How a global board games giant exploited Ireland's Magdalene

It’s almost impossible to think of my childhood in 1980s Dublin and not to think about Elsie. Elsie, my great aunt, was hilarious, caring, kind hearted, and good natured. But there was a strange, childlike innocence about her.

She was, I would later figure out, institutionalised by a totalitarian regime that had corruption and cruelty built into its DNA.

When we normally think of the Magdalene laundry scandals, the era most of us tend to associate it with is the Catholic theocracy of the 1950s. Black and white photos of women with scowls on their faces and nuns in white robes. It’s something we recognise from films. But not something we associate with modern Ireland.

As recently as the 1980s and 1990s, though, I remember witnessing at first hand, this world, where fervent religiosity melded with an invisible, and profitable economy. Elsie lived, and worked, in one of those infamous convent homes.

http://littleatoms.com/penance-industry

This is a fairly long piece but I hope that some can find time to give it a read and understand how these women were exploited by a very brutal system.