‘Small Things Like These’: Cillian Murphy Stars in New Film Uncovering Shameful Irish History

The Magdalene Laundries, named after biblical figure Mary Magdalene, were religious workhouses, operating under the Roman Catholic church in conjunction with the Irish government. Cillian Murphy is currently starring in the film adaptation of Claire Keegan’s ‘Small Things like These’, a powerful novel set in 1985 small-town-Ireland. The tale follows Bill Furling (Cillian Murphy) as he slowly grapples with and uncovers the cruelty of the local convent's heartless treatment of unmarried mothers and their babies within a Magdalene Laundries.  

These institutions were founded upon the idea of reforming the ‘fallen women’ of society and existed throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, with the last remaining open until the 1990’s. Throughout this period up to 300,000 women are thought to have passed through the laundries in total: at least 10,000 of them since 1922. Each was deemed ‘wayward’ and ‘fallen’, due to various sins they had supposedly committed: becoming pregnant outside of wedlock, having been physically or sexually abused, committing petty crimes, or those who were simply deemed too flirtatious and outspoken. They were forced into these workhouses by medical services, the courts, priests, or even their families, in attempt to ‘reform’ them - often against their will.  

Once inside, identities were erased; the women’s names were changed, contact with the outside world and any reference to their home lives was forbidden. Physical self-expression was heavily suppressed - hair would be cut, and a uniform imposed upon entry. They were forced into a state of complete isolation within these institutions, entirely alone and disconnected from society. There was little comfort they could provide each other, as girls were often forbidden to speak, and friendships were prohibited. Correspondence and contact with the outside world were extremely limited and often intercepted, and visits from family and friends were rare, and heavily supervised by nuns.  

Women would remain confined within the institution for anything from one week to over ten years; it was commonly believed that they were going die inside. This was the fate that met many. Comparison of electoral registers against grave records at the Donnybrook location shows that over half of the women on electoral registers between 1954 and 1964 died in the institution. Some would attempt escape, seizing the opportunity of an open door, or the back of the laundry van. Most failed and were captured and returned by local Gardaí (police). If they were to be released, it would be without warning, money or any way of navigating this disorientating change. Many women had been trapped within the workhouses from such a young age that they struggled to rejoin the unfamiliar society.  

The most sinister aspect is that the state and church profited for years and years from these sufferings. Women were forced to work from morning until evening, washing hundreds of tonnes of laundry. For their intense manual labour, the girls received no pay. They washed the laundry from not only members of the public, local businesses, and religious institutions, but also government-ran departments. This included public schools and hospitals, prisons, and even parliament offices - all of which profited off the unpaid labour and suffering of the women and girls. 

Punishment for refusal to work was extreme and cruel: deprivation of meals, solitary confinement, physical abuse, forced kneeling for long periods of time, and humiliation rituals, such as shaving of hair or having a rope tied to oneself, were all common occurrences within the laundries. The hardships were constant:  many survivors recall cold, damp and unhygienic living conditions. The girls and women were fed a poor diet, and deprived of an education - bright futures and opportunities were stolen from them due to this detrimental act.  

The Magdalene laundries also served as mother-and-baby homes. Murphy’s character in ‘Small Things like These’ begins to investigate one such place, unveiling a world of inhumane cruelty. These were institutions where unwed pregnant women lived, doing manual labour until they gave birth. At that point, mother and baby would be forcefully separated, with the children sent off to local farms and families or put up for adoption. The adoptive parents, often wealthy couples living outside of Ireland, would in return make sizeable ‘donations’ to the nuns, meaning that the Church was heavily profiting off this transaction. Very few checks were made to the condition of the adopting families, with the only requirement being that they were practicing Catholics.  

All of this took place for nearly a century under the nose of the whole of Ireland. It was not until decades later that rumours of this corruption began to circulate - as a consequence of a few brave survivors breaking the stigma and sharing their experience. These women shared their story with hundreds of government and church leaders who would simply rather forget and erase this part of Irish history from their memory. Finally, in 2013, the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny formally apologised on behalf of the state for its role in the Magdalene Laundries.   

This small act of regret feels impossibly insignificant when considering the years of torment and suffering experienced by girls and women across Ireland. For decades, their voices were silenced, and they were outcast and shunned by society when they were most in need of support. It is for this reason that ‘Small things like These’ was such a revolutionary book and will hopefully be an equally impactful film. It changed the narrative and reopened the conversation for women who were too afraid to speak up before. It is imperative that all parts of the past are recognised, no matter how shameful. It is only through acknowledging these events that we can ensure that they remain an issue of the past, and that history never repeats itself.  

Source:

Bbc 

Justuce for magdalenes research 

Brittanice 

History.com 

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