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You know that one good tank top that you wear like all year round? I mean it fits you just right so you wear it all the time but maybe now it's getting a little old. Shifting my wardrobe from summer to fall is always a challenge. Luckily, Quince offers timeless and high quality items that I
I love so I can make sure my wardrobe stays fresh and I don't blow my budget. They've got cashmere sweaters from $50, pants for every occasion, washable silk tops. And my favorite part, all Quince items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. By partnering directly with top factories, Quince cuts out the cost of the middleman
and passes the savings on to us. And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices and premium fabrics and finishes. I recently got this 100% European linen short sleeve shirt. Ooh, I love linen. And you know, it was so comfortable, so cute. I can finally retire my old ratty tank top.
RIP. Make switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high quality closet essentials. Go to quince.com slash dark history for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's quince, Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash dark history to get free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash dark history.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.
So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer survey who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations.
Sometimes I like to look into the future, you know, to see like what holidays are coming up. Because I think it's fun to do a story that ties into like what's going on in the real world. In this case, I saw that St. Patrick's Day was like right around the corner. So I decided to look into some Irish history. And I realized the only thing so many of us know about Ireland is the potato famine. And that's kind of like...
Sorry. Sorry Ireland, I'm sorry. Now, I'll be honest with you, it's hard to shock me anymore. So when I tell you that this story I found shook me to my core, you know it's for real. Am I right? Found it.
While I was looking into unknown Irish history, unknown especially to Americans, I kept reading about this thing called the Magdalene laundries. They sounded so innocent and pure, all about cleanliness. Like nothing to see here, just laundry.
But that is exactly what the Catholic Church wanted people to think. Because these laundries turned out to be a network of facilities that destroyed the lives of countless women. They were part prison, part work camp, part reform school, and were open for business for about 200 and
and 31 years until a mass grave site was discovered and blew this whole scandal wide open. This episode is about the horrific truth behind Ireland's Magdalene laundries. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do. ♪
Hi friends, I hope you are having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my podcast, Dark History. Okay, sorry Joan. Our podcast, Dark History. She's holding a gun to me, help me. Here, we believe that history does not have to be boring. It might be tragic, usually it is, right? It might be happy, but either way, it's our dark history. So, let's get started.
So all you need to do is sit back, relax, and let's talk about that hot juicy history goss. And today is dark, okay? Before we begin, I just wanted to give everyone a heads up that this episode, there will be some stories that involve sexual abuse. So just a disclaimer ahead of time. And I'll make sure to do this more often moving forward for you as well.
Okay, so our story begins in the mid 1700s. To set the stage, you need to know that in Ireland, religion was, and still really is, everything. The church told the Irish who they could be friends with, where they could live, what school they went to, and also like who they could marry. If the church said jump, the Irish said how high, Jesus. Back then,
Back then, people in Ireland were either Protestant or Catholic. And as time went on and the country became independent, more people were Catholic and the Catholic Church got stronger. But no matter what religion you identify with, everyone agreed on one big thing.
Society was going to hell in a handbasket. There was a crisis, and that crisis came in the form of corrupt women, or as the Irish called them, the quote, fallen woman, end quote. The phrase fallen woman was used to describe ladies who had lost their innocence and had fallen from the grace of God, just like the most famous fallen woman of all time.
Eve, you know, she ignored God's message and got us kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Like never mind the men's part in this. Men were simply encouraged not to sin, but women worthy sin. And the worst kind of fallen woman to them was the sex worker.
And there was this paranoia at the time that sex work was on the rise. It was believed that any woman who had premarital sex or got pregnant out of wedlock would be on the fast track to selling her body and her soul. This is when a rich white lady shows up and decides that she's going to save these poor souls. She's going like full Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds.
Lady Arabella Denny was born in 1707 with a silver spoon in her mouth. Her mom came from a wealthy family and her dad was the first Earl of County Kerry. So Lady Arabella was essentially like local royalty. Her life is essentially eat, pray, love, you know? Like she goes to spas, has dinner parties, and hangs out with her wealthy friends.
And it's great, you know, but I guess she was feeling like, you know, her life didn't really have much purpose. That is, until one day she reads an article about a place called the Foundling Hospital. Foundlings was the word used for babies who were abandoned, sometimes even killed because they were born out of wedlock, which was a major sin. So the Foundling Hospital was trying to address this very...
I'm using quotations here. Dark problem. But the real problem was conditions at this hospital were horrific. They just didn't have enough resources. When Lady Arabella reads this, she realizes...
This is my philanthropist moment. She can actually create some meaningful change here. So she decided to go full extreme home makeover and set out to revamp the foundling hospital in a very big way. She was like, Ty, that guy, Ty. New hospital. Great. Not only did she completely renovate this hospital building, but she treated the staff like...
People, what a concept, huh? She made sure the nurses were paid properly and that the working conditions were actually good, not just enough to get by. All this proved that Lady Arabella was great at business and could get a job done. And her next project
kind of like fell right into her lap. While she was running the hospital, historians say that it's likely that she read letters from the mothers of those illegitimate children, aka the fallen woman we talked about earlier. And that's when Arabella had like this light bulb moment that changed everything. You know that one good tank top that you wear like all year round? I mean, it fits you just right. So you wear all the
time, but maybe now it's getting a little old. Shifting my wardrobe from summer to fall is always a challenge. Luckily, Quince offers timeless and high quality items that I love so I can make sure my wardrobe stays fresh and I don't blow my budget. They've got cashmere sweaters from $50, pants for every occasion, washable silk tops, and my favorite part,
All Quince items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. By partnering directly with top factories, Quince cuts out the cost of the middleman and passes the savings on to us. And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices
and premium fabrics and finishes. I recently got this 100% European linen short sleeve shirt. Ooh, I love linen and you know, it was so comfortable, so cute. I can finally retire my old ratty tank top.
R.I.P. Make switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high quality closet essentials. Go to quince.com slash dark history for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's quince, Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash dark history to get free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash dark history.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.
So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer survey who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations.
Lady Arabella figures if she can get right to the source of the issue and rehab these fallen women, maybe there won't be so many foundlings and orphans that need hospitals. On June 11th, 1767, Lady Arabella and some other rich investors rented a house in the center of Dublin. They called it, quote, the Magdalene Asylum for Penitent Females, end quote.
First of all, that name Magdalene, if you don't know, it comes from the Bible.
It's one of Jesus's BFFFFFFF's was Mary Magdalene. Some say that Mary was a sex worker. Then she literally found Jesus and reformed her life. Ask any Christian or Catholic walking down the street who Mary Magdalene is, and they will say the sex worker who washed Jesus's feet. But I'm about to ruin it for you. I'm sorry. Here's a little fun fact. You can tell them like,
There is literally nothing in the Bible that says Mary Magdalene was ever a sex worker. Sorry. I mean, go look. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't think so. But go look.
But it's a story people have told for centuries. The original idea behind this place was to be like a reformatory, a place where these fallen women could go and like restart their lives. These weren't just about sex workers, but quote, seduced and abandoned women who had been discarded by society for no longer being pure women.
But this was Ireland in the 1700s, so "seduced" and "discarded" was just as dirty as the word "prostitute."
So they lumped them all together. The idea was that these women would stay at the asylum for a couple of years while they learned a quote "respectable" profession. They could take up skills like knitting, embroidering, sewing, you know? And while they weren't learning, they would be put to work.
mostly doing laundry. Yeah, this is the laundry comes into place. It makes sense now. This laundry came from all sorts of places like local businesses, public schools, government departments, and even like the military. These places would pay the asylum for the laundry, which kept the lights on and like the food on the table for these women. Because of this, Lady Arabella's facility became known as the Magdalene Laundry.
Makes sense. It's like when you hear the movie title in the movie, you know? After its success, more Magdalene laundries opened up in places like the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and Ireland. And it was clear the laundries were really on to something. And to be fair, at the beginning, they truly tried to help these fallen women.
Originally, women even checked themselves into the Magdalene laundry. It was their choice. It seemed like a good opportunity for like a new start. If a woman was a sex worker and she wanted out, there was finally a path forward. So it's like great, you know? But then tragedy strikes and the laundries
They take a sharp left into Funkytown. From 1845 to 1852, Ireland experienced the Great Famine, aka the Potato Famine.
where about 1 million people died of starvation and another million left the country. And it reshaped Ireland forever. And during this time, the people were in desperate need of some kind of like leadership, some guidance, someone in charge. And who do people turn to when it feels like the end of the world? This was a hard time for everyone. And philanthropists couldn't raise enough money to keep running these Magdalene laundries.
So the Catholic Church steps in and decides to take over. And instead of running them as a charity, they would now be a for-profit business moving forward. At a certain point, they realized they had a cash cow on their hands. Somebody's like, hey, if there are more women in these laundries, we could wash more laundry and make more money. Plus, save more souls.
It would be a win-win-win for the church, the government, and society. Except for the women, of course. But who gives a shit about them?
By the late 1800s, there were about 41 Magdalene laundries in Ireland alone, run by different nuns and different Catholic groups. And women weren't going there voluntarily anymore. By the 1920s and 30s, the Irish government and families were now sending women and young girls to the Magdalene laundries.
usually against their will. This included women from psychiatric institutions and jails, and even women with special needs. And something I found so screwed up is that women were also sent there because they, the women, were sexually assaulted. Yeah.
It was their problem that they were sexually assaulted. One survivor, a woman named Martha Cooney, was raped by a family member when she was only 14. She was obviously traumatized and shared that this happened to her with her cousin, who she thought she could trust.
That cousin ratted her out to the whole family. And the next day, Martha was sent to the laundries. This is the kind of story that actually inspired a famous movie called The Magdalene Sisters. 10 out of 10, recommend. The laundry became a place for parents to send their problem children. They would send their unmarried daughters who had gotten pregnant before marriage. Basically, this was a way for them to like hide them.
them. Can't let the neighbors know about Eileen's little secret, you know? These parents relied on the word of the church who made them believe they had no choice. The state did not provide any support for those poor girls. And then a major thing happened that sealed the fate of the Magdalene laundries forever.
In 1922, after a three-year war, Ireland won its independence from England. This meant England had no more control over the Irish government and the power that once belonged to England shifted over to, you guessed it, the Catholic Church. Yeah, the Catholic Church became even more powerful. They were seen as the highest moral authority in the land.
and something like 94% of the population was now Catholic. I mean, you definitely don't see that anymore. Literally everyone you knew was Catholic and it was just how society was. This is when newly free Ireland became obsessed with presenting themselves as a "pure moral nation." And there's this intense church-fueled panic about sexual purity.
So the Magdalene laundries became a catch-all for any woman who weren't considered "pure." Instead of a vision for a place where outcast women could start again, the Magdalene laundries had morphed into this carceral institution that anyone could be sent to without warning. One woman who spent time in a Magdalene laundry stated, quote, "In Ireland especially in those days, the church ruled the roost,
The church was always right. You never criticized the priest. You never criticized the holy nuns. You did what they said without questioning the reason why.
So it's safe to say that the church was essentially the government. And they must have had like some good PR because no one knew what the hell was going on in these laundries. To the outside world, these nuns were angels sent from above to save the whores. Why wouldn't they be trusted? Plus, hey, I mean, they're doing a service and helping restore the good name of Irish families.
The most important thing in this Catholic society was to not bring shame upon your family. And trust me, anything could bring shame. If you kissed a boy in the street, shame. Wearing a dress that shows your ankles, shame.
A priest molest you? That's on you, shame. And the worst thing you could do in this time period as a woman was lose your virginity out of wedlock or God forbid, get pregnant. That would be the ultimate shame. Now, the qualifications for getting into the laundry were expanded. I mean, women were getting sent there for all kinds of random ass reasons. Like if you were considered a flirt,
Pack your bags. Off to the laundries. Oh, and my favorite reason you could get sent away, if you were considered too hot. Mm-hmm. Seriously. Too hot. You look good. Too hot. Out.
There were actually two categories of women, the fallen ones and the falling ones, aka they were in danger of falling. One of these girls was a teenager named Phyllis Morgan who lived in an orphanage that was connected to the Magdalene laundries. When she was a teenager, the nuns gave her the up-down, you know, looking at her like, mm.
Mm-hmm. And they told her literally like, "You're hot. If you leave this orphanage, you're gonna get knocked up. So we're gonna send you to the laundries. You're falling." Honestly, it kind of reminded me of our witches episode. Like if you sneeze wrong, your ass was in a carriage on the way to the nuns. If you sneeze and you looked cute doing it, bad shame. Bye.
People instinctively trusted the church and therefore they trusted the laundries. Sending women there wasn't seen as like a big deal. Publicly they were seen as a place of correction and also worship where women could become pure again. But the thing was no one really knew what was happening on the inside. And until you got there and then you realized you were in hell and there was no escape.
Satan, is that you? Yeah. You know that one good tank top that you wear like all year round? I mean, it fits you just right. So you wear it all the time, but maybe now it's getting a little old. Shifting my wardrobe from summer to fall is always a challenge. Luckily, Quince offers timeless and high quality items that I love.
love so I can make sure my wardrobe stays fresh and I don't blow my budget. They've got cashmere sweaters from $50, pants for every occasion, washable silk tops. And my favorite part, all Quince items are priced $50 to
80% less than similar brands. By partnering directly with top factories, Quince cuts out the cost of the middleman and passes the savings on to us. And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices
and premium fabrics and finishes. I recently got this 100% European linen short sleeve shirt. Ooh, I love linen and you know, it was so comfortable, so cute. I can finally retire my old ratty tank top.
RIP. Make switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high quality closet essentials. Go to quince.com slash dark history for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's quince, Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash dark history to get free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash dark history.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year so you're protected no matter what.
Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer survey who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations.
Obviously these places are called the Magdalene Laundries, so the girls knew they were going to be put to work doing laundry. It was in the name. They show up and they're like, just show me where the goddamn laundry room is, like I get it. But listen, the whole laundry thing was kind of like a fake out. Because washing dirty clothes for the entire city is, you know, it's very exhausting and kind of gross. But the work wasn't the worst part about the Magdalene Laundries. I mean...
Not by a long shot. Now here's what was actually going on inside. As soon as you get to the laundry, you get examined. Sometimes this meant being stripped naked. Sometimes there was even hazing. Like a nun would strip the new girls, have them stand all together,
And they would point, laugh, and like compare their bodies. It was like, what the fuck? I mean, I know. I was like, I thought these were women of God. What happened to thou shall not judge, ladies?
Then after that, you were handed a uniform, but like not for school. It was actually a work uniform. And then, get this, they renamed the girls. So they stripped them of their real legal names and renamed them after a saint.
Some former Magdalene Laundrie inmates even described getting the G.I. Jane treatment the second they got a work uniform. Like, right off the bat, the nuns would chop off all of their hair. I'm talking about, like, the worst kind of buzz cut you could ever see. It was bad. They weren't, like, cutting the hair off with scissors. Not even, like, kitchen scissors. They were essentially sawing it off with a knife as short as they could get it.
up by your scalp. So sometimes the ladies would get like a bloody scalp and if that happened, that was on you. That's your fault. Maybe you shouldn't have moved. There were no mirrors in the entire building. No one ever celebrated birthdays or even knew how old they were. The nuns were absolutely hell bent on making you forget that you were a human being. You were just a mindless worker.
And in addition, you were a sinner and you would be treated as such. The living conditions were horrific, like you were literally in prison. According to the Justice from Magdalene's research page, quote, "...once inside, girls and women were imprisoned behind locked doors, barred or unreachable windows, and high walls."
They were usually given no information as to when or whether they would be released, end quote. You could try to escape, but there were usually pieces of broken glass cemented on the other side of the wall, kind of like a booby trap. So the chances on you getting over the wall, through the window, and not landing on this jagged glass was like...
Very slim. Good luck. Have you guys ever seen these jagged glass fences? A lot of people kind of break glass and put it like on a windowsill or around like a planter to prevent people from coming in or whatever. It's like a, you know, it's their own form of security. But it's scary looking. It's aggressive.
And if you did manage to like get out somehow, you couldn't celebrate just yet because you had to make it past the local authorities. And those snitches were constantly on the lookout for runaways. So if you got caught, you were returned back to the laundries and the nuns would then punish you by sending you to a different Magdalene Laundry. Which may not seem that bad, but
it meant your sentence was essentially now starting over. Day one, baby. So a lot of women just shut the hell up and waited to get through the system until they were released. They didn't want to cause any problems, right? But there was no guarantee of when you would get out or if you would get out at all. I mean, it was kind of...
It's kind of like worse than a prison because at least in prison, you know how long your sentence is. Either you're getting out or you're spending life in prison, right? And it's like, well, at least you know. Woman could be there for a few weeks, for a decade, and many, they never got out. You could either escape or hope that a relative would come and get you.
otherwise you were pretty much stuck there. Your best hope was to follow the rules and prove to the nuns that you were really being transformed by the laundries. Like, "Oh my god, I never want to open my legs again!"
You know that one good tank top that you wear like all year round? I mean, it fits you just right. So you wear it all the time, but maybe now it's getting a little old. Shifting my wardrobe from summer to fall is always a challenge. Luckily, Quince offers timeless and high quality items that I love.
love so I can make sure my wardrobe stays fresh and I don't blow my budget. They've got cashmere sweaters from $50, pants for every occasion, washable silk tops. And my favorite part, all Quince items are priced $50 to
80% less than similar brands. By partnering directly with top factories, Quince cuts out the cost of the middleman and passes the savings on to us. And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices
and premium fabrics and finishes. I recently got this 100% European linen short sleeve shirt. Ooh, I love linen and you know, it was so comfortable, so cute. I can finally retire my old ratty tank top.
RIP. Make switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high quality closet essentials. Go to quince.com slash dark history for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's quince, Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash dark history to get free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash dark history.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year so you're protected no matter what.
And I'm saved. The first and most important rule of the Magdalene laundries...
was to zip your lips. The laundries were said to be very quiet. No talking, no relationships, rules at all times. You were not allowed to have friends or make small talk or even like gossip at all. So except for church or work, it was dead silent all of the time.
But if you did manage to sneak a letter out, there would be nuns who would make it their job to intercept and destroy the letters before they reached anyone. They were silencing them and keeping them further and further away from their families. The nuns would also play psychological mind games with these women. They would constantly tell them that they were nothing, that they
that they came from nothing, that they would never be anything. And they took advantage of how vulnerable and lonely they were. They wanted them to forget about the outside world and force them to focus on working. And the work they had to do was hard. Most of these girls were underage and they were doing the work of full-grown men.
When my mind hears "laundry," it thinks, like, "laundry machine," right?
But girl, this is a long time ago, okay? All the laundry was done by hand. Women would be washing, you know, not pretty nasty laundry by hand in ice cold buckets. It was said until like their hands turned blue. When the clothes were finally washed and hung to dry, they then had to be ironed with these industrial, like super dangerous irons for hours.
And these irons would cause serious burns on the women. In my mind, I was picturing like the scene in Willy Wonka where Charlie's mom is stirring that giant pot of clothes. And it kind of looks like soup. I always thought it was. No, it wasn't soup. It was clothes. Kind of like that.
But no one was singing, and obviously there was no chocolate bar. The money that the laundry maid went right back into keeping the laundry open. The woman didn't see a dime of that money, why would they? Not for you, silly rabbit. They were forced to work in this prison pretty much for free. I mean, you could call it essentially slave labor.
That's what it was. They were also in charge of keeping the prisons absolutely spotless, top to bottom. They would be on their hands and knees on the cold stone floors, scrubbing and scrubbing until the nuns came and told them to stop. Many women reportedly had walking issues from cleaning on their knees all day. After all this manual labor, these women couldn't even look forward to like taking a break for a meal because the food situation...
was barely there. The nuns believed there shouldn't be any comfort at these laundries, and this included food. This meant if you were living in a laundry, you were constantly on the verge of starvation. Bread and water was really all you could count on. I mean, at least you get some frozen vegetables in prison, you know? It's kind of sad that we're making a comparison to prison.
Cause you know, well, whatever, but it was worse than prison. It really was. And if you happen to like act up or give the nuns attitude, no food this week for you.
One survivor named Marina Gambold remembers a nun punishing her by withholding food, saying, quote,
Hmm? Yeah. Apparently while Marina was eating food off the ground, with a string around her neck choking her, she had to look up at this nun who was like sitting on her throne in front of her and beg for God's forgiveness. Because of punishment like this, most women just kept their heads down and would pray and pray to be released. Along with the isolation, physical abuse, and forced labor,
There were reports that the women and girls had experienced sexual abuse inside the Magdalene laundries as well, from the priests that they were expected to trust. And of course,
The nuns weren't gonna say anything about it. I mean, who knows? Maybe the nuns were doing it too. One of the people who had endured sexual abuse at the laundries was a woman named Brigid Young. Brigid didn't technically live within the Magdalene laundries, but she lived in the orphanage that was connected to one.
And Brigid dealt with the nuns from the laundries like daily. She was constantly told by the nuns that the women in the laundries were, quote, women of the devil, end quote.
One of those women was actually Bridget's mother, but she was forbidden to have like any contact with her. The nuns didn't want the women within the Magdalene walls to have any contact with others, even if it was the orphanage next door. The girls were allowed to talk to the priests, you know, and some of the Magdalene laundry priests would have these private Bible lessons with some of the more troubled girls. Bridget was one of them.
She had private lessons with the priest, but they weren't talking about scripture or anything like that. Instead, he would masturbate in front of her and then ejaculate all over her. It was just disgusting. It was disgusting. Bridget, for the longest time, didn't know what was going on because in the orphanage, I mean, there was no sex education. So she knew something was like
off and wrong, but she also just didn't have the verbiage for it. And on top of that, she knew that the priest was the highest authority and you just, you didn't question anything he did. Apparently the psycho would do this to Brigid over and over again and always before his mass on Sunday mornings. Yeah, and if he was doing it to her, it's like how many other girls was he doing this to?
Now, if by some miracle you survived and you were released, you were usually kicked out without warning, without money. And with like, the only thing you had was the clothes on your back. And because you had zero communication with the outside world,
you were likely starting your life over from scratch. Many survivors straight up left Ireland because they didn't want to carry the stigma of having been in a laundry. I guess it was kind of like a scarlet letter. I mean, it's easy to think that these are the worst of the stories, but these are only a few stories from a few survivors. Most women didn't get a chance to talk about their experience.
And a lot of the women just didn't want to relive the trauma. You know, you don't blame them at all. They just wanted to forget about this and forget it even happened and move on with their lives. But still, by this point in the mid-1900s,
Hundreds of women were still going in and out of these institutions. By the 1970s, it finally started to die down. But there were only 660 women who were admitted to laundries in that 10-year period. Which is, it's improvement, right? I'd love to say that this was because society was getting more progressive, but...
No. Industrial laundry machines were replacing manual laundry. So, like, there wasn't such a big need for cheap, aka free, laundry labor. By the 80s, only 147 women were sent to the laundries, and by the 90s, there were only 8 new women admitted. Which...
Good, good. But it's wild to think that at the same time on like the other side of the world, women in America were burning their bras at like Woodstock and having orgies in the park, you know? Meanwhile, in Ireland, they're throwing girls in prison for showing an ankle. Wild, huh? Like, those two realities don't feel like they should be able to overlap, but...
They do. And they did. For way too long. I mean, 231 years to be exact. That's so many generations of trauma and lives just being completely ruined. And I know I've said it before, but so many people outside of Ireland, they've never even heard about this. You know? I mean, I know I didn't. Did you? Ah!
- No, exactly. The laundries might still be running today if it wasn't for a huge discovery. You know that one good tank top that you wear like all year round? I mean, it fits you just right. So you wear it all the time, but maybe now it's getting a little old.
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in 1993.
Up until this point in the early 90s, the laundries were basically like an open secret in Ireland. Which, I don't know if you know, but it's a pretty small country. And because of the chokehold the Catholic Church had on Ireland, people were kind of, you know, brainwashed into thinking that anything that was run by the church was good. I mean, yeah, sure, there were rumors about abuse going on, but if it's the word of, you know, a girl versus the word of a priest...
A man of God? Who do you think people are gonna believe? Hmm? In 1993, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity sold part of their convent to a property developer. And this is when a discovery happens, okay? You know what they come across? A mass grave. Over 155 bodies were found.
all former laundry inmates. And this was just one property. Obviously this gets out to the press and these journalists discover that for those 155 bodies, there were only 75 death certificates. The math ain't mathin', hmm? So there are only death certificates for half of the bodies, which I'm sure we can all agree.
pretty shady. But before anyone could like step in and do anything, the nuns, they go and they rebury the remains in another gravesite and announce that there's been some kind of administrative error.
Silius. But silver lining, I guess? With the limelight finally on the laundries, people feel safe enough to like come and like speak out about their experience. Survivors of the Magdalene laundry system begin to come forward and share their own horrific experiences. Like a survivor named Kathleen Legg,
She was one of the women who willingly sent herself to the laundries. When Kathleen was 14, she and her single mother were living a very tough life. They were essentially scraping by. So they talked about how she could, you know, make something of her life just to get out of the crappy situation she was in. They decided the best thing to do would be to continue her education,
with the nuns. The nuns were trusted by everyone, you know? At this place she could learn new life skills. And most importantly, her mom thought that the nuns would watch over her and like give her a safe place to live. Nobody knew, you know?
Kathleen described her experience as, quote, Ugh, could you imagine?
I mean think about it, I bet after like a week of all that manual labor you'd be like dying for a bath. You stink. But imagine being the last one to bathe. Mmm, girl. Mmm, I don't care. I would be like, "Nah, I'm good. I'll smell like ass for another week, you know?" Not taking a dip with the lice. According to the Irish Central staff, quote,
The discovery turned the Magdalene laundries from an open secret to front page news. Suddenly, women began to testify about their experiences at the institutions and to pressure the Irish government to hold the Catholic Church accountable. I know, so this got me thinking.
Like how is the government going to investigate this properly if they were involved too? But this was bigger than the church. Now that the cat was out of the bag, it was becoming more clear that this laundromat that was operating in plain sight was a massive human rights violation. So the United Nations steps in and goes to the big daddy of the Catholic Church, the Vatican Church.
and they're like, "Look, listen, bitch, this is fucked up. You gotta stop." I imagine they said to the priest. Technically what they actually said was that, "Girls were deprived of their identity, of education, and often of food and essential medicines, and were imposed with an obligation of silence
and prohibited from having any contact with the outside world. And thank God that the UN stepped in because once they put the church on blast, it was only a matter of time before the last Magdalene laundry was shut down for good. And the evidence just kept piling up. More and more women were speaking out, more bodies were found, and more priests and nuns are shitting their pants.
It's discovered that over 300,000 women passed through the Magdalene laundries, and we don't even know how many of those women had died. You think they were keeping track? Of course not. Come on. And finally, on October 25th, 1996,
the last laundry in existence closed its doors permanently. It was called Our Lady of Charity in Dublin. In its heyday, it had about 150 women who had been working there. And by 1996, there were only 40. And as of October 25th of that year, they were finally free to go.
In 1998, a documentary comes out that sheds even more light on the truth about these laundries. It was called Sex in a Cold Climate. I just feel like, look, I'm not trying to be judgmental, but like I feel like they could have picked a better name, right? Sex in a Cold Climate?
out of everything that's whatever it told the true stories of four survivors something i thought was interesting in that documentary they called the laundries the magdalene asylums so it was like a little rebrand because yeah laundry was always the cover-up i mean they were technically
Asylums. Now, thanks to this movie and the other one I mentioned, The Magdalene Sisters, which came out in 2002, there was now even more pressure on the Irish government and the Catholic Church. Now, people wanted a public apology to all of the women that they had wronged. And at this point, a bunch of organizations came together and demand formal investigations led by the United Nations Committee Against Torture.
Finally, in 2001, the state does acknowledge that the women of the Magdalene Laundries were indeed victims. Wow, progress. But before they can officially assign any blame, they say they need to investigate themselves. The government was basically like, yeah, that sucks, but don't look at us. It was a church.
In 2013, a report comes out. The Irish state admitted they were involved with the Magdalene Laundrie abuse. The report was led by Martin McAleese. Now Martin was a devout Catholic and he was married to a former president of Ireland. So, and I think it's safe to say not the most neutral person to be leading this investigation, but
Okay. And surprise, surprise, the report came back saying, quote, Like, I'm...
What a slap in the face to all of the survivors who finally got the courage to like speak out, you know? Of course, you're not going to find evidence. How do you find evidence of like sexual abuse? Unless in the moment or like after the fact, you go and you like report it or something, but a lot of people don't do that, blah, blah, blah, you know, like,
It was just disgusting. But thankfully, others handled it better. The Prime Minister of Ireland publicly apologized for the treatment of the Magdalene women on February 19th, 2013. So yeah, like 20 years after the discovery of the graves.
He said, quote, Oh, shit.
It kind of sounds like they're trying to like get out of taking all of the blame. He also agreed to pay the survivors 58 million euros, which is about 75 million dollars. Survivors could get between 15,000 and 130,000 depending on how long they were at the laundries. These women were told that they would also receive state-funded retirement and free medical care. And
Some did, but according to our expert, it was a very fishy situation. And the government made it really difficult for these women to like claim any money. And I think we all know this by now, but I'm gonna say it again. Money isn't gonna fix the trauma and all the bullshit they went through. Money isn't gonna bring back one of those who was like buried, you know?
I don't know. During this whole investigation, the state starts doing the math. And it's reported that in a 74-year period from 1922 to 1996, 14,000 documented women were sent to the laundries. And that's only the women who had a paper trail.
These are women who would likely still be alive if they had made it out. Plus, that's only 74 years out of the 231 that the laundries were open for business. So, okay, the real number is probably more than we can even imagine. And then another really horrible stat comes out. Between 1954 and 64, over half the women trapped in these laundries died.
died there. What? Over half? Yeah! What's wild is that even after all of this comes out, the church...
was still refusing to apologize. Why do they hate apologizing? Isn't it in the Bible that you should apologize, church? They were pissed that the Irish government was calling them out and publicly criticizing them, okay? Now many nuns and priests still believed that they had done nothing wrong and that the laundries were ultimately more good than bad. Claire McCormack,
A journalist interviewed two nuns who asked to remain anonymous. Bitches. One of them said, quote, Apologize for what? Apologize for providing a service? We provided a free service for the country. There was a terrible need for a lot of those women because they were on the street with no social welfare and starving. We provided shelters for them. Whoa, nuns. A little delulu. Okay.
Okay, a little do-do-do, but whatever. Like a little aggressive too, like just chill, just say sorry, whatever. It wasn't until 2018 that the church acknowledged that what they had done was wrong. That year, the Pope visited Ireland, which was like a huge deal because a Pope hadn't been to Ireland since the 70s. He came like with bell bottoms and stuff back then and smoking a cigar, but not this time.
And when he got there, it was said that Pope Francis spent most of his two-day trip in Ireland on an apology tour. I mean, yeah, he better. He gave a whole speech asking for forgiveness for multiple things. And when it became clear he was referencing the laundries, everyone who was there applauded. Again, it's like, okay, 22 years too late, but okay, okay.
End quote.
There seems to be this trend on Dark History of things starting out with great intentions, right? And then they just take a fuckin' sharp left, right?
wildly out of control. They get crazy, especially when money gets involved. It doesn't matter if you're a CEO or a devout nun, money and power can corrupt anyone. And we still don't know everything about the laundries. Did they search all the properties for more victims, more bodies, anything like that? And shouldn't they? I mean, there's still more coming out.
And some of these survivors are still waiting on their payouts from the Irish government. Hello, Irish government, can you please get a move on? Thank you. And the story of the Magdalene laundries isn't even over. There are still new details being discovered by groups like the nonprofit research group, Justice for Magdalene's.
They're doing incredible work to shed light on everything that happened to the fallen women. Definitely check them out if you can at jfmresearch.com. I'll link them in the description box as well, but what they're doing is incredible. And there's also a movie that's supposed to come out this year about the laundry starring Cillian Murphy. It's called Small Things Like These, but I guess it's based on a book. So I'm definitely gonna check that out for sure.
There seems to be serious interest in this story, which is great since it has been buried for so long. Next week, I get into something that affects the entire world. It's a tradition that's older than Jesus. And one unofficial event involved throwing women off a cliff. It used to be something celebrated by the average Joe, and now it's a billion dollar industry. I'm talking the Olympics.
Every four years, we're supposed to get all excited and be like, America, yeah! But my question was, like, for what? Why? Why do we do this? Does anyone know? Well, next week, we're going to be talking about the dark history of the Olympics. And I hope to see you there.
Well friends, thank you so much for hanging out with me today. Sorry to drop this awful story on you, but now you know. Join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs. And while you're there, you can also catch my murder mystery and makeup. I'd love to hear your guys' reactions to today's story. So make sure to use the hashtag dark history over on social media so I can follow along and see what you're saying. Now, you're
Your favorite part, Joan. Let's read a couple of your guys' comments that you left me. Ooh, Scribbabbles left us a comment on our Valentine's Day episode saying, quote,
True story. I was given this. It's sad. I was given this phone number in middle school because I had a crush on this guy and he wasn't interested. So he gave me this phone number and I was really excited. I called it and it was a rejection number. Yeah. But look at me now. Where's he? I don't know. Fuck him. Amani38964 had a question for me.
Asking, "Are you involved in some form of witchcraft? I don't know, I get that vibe from you." "No."
But thank you, I guess. I don't know. What kind of witch though? Not the one with like the wart or the mole or something, right? Like a cute witch? As long as I'm cute. Thanks for your question, but no. Lexus MD commented on our Founding Fathers episode saying, "Love this series on Founding Fathers. Have you considered looking into the history of birthdays? Thank you for all you do. Beautiful soul." Thank you so much.
At first I was like, is there something to learn about birthdays? Isn't it just the day that you're born? But look, I'll look it up. I'll look into it and see if there's something there. Thank you guys so much for leaving comments. I appreciate it. I love reading them every week. So keep them coming because you might be featured. Hey, if you don't know, Dark History is an Audioboom original. This
This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian, Junya McNeely from 3Arts, Kevin Grush, and Matt Enloe from Maiden Network. Joey Scavuzzo, Katie Burris, and Allison Filobos. Production lead: Brian Jaggers. Research provided by: Colleen Fives-Smith.
A special thank you to our expert, Natalie Sabam, Senior Lecturer at the Sorbonne in Paris, specialized in Irish history. And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. I hope you guys have a good rest of your day. You make good choices and I'll be talking to you next week. Good bye.
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