Before the age of ten, I was explained what had happened to my nan, Angela Collins and my mother Mary Collins. Following to that we went to Ireland to visit my nan in the mass grave she was placed in. When we arrived we was greeted by a dirty, grey, head stone, that towered over me. It read many different women's names, I read the headstone while wiping away dirt, we soon came across Angela's name which was put up along with 72 other women's names.
We went back to Ireland as a family but this time we were on a mission, we had purchased a new head stone that read "Angela Collins, st. Vincent's, peacock lane, cork from 1961. Suffering life long separation from her children. Until her death in 1988. On the feast of St. Angela aged 57 years now at peace in her eternal home. Rip." We also placed an angel statue next to the head headstone. We cleaned up the the ordinal headstone and we said prays and paid respect to Angela.
Angela Collins worked 27 years within a peacock lane magdalene laundry. She died in the magdalene laundries and was placed in a mass grave. Angela Collins' daughter, Mary Collins, has been fighting for her mothers justice and for her justice as she would be made to enter the laundries to visit her mother where she experienced terrible abuse at the age of 7 years.
Mary Collins took part in a documentary regarding her mother Angela Collins and herself. The producer asked for the film of are remembrance for Angela, which he has failed to give back and didn't even use in his documentary, yet used my mums story and he published his documentary. After he got what he wanted which was the story he excluded my mum from the support group called "magdalene survivors all together" funny how the name speaks for itself. My mother suffered in and out of the magdalene laundries and within a abusive children's home within Ireland and her mum worked in a magdalene laundry for 27 years! He excluded a survivor for his own gain. Steven O riordion is not even related to the magdalene women, let alone being a survivor of it, so he stole off and excluded the women that mattered.
In 2013 an apology was issued towards the women. Steve O riordion did not want my mother at the apology, my mother couldn't get a ticket and not one of the women for "survivors together" spoke up on behalf of Mary Collins getting justice on behalf of her mum and herself, another women who was not part of that group got my mother a ticket and sat with her.
The Irish government apologised to the living women who entered the magdalene laundries. Instead of refusing the apology and telling them it's not good enough as they didn't included the families and women that lost their life's. Although it was so close to getting a perfect outcome that didn't excluded families and the women as the government had already agreed they did wrong, all we had to do was hold out a little longer but instead of pushing it, we accepted it to avoid prolonging it any further. So that some survivors who were alive but elderly could see the apology as they may not have ever heard it due to old age in some peoples in opinion.
Since 2013, 6 women has pasted away who was apart of the survivors together group, 1,663 people died in Magdalene laundries and are still without any form of apology today. Many family members have been left without justice. Around 250 women have accepted the offers of competition from the fund set up. Nearly €18 million has been planned to be paid out to survivors. They will also be issued with a health card, which hasn't been put in place yet, although the compensation systems have.
Steven O’Riordan, head of the group, said: “The biggest fear the women have is that most of their entitlements will be assessed. There is no guarantee they will receive extra benefits, as they will be assessed.”
The survivors together group fail to speak about the 1,663 people that died. Although they mention a memorial. The group says it is also unhappy about the delay in erecting a Magdalene memorial and museum on Dublin’s Sean McDermott Street, where the last laundry closed in 1996.
The 2013 Quirke report, which the government said it would implement, had recommended that a memorial be placed on the site.
“They seem to just want to delay everything,” Marie Slattery, a survivor of the Sean McDermott Street laundry, said. “Six women from our group have passed away… It’s upsetting.”
Let me ask, why does this matter even though dead women and families of these women haven't even received an apology!? They never speak about the dead women and families that sacrificed their apologies two years ago for them to have what they got and now actually try help fight for the dead women and families to get an apology! The only reason they use the memorial in my personal opinion is to pretend they care and to bring awareness to their health cards. If they really card about the women who lost their life's and that didn't get apologies why are they not speaking up about it and making people aware the dead women have been left without justice and also the families! So please answer my question of why a memorial matters? when those women and families haven't been given the simple justice of an apology on behalf of loosing their life and their family members losing love ones!
They say it's upsetting! It's upsetting that two years after the apology was issued that we are still fighting for the simple apology! Which mean more than a stone at this moment of time! The apology should come first! Yet they only care about appearance, only because your putting a memorial does not make up for the hurt and pain family's and women went through and does not compensate for an apology!
We should be fighting for an apology on behalf of those that lost their life's and suffered, not talking about medical cards or memorials when some women haven't even received an apology. It's have been two years since the apology and the families and women that lost their life's are still be ignored and still being forgotten and it's not just by the government!
A memorial should not be put up until all is resolved and all people involved has been given justice! Once the chapter ends! That is when it should be placed! It may have ended for you! But the fight continues for many! So It is not over!
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