To bishop John Buckley.
I Laura Angela Collins am writing to you on behalf of my nan Angela Collins and my mother Mary Collins. My mother Mary and her siblings Teresa Collins and Angela Collins was all taken from their mother Angela by the state and Catholic Church.
My family were travellers and although social services reports states that all three of Angela's children was well looked after, you took my nan Angela Collins and forced her into the magdalene laundries in peacock lane, cork which was run by the sisters of charity. She worked 27 years of her life, she was forcefully medicated and was given brain shock treatment. She was advised by doctors that she should have her womb removed, the nuns took her back to the magdalene laundries and made her work a further 10 years before she died of ovarian cancer. She was refused the treatment she needed by your church as she was under your care. Angela was dumped in a mass grave in St. Finbars cemetery.
My mother Mary at the age of two and half was forced into an abusive industrial school which was under the sister of mercy. She was physically and sexually abused and had to face racism on behalf of where her mother and herself had came from. She was made to visit her mother from the age of seven in the magdalene laundries where she faced more abuse, she visited her mother for 11 years of her life while under the churches care.
Angela Collins my mothers sister was made to enter a laundries run by Good Shepard's covent at the age of fourteen. She left and after years of searching for her family she couldn't take no more of the past and pain and committed suicide.
Teresa Collins was adopted and still to this day badly affected by the separation of her mother and having to go to the laundries from her school to sing to her mother although she didn't know she was her mother, she would later find out that the women she would sing to was her mum.
My mother has contacted cork council on behalf of removing her mother from the mass grave so she can place her in a single grave in her mothers hometown. She wishes to give her mother back the freedom your church had taken. She was told she would need permission from all living relates which she has and also the church's permission. She has asked verbally and written for permission from the nuns for the permission to dig on their land and exhume my nan from the mass grave but we have been ignored.
I today, Wednesday 15th 2015, read an article regarding the church requesting to exhume and rebury "little Nellie" aka Ellen organ in a place where every one can pay respect because you view Nellie to be really religious and holy.
I ask you bishop why is my nan still classed as the scum you viewed her when you took her? When she is just an ordinary women and mother and a women who also practised and believed strongly in the religion that kept her as a slave. The religion that put their hands on her baby's body to cause scars and pain, the religion who still today holds her freedom from her and her family's right to pay their respects in a dignified place,
Why does everyone get to pay respect to Nellie, yet my mum doesn't have a place to pay respect to her own mother without being reminded of the abuse and pain and separation you made her and her mother have to go through. I question the motives of the church with Nellie, when they ignore the victims they caused.
My nan is not a fallen women, she was a strong women who fought for 27 years for freedom and sadly didn't receive that. She may not be a saint in your eyes, she may not be as holy as you would like her to be but she is my mothers mother and my nan. She was a human being and mother, a sister, a nan and a great grandmother and she may not matter to you but she matters to my family and she deserves to have justice and freedom.
I'm reaching out to you to contact me and try and heal the process of which your church has caused for the victims. Please give my mother the permission she has always deserved to remove her mother from the mass grave which fills her with painful memory's and reminds of the lack of freedom her mother had and still has.
Kind regards,
Laura Angela Collins
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/daughter-begs-return-mothers-body-6077750
I Laura Angela Collins am writing to you on behalf of my nan Angela Collins and my mother Mary Collins. My mother Mary and her siblings Teresa Collins and Angela Collins was all taken from their mother Angela by the state and Catholic Church.
My family were travellers and although social services reports states that all three of Angela's children was well looked after, you took my nan Angela Collins and forced her into the magdalene laundries in peacock lane, cork which was run by the sisters of charity. She worked 27 years of her life, she was forcefully medicated and was given brain shock treatment. She was advised by doctors that she should have her womb removed, the nuns took her back to the magdalene laundries and made her work a further 10 years before she died of ovarian cancer. She was refused the treatment she needed by your church as she was under your care. Angela was dumped in a mass grave in St. Finbars cemetery.
My mother Mary at the age of two and half was forced into an abusive industrial school which was under the sister of mercy. She was physically and sexually abused and had to face racism on behalf of where her mother and herself had came from. She was made to visit her mother from the age of seven in the magdalene laundries where she faced more abuse, she visited her mother for 11 years of her life while under the churches care.
Angela Collins my mothers sister was made to enter a laundries run by Good Shepard's covent at the age of fourteen. She left and after years of searching for her family she couldn't take no more of the past and pain and committed suicide.
Teresa Collins was adopted and still to this day badly affected by the separation of her mother and having to go to the laundries from her school to sing to her mother although she didn't know she was her mother, she would later find out that the women she would sing to was her mum.
My mother has contacted cork council on behalf of removing her mother from the mass grave so she can place her in a single grave in her mothers hometown. She wishes to give her mother back the freedom your church had taken. She was told she would need permission from all living relates which she has and also the church's permission. She has asked verbally and written for permission from the nuns for the permission to dig on their land and exhume my nan from the mass grave but we have been ignored.
I today, Wednesday 15th 2015, read an article regarding the church requesting to exhume and rebury "little Nellie" aka Ellen organ in a place where every one can pay respect because you view Nellie to be really religious and holy.
I ask you bishop why is my nan still classed as the scum you viewed her when you took her? When she is just an ordinary women and mother and a women who also practised and believed strongly in the religion that kept her as a slave. The religion that put their hands on her baby's body to cause scars and pain, the religion who still today holds her freedom from her and her family's right to pay their respects in a dignified place,
Why does everyone get to pay respect to Nellie, yet my mum doesn't have a place to pay respect to her own mother without being reminded of the abuse and pain and separation you made her and her mother have to go through. I question the motives of the church with Nellie, when they ignore the victims they caused.
My nan is not a fallen women, she was a strong women who fought for 27 years for freedom and sadly didn't receive that. She may not be a saint in your eyes, she may not be as holy as you would like her to be but she is my mothers mother and my nan. She was a human being and mother, a sister, a nan and a great grandmother and she may not matter to you but she matters to my family and she deserves to have justice and freedom.
I'm reaching out to you to contact me and try and heal the process of which your church has caused for the victims. Please give my mother the permission she has always deserved to remove her mother from the mass grave which fills her with painful memory's and reminds of the lack of freedom her mother had and still has.
Kind regards,
Laura Angela Collins
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/daughter-begs-return-mothers-body-6077750
http://m.independent.ie/irish-news/news/survivors-of-homes-claim-government-is-stalling-31380853.html
