FIVE WOMEN who had been in Magdalene laundries met the secretary general of the Department of Justice, Seán Aylward, and assistant secretary James Martin for a two-hour meeting yesterday afternoon. Compensation for the women and a State apology were among topics discussed.
Mary Smith (57), Marina Gambold (née Fitzgerald) (74), Maureen Sullivan (62), Maureen Taylor (57) and Kathleen Legg (74) also told the officials about their own experiences in the laundries.
They were accompanied by Steven O’Riordan, director of the film The Forgotten Maggies. It is about women who were in the laundries and was shown last July at the Galway Film Fleadh and at up to 15 other venues around Ireland since.
Another meeting between the officials and the women is to take place in two to three weeks’ time.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern, who facilitated yesterday’s meeting, was unable to attend as he spent most of the day in the Seanad.
Acting as spokesman for the women, Mr O’Riordan said they had told Mr Aylward and Mr Martin that, as the State had funded some of the laundries after 1979, particularly those in the then Eastern Health Board area, it bore a responsibility for the women held in such institutions.
They had also informed the officials that the women had written to the religious congregations that managed the laundries until 1996, when the last one closed, and that it was hoped the congregations “would come on board” where compensation was concerned. Should they not do so, it was intended that the Buttimer solicitors firm in Cork would take a class action against the congregations on grounds of crimes against humanity.
Concerns surrounding the 1993 exhumation of women who had been in the laundry at High Park, Drumcondra in Dublin were also raised and Mr Aylward agreed to write to the Garda Commissioner concerning an investigation into it.
The officials also agreed to raise the women’s concerns with the Department of Education. It is responsible for the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme, which does not extend to laundries under current legislation.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said that the meeting with the women had been “very constructive and helpful”.