Trauma after a life of torture in irish Magdalene laundries: Magdalene survivors’ testimonies and Patricia Burke-Brogan’s Stained Glass at Samhain

Abstract

In 2007 James Smith coined the phrase “Ireland’s architecture of containment” referring to the conspiracy of silence Ireland had been immersed since the last decades of the twentieth century concerning institutional abuse and scandals in which the clergy was involved. Legacy of the Victorian mentality, sex out of wedlock was considered a mortal sin which affected the widespread image of Ireland as Catholic and respectable. Hence, subversive acts were punished with the confinement of all those who challenged the moral prescriptions in reformatory institutions. The invisibility and silencing of marginal groups—unmarried mothers, prostitutes and illegitimate children—was considered necessary for the appropriate functioning of the state. Yet, in a period of rapid economic, political and social changes, known as the Celtic Tiger (the 1990s), sexual and institutional abuse became the focus of all debates. This chapter pays attention to the testimonies of survivors which allow us to inquire into this reformatory system established in Ireland through those who have experienced it directly. For the development of this chapter we have analysed the non-profit organisation Justice for Magdalenes’ collection of interviews published in their website in 2013 where we can hear the traumatised voices of all those women who were institutionalised from the 1940s to the 1960s in two of the biggest religious congregations in Ireland, The Good Shepherds Sisters and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity. These testimonies will be used as references to analyse Patricia Burke-Brogan’s Stained Glass at Samhain (2003). Following Trauma Studies, our intention in this text is to delve into the aftermath of a life of incarceration to see the trauma caused to these women and how they have responded to it. Then, we will examine if the Irish Church and the state, as the perpetrators of this historical crime, are contributing to the healing process Magdalene survivors are engaged in.