Ireland and the Magdalene Laundries

In many ways, the book is a toolkit for any campaigner engaging with the political system. It exposes a political culture which can too often be frustrating, intransigent, and even cynical when faced with uncomfortable truths. * Dublin Review of Books *
[A] significant, moving and powerful account ... The book is a model of social justice campaigning that uses academia, advocacy and activism. * Irish Legal News *
Ireland and the Magdalene Laundries: A Campaign for Justice is rightly, lucidly and incisively critical of governmental investigations that have been inefficient and unethical. In short, this book is vital for anyhow interested in the historical arc of social policy in relation to pariah groups. It also highlights the enormous efforts of the JFMR and their continued struggle for justice. * Critical Social Policy *
This is a challenging and powerfully repetitive book replete with narrative detail. By far the most compelling elements are where the authors rely on survivor experience to propel their verdict of the insouciance and imprudence of the Irish government. The authors succeed in their ambition of restoring power to the survivors of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries. * Irish Studies *
Ireland and the Magdalene Laundries: A Campaign for Justice details the group's efforts to gain apologies to Magdalene survivors from both the Catholic Church and Irish state, financial redress and comprehensive health care for survivors, and access to church and state archives for survivors seeking their personal records. * National Catholic Reporter *
This brave book is an archive of an unfinished movement, a survey of the continuing harms of so-called 'historical abuse', and a set of demands for law reform and political change. In places, it is also a love letter to those who survived Ireland's Magdalene laundries. In devastating detail, it shows how Irish politicians, professionals and members of religious orders have resisted demands that these women be recognised as victims of human rights abuse. More than a description of Justice for Magdalenes' campaigning and research, it is an important challenge to official histories and excuses that stubbornly carry undeserved weight in Irish public discourse. * Máiréad Enright, University of Birmingham *
The campaign for justice for the girls and women incarcerated in Magdalene laundries is one of the greatest acts of truth-telling in the recent history of Ireland. The walls of institutional denial have had to be demolished slowly and painfully, brick by brick. The experiences of those most involved in this task, so vividly detailed in this vital book, tell us so much, not just about a history that was shamefully obscured, but about the imperative for every society to really know itself. In helping the survivors to reclaim their dignity, this indispensable book also helps the rest of us to reclaim the true meaning of shared citizenship and common humanity. * Fintan O'Toole, Irish Times Journalist and Orwell Prize winner *
It is impossible to describe the toxic fog of shame, distortion and indifference these writers worked through so the truth of the Magdalen Laundries could be seen in a proper light. No one wanted to know. They are my heroes. * Anne Enright, Author and winner of the 2007 Booker Prize *