The mother of five said her six years at the workhouse affected her "throughout her life".

Mary Cavner, who now lives in the UK, worked at the Good Shepherd's Convent in County Cork, Ireland after her father died.

She was separated from her siblings and despite only being 11 when she arrived, she received no education from the nuns and was often hungry. She worked into the night looking after babies, cleaning, working in the laundries and preparing meals for the nuns.

"They held me there and worked me until I was nearly 18," Cavner said.

"We weren't allowed to talk or associate with anybody else."

Cavner said when she eventually left the convent she found it a shock being back in the outside world.

"It really does affect you," she said.

"My experience in the laundry left me unable to communicate properly.

"I have had really low points as they have made me live this again and to be accused of not telling the truth made me feel rejected."

Although she was initially told she was ineligible for compensation, she has since been informed she will be getting €76,000 (about NZ$132,000).

Cavner's solicitor, Chun Wong, said Cavner's journey has "been very emotional … she's spent longer fighting the Irish government than she had been in the Magdalene Laundry."

She added that Cavner was "never sure if she would ever see the compensation.

"Her fear was always she would die before she got a penny of the money due to her.

"It's never been about the money for Mary because no amount of money is ever going to be able to compensate her for the trauma that she went through as a child, but it's about calling the Irish government to account."

About 10,000 women worked at the Magdalene Laundries, which were initially institutions for "fallen women", between 1922 and 1996.

The women and girls worked behind locked doors, were not allowed to leave and received no wages.

In 2013, the (now former) Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach), Enda Kenny apologised on the state's behalf for its role in the scandal.

Source

• The Journal
• BBC
• Image: BBC

They have the support of over 9,500 people who have signed a petition to stop the sale.

The Magdalene Laundries were Catholic-run workhouses for "fallen women", unmarried mothers and orphans.

The councillors argue the Dublin building needs to be preserved to fulfill the government's commitment to have a memorial for the women who were placed in the laundries.

One councillor pointed out that "It is only in the last couple of years that we started to develop an understanding of institutional abuse.

"...There is a growing movement that says we need some sort of museum or commemorative centre that can help us understand that particular issue.

"The survivors are all in favour of having a memorial to their suffering, that was a request that was made by the survivors, it is something all survivor groups have been really passionate about," he added.

Although originally owned by the Catholic Church, Dublin city council took control of the Sean McDermott Street Magdelene Laundry from the Sisters of Charity after the laundry closed 22 years ago.

Originally termed Magdalene Asylums, the first laundry in Ireland was opened in Dublin in 1765 for Protestant girls. In 1809 the first Catholic home was founded in Cork.

The laundries were initially envisaged as short-term refuges for "fallen women". However, they became long-term institutions where the women were treated as penitents and required to work, mostly in laundries on the premises

Later, the role of the Magdalene Asylums expanded to include unmarried mothers, women with learning difficulties and girls who had been abused.

The women worked behind locked doors and were unable to leave after being admitted. The women were not paid wages, although the laundries were paid for the work the women did.

The laundries were run by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, the Religious Sisters of Charity and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.

Between 1922 and 1996 there were 10 Magdalene Laundries in the Republic of Ireland.

In February 2013, then Taoiseach (prime minister) Enda Kenny apologised to the 10,000 women who had passed through the laundries.

Source

• BBC
• Breaking News.ie
• La Croix
• Image: The Irish Times

O'Connor, now 46, said she was sent to the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity laundry in Drumcondra, Dublin, when she was 14 years old after she was labelled a "problem child".

She told the Irish Sun she had suffered abuse as a child and began stealing as a teenager. Her parents were separated and her worried father thought he was doing the right thing by sending her to be "rehabilitated" at the facility.

"We were girls in there, not women, just children really," she said. "And the girls in there cried every day.

"It was a prison. We didn't see our families, we were locked in, cut off from life, deprived of a normal childhood.

"We were told we were there because we were bad people. Some of the girls had been raped at home and not believed.

"One girl was in because she had a bad hip and her family didn't know what to do with her.

"It was a great grief to us," she said.

"There was no rehabilitation there and no therapy. Nothing but people telling us we were terrible people. I stopped the stealing all right. I didn't want to be sent back there. But at what cost?"

O'Connor spoke out after the release of a report from an official investigation which found that there was "significant state involvement" in the incarceration of more than 10,000 women and girls in the laundries from 1922 until 1996.

The controversial singer with a shaved head has become well known for her strongly expressed views on organized religion, women's rights, war and child abuse.

She tore a photo of Pope John Paul II during an appearance as a musical guest on the American television show Saturday Night Live.

In the late 1990s she was ordained a priest in the independent Irish Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church. She has been married four times and has four children, and says she has also had three relationships with women.

Sources:

Irish Sun

Wikipedia

Image: The Times