Sir, – Further to Harry McGee’s report (“Nuns will not pay Magdalene compensation”, Home News, July 16th), it is worth remembering the initial reluctance of the Government to make a formal apology, following the publication of the McAleese report, and that it only did so after after a public outcry.
Clearly, as judged by today’s standards of care for vulnerable women, the State and the orders failed miserably, but this would not have been the case at the time, when there was little state social welfare provision and religious orders were often the only ones to offer such services.
These institutions responded in practical ways as best they could to the fraught situations of the sometimes marginalised girls and women sent to them, by providing them with shelter, board and work. – Yours, etc,
FRANK BROWNE,
Ballyroan Park,
Templeogue,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – Let us not forget the unwritten 11th commandment – religious orders shall not be separated from their money. – Yours, etc,
ROGER A BLACKBURN,
Abbey Hill,
Naul,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Mercy? Charity? Sisters? Shepherd? Good? – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL O’GORMAN,
Huntstown Drive,
Mulhuddart,
Dublin 15.