Carlow Woman Writes Book Detailing Her Experiences In Athy's Magdalene Laundry

Tuesday, 2 May 2023 10:46

By Caoimhe Harney

Maureen Sullivan is the youngest known survivor admitted to one of the Magdalene Laundries.

Carlow woman Maureen Sullivan has written a book detailing her times in the Magdalene Laundries 'Girl in the Tunnel: My Story of Love and Loss as a Survivor of the Magdalene Laundries.'

“I remember being hidden in a tunnel when the school inspectors came,” she told Kfm. “I can only assume that this was due to the fact that I should not have been working in the laundry.”

At just 12 years old, she confided in her teacher that she was being physically and sexually abused by her stepfather.

Never, in her darkest imaginings, could she have dreamed that she would be the one who would face harrowing punishment.

Maureen Sullivan grew up in Carlow town, at 12 years old she was placed in the Magdalene Laundry at New Ross, County Wexford, where she was forced to work long hours scrubbing floors and washing clothes, and denied an education.

After two years she was transferred to another laundry in Athy and then to a school for blind people in Dublin.

After she left the school, she returned to Carlow before moving to England. She is now an advocate for other survivors.

Maureen O' Sullivan joined Eoin Beatty on Tuesday's Kildare Today, listen back to the full interview here:

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