Mary Norris

Mary Norris (aged 70 in 2003) was forced to enter a Magdalene laundry run by the Good Shepherd Order, in Cork, Ireland, at the age of 16. She spent two years there. The laundry closed down in 1994.

She was removed from her mother at 12 years of age. Her mother was having an affair and the local priest objected. Mary and her brothers and sisters were taken away crying as those in authority thought her mother was a bad example. The family was split up, the boys and girls were sent to different places run by different religious institutions. 12-year-old Mary was forced to say she agreed with a religious sister (nun) at an orphanage that her mother was a ‘tramp’. At 16 Mary was sent to work as a maid but they returned her to the orphanage after she went to a cinema without permission. A sister told her, she always knew Mary would turn out a ‘tramp’. Mary did not even know what the word meant. The nuns had her examined by a doctor. Although the doctor said she was a virgin she still was sent to a laundry in Cork. She feels the way she was treated at the laundry amounted to slavery. The girls and women were forced to work every week of the year and 10 hours per day all days except Sunday. Ironically it was done in the name of a loving God. The place was cruelly cold in winter and steaming hot in summer. When in the Magdalene laundry the women were even prevented from talking to one another and from seeing anything of the outside world. Mary Norris is not ashamed that she was there. She feels the Roman Catholic Church is guilty. Although the Church claims to be sorry, Mary Norris feels they are only sorry the truth has been discovered. Women were kept in Magdalene institutions solely on the decision of the Roman Catholic Church. She would rather have been in prison. There she would have got a trial and a sentence and would have known when she was coming out.

As one of many humiliations her name was changed to Myra. The nuns felt she did not deserve the holy name of Mary. When Mary Norris once would not work she was humiliated by being forced to lie down with her arms outstretched while the others watched. One woman who caused a disturbance was taken away and spent the night in an infirmary. Mary Norris assumes she was beaten. Despite this Mary Norris feels the psychological damage caused by constant degradation were worse than the effects of a beating and still affect her at the present time. She was told (wrongly) that her family had abandoned her.

Mary Norris feels sure some women killed themselves although that was considered a Mortal sin. Women just disappeared and the others were not told why. Mary Norris herself was tempted to kill herself but did not do it as she feared she would be crippled instead of killed.

Her deliverance came, not from suicide but from a concerned aunt in America. When she had been in this ‘Irish hell’ for two years and was 19 her aunt wanted to know what had happened to Mary Norris. The nuns did not want American outsiders involved. Mary Norris suspects money was paid for her release. Mary Norris got back in touch with her mother, brothers and sisters. Her brothers had been with the Christian Brothers, an Unchristian and abusive order. They were both alcoholics at the time of their deaths. One died as a result of a fire, the other as a result of murder. Her sister emigrated and none will return to Ireland.

External Links and Reference

• A very Irish sort of hell (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/04/04/1048962932185.html)
• Ireland’s Dirty Laundry (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/Ireland_abuse030126.html)
• Justice in Death is Sought for 27 'Fallen' women (http://www.iol.ie/~pcassidy/ARC/fallen.html)