At 17 years of age, Kathleen was sent to the Good Shepherd laundry in New Ross, where she spent eight years washing and ironing clothes without pay.
In 1968, when the New Ross laundry closed, the 25-year-old moved, with the nuns, to the Clifton convalescent home in Montenotte — run by the Good Shepherds.
Nearly 50 years later, she still remains in the care of the nuns. “Clifton was a totally different set up. We get paid for our work and everything,” she said. “That was because the health board had a part of it.”
Eventually she had to stop working. “My back and hips were at me. I wasn’t any good any more.”
Along with fellow Magdalene survivor, Miriam Malone, Kathleen is now resident at the Baile an Aoire units established for homeless women by the Good Shepherd nuns in Montenotte in Cork.
She attends meetings of the Magdalene Survivors Together group and was overjoyed when the people of Kilkenny opened up a book of apologies for the former laundry women. The book is now due to travel to all counties where there was a Magdalene laundry.
“Our lives were robbed. There’s no doubt about that. Times were bad back then and we had to work hard but we weren’t abused, I can’t say that,” she says.
“The nuns have nothing much to do with us now though.”
Of the 118 women who spoke to the McAleese committee, 58 are still in the care of the religious orders.
Many critics of the McAleese report believe it was these, very often institutionalised women, who said physical abuse did not take place at the laundries. The Ryan report told a different story.
While the McAleese report has been roundly praised by the Government, the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) is not happy with its contents. It said in a letter to Irish UN representative Gerard Corr that the probe was not independent and failed to adequately examine allegations of physical abuse, forced labour, and arbitrary detention.
Felice Gaer of UNCAT called on the Government to ensure “that there is a full enquiry into all complaints of abuse”.
Miriam and many of the Magdalene survivors are wary of criticising the McAleese report as it brought about the apology which, in the words of fellow survivor Maureen Sullivan, “eventually acknowledged the wrongdoing by Church and State”. Many of them just want to see the Quirke redress scheme put in place quickly.
However, there is a growing body of activists refusing to accept the McAleese report as the official narrative of the laundries. Justice for Magdalenes, the group with brought the issue to UNCAT two years ago, raised concerns shortly after the report was published.
Tomorrow, the Irish Human Rights Commission, which called for a statutory inquiry into the laundries three years ago, will publish its follow-up report on the McAleese report.
It, too, is expected to find the interdepartmental report wanting.