On a bleak Galway day, I stand looking up at the grey limestone Final Journey Statue. A sombre sculpture of a woman. My eyes level with her rounded stomach. Her dress a simple sheaf, eyes sad, hair hacked short, barefoot. Her hands lifting a plain shroud from her back.
This Final Journey Statue is a memorial for the woman, girls and children abused by the Catholic Church Sisters of Mercy in Magdalene laundries in Ireland. The backbreaking unpaid labour at the laundries was undertaken by unmarried pregnant woman and girls whose “shame” was hidden behind the cloistered walls and the rule of silence imposed by the Sisters on the inmates. The women washed stains from sheets as penance for the stains on their souls, condemned for being unmarried mothers. The Sisters of Mercy separated the babies from their mothers at birth, regardless of the mothers’ desire, and the babies were adopted, often by rich overseas families.
The Final Journey Statue stands on the site of the laundry in Galway. The laundry opened in 1870 and closed in 1984. The buildings were demolished in 1991.
Systemic abuse exported to Australia
The Sisters of Mercy exported the brutal Magdalene laundry system to Australia. As Samilya described in Not Forgotten: They called me number 10 at Neerkol Orphanage she turned to the Sisters of Mercy in 1969 when she was pregnant at 16. Like other women in her situation at that time, she was shunned by her family and society. The Sisters of Mercy offered caring and support to desperate women and girls but provided abuse, humiliation and everlasting shame.
Women’s lives have changed
As I stand looking at the statue, behind me a group of nurses and teachers are protesting and advocating for better pay. They are predominantly women and I love hearing their passionate voices.
Women’s lives in Ireland have changed. As a young woman I remember being horrified that contraception was illegal in Ireland. There were a series of reforms between 1973 and 1993 until contraception was finally freely available. Those women protesting behind me have choices that were unavailable to the pregnant women who had no choice but to hide in the laundries. I hope they keep advocating for justice.
Final Journey for the Sisters of Mercy
The statistics tell the story of an another final journey: today, the remaining Sisters of Mercy in Ireland and Australia have dwindled to just 1,000 in each country, their average age now 83. The walls of secrecy have crumbled, and the recruits have dried up. As the elderly sisters fade into the oblivion it is the women in the street who hold the power now. The silence and systemic abuse has been broken. The final journey has been made.
