women can't do things by themselves in Catholicsm by design. In the words of one man who had been put into a home after being abandoned by his family: "Some people say to me, 'Well, that's what it was like everywhere then', but it wasn't. Gods truth? Before pushing me in the nuns told me there was a mouse in there and I went totally hysterical. Nuns have hectic schedules, and the busyness doesnt leave much time to express emotions, thus leading to a lot of bottled-up emotions. Nuns. Police are also investigating after lawyers representing former residents passed on relevant files. Some of the Irish Nuns who ran the Magdalene Laundries had notorious reputations and were known for their extreme violence, even in many cases as we know today, beating the inmates to death. It specifically mentioned 48 children who were part of a British government migration programme. Today I have all the soft cuddly toys I want, a room full of them. February 2018 This woman wouldn't say sh** if she had a mouth full. Not a day went by without someone getting a battering. And 40 nuns belonging to the Poor Sisters of Nazareth and the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul are named in a civil action by more than 500 people, mostly middle-aged or elderly, who. This can lead to a lot of unresolved issues, and these issues can eventually turn into anger and resentment. She lived at Nazareth House homes in Newcastle and Carlisle until she was 13, in 1944. As you say the nuns were mostly from rural areas. She was sent news of baby Sonia for two years, before she was told she could have no more contact. In high school I realized that what we were taught about loving one another was just words. But trying to be perfect always is enough to make anyone go a little crazy. Gmail On one occasion, when she seven, Philomena and some of the other girls were asked to find flowers for the nature table, which she picked from someones garden. The Irish Brigade fought in most battles during the War of Spanish Succession, including the Battle of Ramillies in Central Belgium on May 23, 1706. IN THE early Seventies, six-year-old Simon Taylor (not his real name) was admitted to Nazareth House in Middlesbrough after his mother had a nervous breakdown. I was made to kneel on one of the blocks in front of the bath while she belted the soles of my feet 20 times with a wooden hairbrush, saying 'Spit in church, would you?' I was sent to clean her office and if she decided I didn't clean it properly she would start banging my head against the wall. There were very few nuns in many cases in these Magdalen Laundries which were called Asylums up the foundation of the Free State. First off I'd change that to SOME nuns, not all. Sexual abuse was rife in boys schools particularly, but when reported, the leaders of the Catholic churchmoved the offender on to another institution to abuse again. She remembers a nun who would come to her class every day to choose a student to help her with Mass. FOR Vera Willshire, who is now 75, the year 1939 was one of the happiest of her life. Nuns indeed put in a lot of hard work. Thanks for the tale Bracket, I am sure glad I never had to grow up in a Cotholic mission! The victim lies prostrate on the ground, at the Nuns feet. We were beaten with big sticks - the bigger the better. "It could happen for any thing, any time of the night or day. The female . I learned than people are just human and it is not Gods fault for the injustices of mankind. Are thay taught "Spare the rod spoil the child" in nun school? What is it that makes these Nuns so down right nasty mean? They were not battleaxes or crones. Vera lived at the home with her two sisters from the age of six months until she was 17 years old. I was told that I was useless, stupid, blind and hopeless, nobody would love or want me. Remember some of these women and religious men and priests too went unto these institutions at 13, 14, 15 years of age. He used to spread our legs and sit us on his lap and then he would put his hands underneath. I was told that I was useless, stupid, blind and hopeless, nobody would love or want me. 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