A few days ago
while I was doing some “channel-hopping” I came across a movie called “Die
unbarmherzigen Schwestern” (in English it’s called “The Magdalene Sisters”).
The movie had already started an hour earlier so I had some problems with
figuring out the plot but after watching for a while, I understood that it was
basically about a convent in Ireland and how the girls, who were forced to live
there, were treated.
This
afternoon I decided to watch the whole movie again in English on Youtube. First
of all, I have to admit that I watched it with English subtitles but in my
opinion they were absolutely necessary. Due to the strong Irish accents and
certain words they use in the dialogues, it was sometimes difficult to follow
the actors. But back to the gripping plot and why I think this movie is absolutely
worth seeing:
The movie
takes place somewhere in Ireland in the early 60s. The three young women Rose,
Bernadette and Margret are sent involuntarily to the Magdalene’s Convent since
they have been “sinful” and need guidance to find the way back to God. In the
conservative and Catholic Ireland it was seen as a sin to give birth do a baby
before getting married (like Rose did), to be too flirty and (like Bernadette, who was the most beautiful
girl in the orphanage she grew up in) or to attract the attention of men (like
Margret, who was raped by her own cousin). Therefore, the sisters of the
Magdalene’s Convent think it’s their divine purpose to punish all these from
society shut off girls. The women in the convent are being treated like
prisoners: They have to work hard all day long in a laundry where they are not
allowed to talk to each other, the food they get is inedible and for the
smallest delicts they are get beaten with whip. Also one of the girls, who is
mentally retarted, is regularly getting sexually abused by the priest of the
convent.
After the
abuses become more and more brutal, the three protagonists are able to escape
and to start a new life.
Well,
seeing how cruel the girls living in the Magdalene’s Convent were treated
really shocked me. But when I was doing some research on this Convent, I found
out that tragically the movie is based on a true story: In Ireland and in Great
Britain estimated 30.000 “fallen” women were incarcerated in such Magdalene’s
Convents. At its beginnings, the convents were seen as a refuge for prostitutes,
where they were given the chance to become religious again, but with the time more
and more women and girls were sent there. Often, they had been sexually abused
by their male relatives and blamed for this or unmarried mothers with no
support of their families. The life in the asylums was hard as the women had to
work long hours in laundries and were not allowed to talk to their fellow
imprisoners – just as depicted in the movie.
The last
Magdalene’s Convent was closed in 1996 after the truth of the treatment of the
women in the asylums had been revealed.
This
February, the prime minister of Ireland Enda Kenny officially issued a full
state apology to the women of the Magdalene’s Convents and described the convents
and their laundries as "the nation's shame". I think this official
apology was a great step but the Catholic Church has still not apologized for
the abuses that had been going on for almost 100 years in the Magdalene’s
asylums…
Here's a very sad poem I found in another blog that portrays the feelings of a girl in a Magdalene's Convent:
I was an unmarried girl
I'd just turned twenty-seven
When they sent me to the sisters
For the way men looked at me
Branded as a jezebel
I knew I was not bound for Heaven
I'd be cast in shame
Into the Magdalene laundries
Most girls come here pregnant
Some by their own fathers
Bridget got that belly
By her parish priest
We're trying to get things white as snow
All of us woe-begotten-daughters
In the steaming stains
Of the Magdalene laundries
Prostitutes and destitutes
And temptresses like me--
Fallen women--
Sentenced into dreamless drudgery ...
Why do they call this heartless place
Our Lady of Charity?
Oh charity!
Peg O'Connell died today
She was a cheeky girl
A flirt
They just stuffed her in a hole!
Surely to God you'd think at least some bells should ring!
One day I'm going to die here too
And they'll plant me in the dirt
Like some lame bulb
That never blooms come any spring
Not any spring
No, not any spring
Not any spring
