Hanna’s House Statement In Support of Survivors of Institutional Abuse

On 11^th February Hanna’s House, an organization working for an active feminist community throughout Ireland, held a conference on truth recovery. The conference heard powerful testimonies from women activists across Ireland about the need for women’s experience of human rights abuses to be recognized and acknowledged. Speakers addressed in particular the impact of the conflict in the North of Ireland and the impact of institutional abuse in the South of Ireland.

On the day of the conference it became clear that in our society there is an ongoing contest between remembering and forgetting and therefore the process of gaining acknowledgement of past abuses is not an easy one. While some gains have been made there has been also a process of systematic exclusion and silencing. The experience of the Magdalene Laundry women has been excluded from the Ryan investigation process and the Redress scheme.   There have also been gagging orders placed on those victims and survivors who testified about institutional abuse to the Redress Board. Hanna’s House believe that these acts are deeply unjust and are prejudicial to the sustained efforts that are needed to create a just outcome for the victims and survivors of institutional abuse and for our whole society.

We call for the gagging orders to be overturned and for the experience of the Magdalene Laundry women to be included in an ongoing process of truth recovery about institutional abuse. Hanna’s House believes that we must, as a society, acknowledge and account for past wrongs in order to create a better future.

For more information about Justice for Magdalene women refer to their website at: http://www.magdalenelaundries.com/