Magdalene Sisters Story aired: Friday, August 22, 2003
When "The Magdalene Sisters" premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year, the Catholic Church condemned the picture, while critics praised its searing treatment of a shocking period of Irish social history. For centuries the Magdalene Laundries, as they were known, housed and employed over 30,000 young Irish women who were kept like prisoners by the nuns who ran the facilities. The last of the Magdalene Laundries didn't close until1996. Professor James Smith of Boston College joins Here & Now to discuss the movie. His book in-process, "Ireland's Architecture of Containment: Contemporary Narratives of the Nation State," contains a chapter on the Magdalene Laundries.
