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Justice for Magdalenes Research archive to be launched in Waterford

Justice for Magdalenes Research archive to be launched in Waterford

An online archive of information relating to Ireland's Magdalene Laundries is to be launched in Waterford tomorrow.

The database was created as part of a collaboration between Waterford Institute of Technology and the Justice for Magdalenes Research.

It's based on documents collected by JFMR which outline the state's complicity in the abuse of girls and women in the laundries, as well as survivor testimony, newspaper articles and legislative documentation.

The launch of the archive takes place in the Chapel, College Street Campus from 2 to 4pm tomorrow.

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In August 2012, Justice for Magdalenes made its principal submission, "State Involvement with the Magdalene Laundries" to the Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalen Laundries (IDC). The submission consisted of a 145-page document which outlines comprehensive evidence of State complicity in the abuses experienced by girls and women in Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries. It was additionally supported by 795 pages of survivor testimony and 3,707 pages of archival evidence and legislative documentation.

Thanks to funding from the Heritage Council Heritage Management Grant 2016, the extensive archival and legislative evidence which JFMR generated in formulating its submission has been digitally conserved. For the first time, this archive will be made available to the public via a searchable database housed by the Waterford Institute of Technology Libraries. The online database is freely accessible at www.wit.ie/JFMR.

Pictured at WIT (Waterford Institute of Technology) at the submission of the Justice for Magdalenes archive to WIT are Kieran Cronin, Developmental Librarian, Archives and Special Collections WIT, Dr Jennifer Yeager Lecturer in Psychology Principal Investigator of the Waterford Memories Project, Claire McGettrick Co-founder JFM Research and Adoption Rights Alliance and Dr Katherine O’Donnell Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR) UCD School of Philosophy. Picture: Patrick Browne

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