The Role of Digital and Public Humanities in Confronting the Past: Survivors’ of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries Truth Telling

Abstract

The Magdalene Laundries are a prominent part of Irish social history, used by the Irish State and Religious Orders to incarcerate girls and women who were deemed to be immoral, including unmarried mothers, victims of sexual assault, and criminal justice system referrals. The Irish State and Religious Orders have restricted all access to their archives of these institutions, perpetuating the silencing and marginalization of the women’s experiences. This chapter considers the role of the Waterford Memories digital humanities project in contributing to affording agency to the Magdalene survivors. The methodology of oral history narratives will be critically considered to analyze their dual purpose of providing a way for the women to understand the meaning of their experiences, in addition to a permanent and public record of these first-hand accounts. The role of the project as a repository for cultural resource materials on the study of institutional abuse, and as an educational pedagogical tool, will also be discussed.