Madam, - I have followed with sadness the story of the Magdalens, of which the issue of exhumations and cremations is just the latest harrowing episode. Without wishing to minimise the role of Church and State in such matters, I would make the following observations.
Many of the women who lived in the laundries had been pregnant outside marriage or were viewed as prostitutes or as sexually compromised. An uncomfortable truth of Irish society is that these women, who had mostly committed no crime and were technically free, remained institutionalised because many knew they might receive harsher treatment within their own family and community outside the institution walls.
Furthermore, there is scant evidence of a general clamour from family members, friends or community representatives petitioning for the release of the Magdalens. It would seem to have suited many people that these forgotten women would remain exactly that.
Perhaps the unpalatable truth is that when the muddied waters of the Magdalen story have settled we will be left staring at our own reflection. In Irish society we need to acknowledge our responsibility for the past and seek forgiveness from those who suffered and survived life in the Magdalen laundries. - Yours, etc.,
PAUL GRAY, Orby Drive, Belfast 5.