Louise Brangan: Inside Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries
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Welcome back to the Women's Podcast. I'm Roisin Ingle. Hope you're doing well. If you want to get in touch with us, we're on social at IT Women's Podcast, or you can email us thewomenspodcast at irishtimes.com. Tell us what you think of this episode. We love hearing from you. And also, as always, if you could do me a favour and press the follow button on Apple or Spotify or whatever platform you are listening on, it means you get to see notifications when the latest episode is uploaded. So do follow us if you can. Thanks a million. Now, the story of Ireland's Magdalene laundries is one that continues to challenge our understanding of this country's past. For decades, thousands of women and girls were incarcerated in these institutions, where many of them endured forced labour, isolation and abuse.
While we have uncovered much about that in recent years, there are still stories that need to be told and questions that need to be answered. In her new book, Fallen, Scottish-based Irish journalist and author Louise Brangan examines the history of the Magdalene laundries through meticulous research and listening to the voices of those whose lives were shaped by these institutions. She explores not only what happened behind their walls, but also the wider social and political forces that allowed them to exist for so long. Louise joins us to discuss the years of research that went into Fallen, the challenges of documenting such a painful chapter in Irish history and why it remains so important to keep these stories in the public consciousness.
Here she is, Louise Brankin. Louise, you started this book sort of describing your motivation, because in some ways we think we know everything about the Magdalene laundries. It's very mainstream. There's been films about it. There's been lots of talk about it. But it was watching small things like these and the credits that came up at the end that kind of inspired you to revisit and to focus on the Magdalene laundries again. Tell us about that.
So I was already researching the Magdalene laundries when I went to see small things like these. But like most people, I presumed these were prisons for women who had babies outside of marriage. They were like mother-baby home, but more punitive, more extensive, where women stayed longer. And then I started reading survivor testimony. There's thousands of pages of survivor testimony collected by various different activist groups. And the thing in my notes I kept writing was... Did not have a baby. Did not have a baby. Reason for entry, mother died. Reason for entry, skipping school. Reason for entry, naughty at school. You know, but never was it about having babies outside of... marriage and then I met the survivor Maureen Sullivan at something and I was chatting to her and she has a memoir called Girl in the Tunnel.
It's really moving, really beautifully written about her experience in a Magdalene laundry where she had been sent because she had reported being sexually abused by a family member. which is another common route into the Magdalene laundries. And she said to me, you've got to get this story away from mother and babies. So I spoke to everyone I could and said, were there babies born in Magdalene laundries? No. And even the McAleese report, which is, you know... a contestable document, but even it said, having looked through all of the archives belonging to the church, no babies were born there. And in fact, if a woman was found to be pregnant, she would have been moved straight to the mother and baby home.
So what I realised was, you know, the mother and baby homes were for women who were pregnant outside of marriage. Magdalene laundries were something else entirely. And I began to use everything I thought I knew about the Magdalene laundries. Not that it was wrong. I actually, everything I thought I had just slipped through my fingers. And so that was, I went back to the beginning. Who were these women and why were they sent there? And in the process of this, small things like these was, the film came out.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:15–8:24
2
How did Louise Brangan become interested in researching Magdalene laundries?
8:24–10:08
3
How are Magdalene laundries different from mother and baby homes?
10:08–28:33
4
Why did Louise name her book Fallen and what does 'fallen' signify?
28:33–39:55
5
What kinds of women were sent to Magdalene laundries and how were they recruited?
39:55–50:40
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Women's Podcast
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