THE MAGDALENE SISTERS

THE MAGDALENE SISTERS

SPOILER ALERT

The first Magdalene Asylum was founded in England to help Protestant “fallen women”, mostly prostitutes, turn their lives around.   As time wore on, the Catholic Church took over the organization and it grew into an international concern that operated primarily in Ireland, but also in Australia, Canada, England, Scotland, Sweden, and the United States.  At some point, the dwellings transformed into places which could be used to confine females who posed social problems.  To achieve that end, the Magdalene complex added training schools and orphanages and began offering services to girls who had unwed mothers, or attracted male attention, or had been abandoned by their families, or were developmentally disabled; for some their stay became a lifetime sentence. 

Although it is unknown exactly how many women and girls were housed at the facilities during the two hundred years they were in operation, it is estimated that there were a many as 10,000 in Ireland during the Twentieth Century alone.  The institutions finally came under scrutiny when an Irish farmer bought a tract of land from one of the convents and found a graveyard that contained the remains of over 150 unnamed women.  Shortly afterward survivors began coming forward recounting myriad forms of abuse they had either suffered or witnessed, and the facilities began shutting down, the last closing in 1996.  In 1998 Steve Humphries produced and directed a documentary entitled “Sex In A Cold Climate” which introduced the testimony of four women, Phyllis, Martha, Christina, and Brigid, who had been confined in the Magdalene complex.   In 2003, the movie The Magdalene Sisters came out which presented four main characters that were loosely based on the women in the documentary.  Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone) had characteristics of Phyllis, Margaret (Ann-Marie Duff) of Martha, Rose (Dorothy Duffy) of Christina, and Crispina (Eileen Walsh) of Brigid.

In the film, Margaret is handed over to the institution by her parents after she tells a friend that her cousin raped her; unwed mother Rose is forced her to give up her baby son then committed to the laundry by her parents, even though the baby’s father wants to get married; and strikingly pretty Bernadette is dispatched to the facility from the orphanage where she lives when she is caught flirting with a group of boys.  The story doesn’t clarify how Crispina, who is both an unwed mother and developmentally delayed, came to be at the laundry, only that she’s been there long enough to be proficient at her job. 

Induction into the facility is the same for everyone.  Mother Superior Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan), an avaricious character that is repeatedly shown caressing money, chastises new inmates for their sinful ways before forcing them to relinquish their colorful street clothes in exchange for dull brown uniforms that are designed to hide their figures and, thus, make them less attractive.  During the day, they labor in the laundry under the watchful eyes of the sisters and are tormented by mentally deficient Katy (Britta Smith), who has been a resident there for forty years; forbidden to converse, they work in silence.  Their punishment also includes sleeping on hard cots in a large dormitory, being marched through the streets for “decent” citizens to gawk at, and being fed unappealing food like unseasoned oatmeal, while one of their group is made to forgo the meal altogether in order to read aloud from the Bible.

Because they represent victims of the Magdalene system in general, the four women face hardships that encapsulate testimonies of actual residents.  These include being forced to stand naked while the nuns make fun of their bodies, being beaten for negligible transgressions, and being shaved bald for trying to escape.   There is a strong relationship between the church, government officials, and local police, which gives the convent power to hold girls until a male relative comes to sign them out, even though they’ve committed no crimes.  Since Margaret’s and Rose’s fathers have disowned them, Bernadette is an orphan, and Crispina’s only adult relative is her sister, the four of them face the likelihood of being incarcerated for the rest of their lives.   
   

Knowing this, Bernadette, who is naturally rebellious, tries to escape using the only means she can think of, her beauty.  She flirts with the boy (Peter Mullan) that transports the laundry to and from the facility, going so far as to hike up her dress, so he can see her underpants.  She promises to let him do anything he asks if he will marry her.  Mesmerized by Bernadette’s looks and the prospect of having access to an untold variety of sexual pleasures, he comes to the laundry prepared to set her free.  Just as she reaches the door, however, he realizes that the plan is crazy and leaves.  Furious that she’s not going to be released, Bernadette curses him; her enraged screams wake everyone, and she is taken to Sister Bridget who shaves her head as punishment. 

Since all the women are in the same boat, it would be natural for them to stick together, but they don’t.  Katy, for instance, snitches on her fellow prisoners to curry favor with the sisters, and Bernadette victimizes Crispina, a sympathetic character who is innocent and trusting.  Her mild temperament might be due to her mental deficiency but could also be explained by the fact that she has a sister (Tracy Kearney) and son (Callum Smith and Daniel Emerson) who love her.  When Crispina was sent to the laundry, her sister bought matching St. Christopher metals so that on nice days she could walk her nephew past the laundry’s gate, and he and his mother could communicate through gestures.  Crispina is never without the necklace until the catch opens, and it falls off.  Later it is found by Bernadette who is so jealous that Crispina has both a sister and son while she has no one, that she hangs onto the metal just to watch the girl suffer.  Margaret, who has befriended the helpless young woman, promises to find the St. Christopher, but never tries. After waiting as long as she can stand, Crispina accuses Margaret of being a bad friend for breaking her word.  Knowing that nothing else will sooth the girl, Margaret goes to the dormitory while everyone is at lunch, tosses the place, and finds the necklace beneath Bernadette’s pillow.  When she returns it, she explains where it was in hopes that Chrispina will give the Bernadette a real dressing down.  Instead, the girl just smiles and expresses her thanks because she doesn’t care who took it, only that she has it back.  
      

One day when the inmates are congregating outside, Margaret looks in one of the windows and sees the convent’s priest, Father Fitzroy (Daniel Costello) having sex with Chrispina.  Enraged, she gathers a handful of poison ivy and the next time she washes the Father’s laundry, she throws the leaves into the dryer.  A few days later, Sister Bridget has some wealthy people at the convent for an event and brings the girls out.  When Father Fitzroy begins to speak, Margaret whispers in Crispina’s ear that the priest is not a man of God, but the girl seemingly ignores her.  Suddenly, he starts to scratch, then begins stripping off his clothes and running across the lawn, his body covered in bright red welts.  While everyone watches aghast, Chrispina begins scratching her groin area and screaming after him, “You are not a man of God!”  The outcome is that nothing happens to the priest, while Chrispina is transferred to the local mental asylum.

At Christmas, each girl is given an orange, then are brought together with the bishop and other church officials, to watch a movie of Sister Bridget’s choosing.  This year the film is The Bells of St. Mary’s.  Suddenly, a young man (Eamonn Owens) comes to the door and pushes his way in waving papers, demanding to see Margaret, and announcing that he is taking her with him.  Instead of acting grateful, she asks where he has been the last four years, which is the first time the audience is told how long Margaret, Bernadette, and Rose have been imprisoned.  With Crispina and Margaret gone, Bernadette and Rose become determined to leave as well.  They sneak into the Mother Superior’s office to get the key to the gate, but the sister walks in on them.  A few days earlier, Rose had been forced to help the sister search for the key to her safe; Rose found it but didn’t turn it over.  Now, she reveals that she will open the safe if they are allowed to leave.  Sister Bridget, who loves money more than anything else, agrees knowing that the police will bring them back the next day.  What she doesn’t know, however, is that Bernadette has a friend who is a beauty operator that will vouch for her as a trainee, which means she can remain free.  They make their way to the friend’s shop where the woman gives Rose money for train fare, and she escapes to England.

At the end of the film there is a summary of what happened to each girl: Margaret became an elementary school teacher and never married; Rose got married, had two children, and after a lifetime of searching, found her son shortly before she died; Bernadette married and divorced three times; and Chrispina developed an eating disorder and died in the asylum at the age of twenty-four.  In 2009, a new documentary aired entitled “The Forgotten Maggies” which was written and directed by Steven O’Riordan.  After testimony by even more victims of the Magdalene facilities, the Catholic Church finally made a formal apology in 2013.  A year later the skeletons of 796 babies were discovered in the septic tank of the Bon Secours home in Galway, Ireland, a mother-and-baby home that was open from 1925 to 1961.

When I think of societies that deny rights to their women and turn their backs on helpless infants, places that often come to mind are Third World countries probably because of reports in the media.  The story of the Magdalene Laundries, however, warns us that women and children are at risk in even so-called advanced countries like Ireland, England, Australia, and the United States.  But the story of these victims is not only about gender, age, or the Catholic Church.  More important than sex or religion, social class allowed the laundries to get away with criminal activity because, by and large, the females confined in them were from uneducated poor families.   Wealthy parents don’t have to turn to church-owned, stated-endorsed training schools, which have been accused of not providing instruction in even the most basic skills like reading, writing, or simple math, to feed and house their offspring.  Women of means don’t have to become prostitutes just to survive.  Children with wealthy relatives aren’t forced into orphanages if their parents die. The picture would be clearer if an expose’ was done on what became of boys whose backgrounds were similar.  That is the only way to untangle the mat that forms when societies have citizens who are so poor, they can barely feed themselves much less their dependents.

Right now, The Magdalene Sisters isn’t streaming for free anywhere, and it can only be rented on VUDU.  You can get a used copy on eBay for a good price, but new DVDs are expensive.  “Sex in a Cold Climate” and “The Forgotten Maggies” are available on YouTube, however, and there are numerous articles about the laundries on the net.  Next time, I am starting a new series that focuses on black men in movies by looking at films that starred the excellent actor Sidney Poitier and comparing his roles to those played by my favorite contemporary A-lister Denzel Washington.  Until then, stay home, stay safe, and binge out on your favorite flicks.