NWCI calls for justice and official answers relating to the exhumation and cremation of women’s bodi

Published: Wednesday, August 27, 2003

The National Women's Council of Ireland has called for an official investigation to be carried out by the Department of Justice into the facts surrounding the exhumation and cremation of the bodies of 155 women from the Magdalen Laundry graveyard in Drumcondra Dublin in 1993. Mary Kelly, Chairperson of the NWCI stated that 'it is shameful that women so dishonoured in their lives by our society have not been accounted for by name or by certification of their mortal remains, in death'.

This investigation must answer a number of serious questions raised by the recent media coverage of this event in 1993, she continued;

• "Why did the Department of the Environment issue an exhumation licence for the bodies of women for whom there were no death certificates?"
• "Why did the Sisters of our Lady of Charity not have death certificates for some of these women's bodies, given the legal obligation for same?"
• "Were medical officers called to the Magdalen laundry when woman died there? If they were, why were death certificates not issued to vouch for the circumstances of death?"
• "When it became clear that unaccounted-for bodies had been exhumed, was the coroner's office contacted?"
• "What are the implications for women and men seeking their natural mothers, and for the families of these women, if the facts in this case are not established and recorded?"

The facts of this case must be revealed and the results of this investigation must be made public. If failure to take responsibility is established, those responsible for that failure must be brought to account. 'As a society we have a moral responsibility to honour these women in death whom we as a society so dishonoured in life. We cannot do this unless the facts are established, and this task is the responsibility of the Department of Justice' stated Ms. Kelly.