The fallen : the lost girls of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries and a legacy of silence / Louise Brangan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brangan, Louise, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Adult child abuse victims--Ireland--History--20th century.

Adult child abuse victims.

Teenage girls--Institutional care--Ireland--History--20th century.

Teenage girls.

Child abuse--Religious aspects--Catholic Church.

Child abuse.

Ireland.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

xi, 351 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Simon & Schuster, 2026.

Summary:

"A haunting and brilliantly researched history which interrogates the culture of shame in Ireland, and tells the full story, for the first time, of the women confined within the walls of the Magdalene Laundries in the 20th century"-- Provided by publisher.

"A haunting and brilliantly researched history which interrogates the culture of shame in Ireland, and tells the full story, for the first time, of the women confined within the walls of the Magdalene Laundries in the 20th century. Everyone familiar with Ireland's history has heard of the Magdalene Laundries, places where "fallen" women were sent for reform, but few understand that the laundries were part of a larger carceral system in Ireland. There were prisons, but also asylums, industrial and reformatory schools, Mother and Baby Homes, and County Homes, each of which operated alongside the Magdalene Laundries. Taken together, this system of confinement held over one percent of the Irish population, a staggering rate that outstrips even such outliers as Stalinist Russia and the current rate of mass incarceration in the United States. The Magdalene Laundries specifically targeted towards women, and the actions that could necessitate a woman's reform were vast: wearing a short skirt, smoking, defiance, or, most troubling, pregnancy out of wedlock. Women were taken off the street, admitted by their families, or sent by the state when a girl had no family. Once a woman entered the system, it was almost impossible to leave. In writing this book, Louise Brangan has pulled the curtain back on the insecurities of a young nation, showing that Ireland believed that if women could be controlled, so could an entire populace. She shares the stories of the girls who were kept there: Eileen, who was born into a Mother and Baby Home; Carmel, who was forced to take a new name when she entered the laundries; Brigid, so broken by twenty-seven years on the inside of a laundry, who discovered that once she was released she was completely unsuited to life in everyday society. These stories, taken directly from the historical record, restore the dignity of the women who were sent away and recontextualize the decades that the laundries acted as a de facto carceral system for the women of Ireland"-- Provided by publisher.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version Brangan, Louise Fallen

ISBN:

9781668079744

1668079747

9781668079751

1668079755

OCLC:

1593460675

Publisher Number:

90104724520