Sculpture for Forster St site of shame

Date Published: 17-Aug-2007

The women of the Galway Magdalen Laundry who endured backbreaking work, grim living conditions and the shame of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy are to be remembered with a memorial sculpture.

It is expected that the sculpture will be erected on the raised flowerbed at the junction of Foster Street and Bothar Ui hAthair, opposite the site of the old Magdalen Laundry.

The idea for the sculpture came from three women Margaret Geraghty, Patricia Burke-Brogan and Bridie Hogan, who approached Councillor Billy Cameron (Lab) to put pressure on Galway City Council to erect a permanent structure to honour the Magadalen women.

Bridie Hogan used to own Hogan’s pub which backed on to the Magdalen site in Forster Street and, thanks to the generosity of the Hogans, many Magdalen women used to sneak out of the Laundry for some relief and a glass of beer in the pub.

Patricia Burke-Brogan,who worked in the laundries during the 1960s, wrote a play about the Galway Laundry, called Eclipsed, in the 1980s, while…..