My title couldn't be further from the truth when it concerns the Irish government and Catholic Church! Only two years ago the Irish government apologised to the living women who was forced to work in the magdalene laundries or was sent by relatives. Between
young Irish women were made to become slaves by the Irish government and the Catholic church to serve the Irish nation and other nations. They provided clean bedding and clean laundry for hotels, hospitals, and other originations which was also from over seas, for country. So you can imagine the profit both the government and church was receiving for these women's work and the amount they paid out for the keep for these women didn't compare.
The magdalene women worked hard daily and would wake up in the morning to be faced with removing the stains the nations had caused. They would scrub to make things perfect, and right, under strict conditions. So why had the government not put in as much hard work as these women did, when they presented the women and family's, with a disgraceful apologise.
My nan was taken from her travelling family to be made to do free labour because she was unmarried to whom she had a child with - for 27 years my nan worked and grieved for her family and children they had taken from her. She had strong will and courage and fought for every one of her children, but the Irish government made that impossible for her. She was captured and was called dirty because she was different, she was made to "scrub away her sins" yet the government and the church cannot accept their sins and come forward with a fair apology for all who was involved and was affect by their terrible actions.
My nan didn't want to give up any of her children, so she refused to sign the adoption papers for her youngest child. Her eldest child Angela was also lock away in a different Madeleine laundry, while Mary, Angela's middle child, was made to enter an abusive children's home - where she was taunted and abused for who her mother was. My mum, Mary, had experienced pee buckets being chucked on her head, she was repeatedly hit while being naked and would also be locked in the barn to sleep with the pigs, all because her mum had a title of a "fallen women".
Still till this day, the nun who physically attacked and mentally broke down my mum as a young child is still out there with her freedom. While staying in a boarder of America that she knows she cannot be arrested in. She can breath the fresh air and speak with her family and live a life, while my nan had her life taken by the same abusive women and had her child abused by them. Where is the justice?
The Catholic Church refused for years to give any form of apology and still have not. The government apologised to the living women, and will be paying in compensation for the wages stolen from the living women but was it just the government that benefited from the slavery of these women, no! It was both of them! Meaning they should both be held responsible and both contribute to making their wrongs right! They didn't even say sorry for taking Angela's life because she is no longer living because of them! Nor would they repay my nan's wages to my mum as her inheritance but that went with her as she died regardless of her working hard and the abuse my mum experienced regarding the magdalene laundries.
When my mum attended the Irish parliament to receive the apology, she was crushed, everyone around her was happy that they all had been given an apology, my mum stood alone, feeling alone again like she did all them years ago, she crippled with anger and sadness - her mum didn't get the apology she work so hard for her to get for so many years, her mum didn't matter to them.
When the news broke in the uk, I was upset and disappointed that some of these women had lost what they set out to do, we wanted justice for all women, so why did people settle once the apology was given and compensation was put in place, it was not a real apology! They apologised for the stigma and conditions they put these women through! They didn't apologise fully! They showed sympathy for the lost lives but no responsibility as the stolen lives wasn't taken into account in the apology. The Madeleine women stood strong together, they work side by side and worked hard to get the job done! So why did some abandon the dead women once it was announced that "we apologise to the living women" do the life's they took not all matter!?
Did my nan not work 27 years of her life without consent and was not paid a single day? Does my nan not matter? Does the dead women not matter? This is the message I have been given by the Irish government. Some people that class themselves as getting justice for the magdalene women! You don't deserve that title, that means you stand for all the women who was involved, not just the living women!
My mum is a survivor and also as a child entered the Madeleine laundry at the age of 7 to see her mum because her mum was given an sickening choice by the church either to sign her younger child up for adoption then she could see Mary, who she had brought up for two years of her life, it was a hard choice, a choice no mother should have to make but she new she would never see any of her children if she didn't agree, so she signed the papers while highly medicated by the nuns to keep her calm while in their care.
My mums, mum, was a real person to her! She wasn't just another case! She saw her big caring brown eyes that had hidden terrible, bitter, sadness. That women is her mum! My nan! She is real to us and was real before her life was taken by the church and government! So why is she nothing to the government now? Why does my nan not exist to you? Why did you separate my mums family unlawfully? Why did you make my nan a slave? Why is my nan dead because of lack of care? Does all these wrongs not matter to you? My nan may not be alive but we are! We are still carrying the pain, the injustice and the lack of support because of the actions the Irish government and Catholic Church took. Where is our sorry? Where is my nans justice? Where is all the women's justice?
All these questions I find myself asking Irish government! Why did social services reports state that Angela's children were all very healthy and well kept? What are your reasons for taking my family? What are the reasons for the country forgetting out the women they put in unkept graves side by side.
I honestly dislike and am sad to attend my nan's grave because it reminds me of the abuse my mum and nan had to go through and the injustice, like the scars on my mums body is not enough! Why do we not have a respectful place to show our respect without being reminded she died from cancer at the age of 57 because she wasn't given the medical care she needed although all the signs were there! The church just ignored it! Why is my nan disrespectfully in a grave with 72 other women?
I will not rest until my questions are answered and we get justice! I want and my nan deserves justice and so does my mum and family! We are in 2015, yet the Irish church cannot confess and repent their sins, the government doesn't want to take responsibility for the family's they had broken and the death of these women. Everyone may be happy they personally have got an apology but we are still here, we are still suffering with the loss, do we not matter? Does all the women not matter?
Where are my nan's, mine, and my mums and family's human rights! You took my nan's years ago but I can assure you, you won't be taking mine!
The women are still being ignored like all them years ago. Meaning we need to scream louder to get full justice for the ALL the women and to have the Irish government and the Catholic Church take full responsibility for the actions they displayed all them years ago, they know it's wrong, so they should take responsibility for it!
We will also be campaigning to have my nan removed from the grave she was placed in by her captors, so we can respectful rebury her from where she had originated from in country Mayo and have somewhere we can pay our respects without being reminded of Ireland's mistakes. We have full consent from all living relatives but because we need consent from the church, which has been requested for, but has been ignored. We can not start to give Angela Collins back the freedom she had taken from her all them years ago, which is a right all humans deserve!
For over 10 years we have been campaigning to try get an apology from the Irish government and Catholic Church for taking my nan's life and for all the women but on the day of the apology, my family was meant to feel closure, we didn't have any form of closure, the door was still left open and we are still left to fight the battle by ourself. The magdalene women worked together, they didn't abandon each other! The dead magdalene women have been abandon by Ireland and is supposedly no ones responsibility. Like I have said they didn't and still don't matter to the eyes of the government and Catholic Church, but my nan matters to me! And to my mum and brothers! And she will also matter to my young daughter as she gets older!
My nan may be forgotten by Ireland but she is never forgotten by us! The battle started the night they took Angelia and we are still fighting it for her, and the women who died, sadly still in 2015 but she has family! Angelia Collins name will always live on and we won't stop until the church and Irish government admits their wrongs and apologises to all the women for their losses!
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