A LEDGER for a Magdalene laundry in Dublin’s Drumcondra reveals that
its regular customers included Áras an Uachtaráin, Government
departments, Guinnesses, some of Dublin’s leading hotels and golf clubs,
Clerys, the Gaiety theatre and Dr Steevens hospital in the city.
It
was run by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity who operated two in
Dublin, one at High Park in Drumcondra and the other on Seán Mac Dermott
Street, the last Magdalene laundry in Ireland which closed in 1996.
The
ledger was found at the High Park laundry during the exhumation of
Magdalene women’s remains there in 1993 when the Sisters of Our Lady of
Charity sold off land to developers after losing money in an investment
in Guinness Peat Aviation.
Permission was sought to exhume 133
bodies for cremation and interment in a mass grave in Glasnevin.
In the
exhumation process a further 22 bodies were found which the congregation
could not account for.
The ledger, which covers October 20th 1980
to March 18th 1981, has since come into the hands of the Magdalene
Survivors Together group, whose director Steven O’Riordan brought it to
the attention of
The Irish Times.
It discloses that, including
those listed above, regular customers for the laundry, believed to be
the one at High Park, included the Department of Justice, the Department
of Agriculture, the Department of Fisheries and CIÉ. Dublin hotels such
as Buswells, the North Star, the Ormond, Skylon, the Sutton Castle, as
well as Portmarnock and Clontarf Golf clubs. Included also are religious
congregations in the city. Dublin airport, and the Bank of Ireland were
also regular customers of the laundry.
An entry for Áras an
Uachtaráin, dated March 2nd 1981, lists a bill of £10.84 while one for
Guinnesses, dated March 23rd 1981, lists a bill of £10.89.
The
Department of Fisheries was billed £3.25 on March 16th 1981, while the
Department of Agriculture was billed £6.92 on February 9th 1981.
The
Department of Justice was billed £20.28 on January 19th, 1981.
Some
of the larger bills are for hotels with the Sutton Castle billed £88 on
December 15th 1980 and Buswells £69, on the same date.
Portmarnock Golf
Club was billed £2.84 on December 2nd 1980 while that for Clontarf Golf
Club on November 17th 1980 was £7.59.
The Gaiety theatre was billed
£4.65 on January 12th 1981.