I didn’t know anything about this so I decided to do some research and here’s what I found: First off, the movie was written by a Scottish actor who watched the Channel 4 special one night and was outraged at what he saw. He didn’t research the validity of the story nor speak to the women who gave their testimonies, but he wrote a movie about them. The movie is actually stated as a work of fiction, not a non-fictional or even a historical work. The “based upon a true story” phrase is overused and usually quite loose to the real stories. Actually, if you watch until the end of the movie and let the credits roll through, there’s a disclaimer at the end stating the characters are “entirely fictional”. Example of this would be “An American Haunting” it’s based upon a true story but pretty much the only thing similar in the story and the movie are the names of the people. The supposed true encounters never happened except for one and even that was exploited over what the true encounter was. Half of what happened in that movie wasn’t even true and the other half that was, was barely. Second, the Magdalene Institute was started as a way to get women off the streets because of the prostitute problem in Ireland. Many women couldn’t be hired for a job because of the promiscuous life they led and as unfair as that may seem, that was the time period back then. If you were unmarried and got pregnant, you either married the man who got you that way or you were thrown from the family. Women who were promiscuous were usually disinherited from their families and thrown into the streets to fend for themselves. The Sisters of Mercy started the Magdalene Institute to allow prostitutes, unwed mothers and abused women and girls a place of refuge. They were allowed to leave as they pleased once they were old enough and there are quite a few reports of that as well. Many came back though, as they had no other place to go. Third, these institutes weren’t only ran by the Catholic Church, the Church only founded it. They were spread throughout quite a few continents and other church sects ran them as well (they weren’t really an organized organization, but quite sporadic). There was even one in San Francisco until the late 1930’s. The movie only makes it look like it was only ran by the Church and made them look cruel and evil, which may have not been the case. Unfortunately, there isn’t much known about these places, though glass on top of the walls to avoid escaping women was certainly not true. I can only go by what I’ve found, the Catholic Church did come out and apologize to anyone who might’ve been abused and did pay compensation to those who were abused. I ask though you think about this: In 150 years of these Asylums in use, there were over 30,000 women placed within them for varying reasons. Yet there was never a mutiny though the nuns there were outnumbered 5 to 1, if not more, and many of the women there joined the Sisters of Mercy once old enough–freely, might I add. These supposed abused, overworked and poor women joined with their supposed captors and worked to abuse and imprison others the same way they had been without feeling an inkling of remorse, guilt or sorrow. Also, if you committed some heinous crime like this, would you sell your property to a real estate agent knowing what lay behind those walls? Certainly not, but the nuns did, they sold the land and didn’t try to hide anything, if they were those unmarked graves wouldn’t have been found. Right? I’m not saying that it didn’t happen, but I don’t believe we have the whole story and there’s more to this than what “The Magdalene Sisters” shows. Actually, there’s less I should say but it’s a pity, this movie has made a mockery out of something that should’ve been taken seriously. He’s thrown people into outraged accusations and placed a large amount of propaganda out there for Anti-Catholic organizations that will now use this to pollute people’s aspect upon the Catholic Church while the validity of the situation is still undecided. I believe if this really did happen, then it was an isolated incident, not a world wide conspiracy the Catholic Church was trying, and horribly failing, to cover up. The reason there was no pay was because for their work they received room and board, clothes, food and a place away from the harsh conditions beyond the Institute. As for the compensation, the Catholic Church has already paid it to those who showed signs of abuse and the likes. I just thought I should post what I found for others to see that the movie isn’t correct, not even close so please research it.
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