Freedom of Galway city awarded to women for work relating to Magdalene laundries

Galway City Council has awarded the freedom of the city to Patricia Burke Brogan and Ena McEntee for their work relating to women in the Magdalene laundries.

Ms Burke Brogan, a former postulant nun, wrote the award-winning play Eclipsed, set in a laundry during the 1960s. It first premiered in 1992 and helped shine a light on the conditions the women were forced to live in.

Ms McEntee, who worked in the city’s Magdalene laundry, and her family, helped women escape from the institution.

Mayor of Galway city Colette Connolly said it was “fitting” that “these ordinary women would be honoured” ahead of International Women’s Day on Tuesday.

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Ms Connolly said 30 people had been awarded the freedom of the city, most recently former Boston mayor Marty Walsh in 2018.

“Ten of the recipients were men of the clergy so I think it’s particularly poignant that two women, that did their utmost in very trying circumstances and very difficult times and at real personal cost and loss, stepped up to the mark,” Ms Connolly told a special meeting of the council on Monday.

Ms Connolly said no “crime” or “sin” was ever committed by women in the Magdalene laundries “other than that they were locked up and were victims of their time, of the society that they lived in”.

She said the women were “richly deserving” of the freedom of the city and the council would liaise with both families in relation to a suitable time and date for the ceremony.