Medical Malpractice - Unmarried pregnant women put into mental asylums?

Unmarried pregnant women put into mental asylums?

I am trying to find information concerning women in the UK and Ireland who were put into mental asylums for being unmarried and pregnant..... I havent had much luck searching web sites and so any information would be good, especially if you no when this practise ended or any website with information.....

Public Comments

60 Minutes did a story on this some time ago - write to them; maybe their librarian can help. Damn, I can't think what they were called. I believe it happened in the 50's and 60's. Sorry. Edit: They were called Magdalen Asylums. Here are some websites to get you started. http://www.acisweb.com/archive/cfps/mothers.html http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/journal_of_social_history/v039/39.1maguire.pdf http://www.historycooperative.org/cgi-bin/justtop.cgi?act=justtop&url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jsh/39.1/br_10.html http://www.irelandinformationguide.com/Magdalen_Asylum http://www.irelandinformationguide.com/Magdalen_Asylum
That's cruel!
Yes, it's true, and it wasn't just unmarried mothers. It was pretty much any "wayward girl". They were named after Mary Magdalene, the "prostitute" who found God in the Bible and they were more laundries and working asylums than mental institutions, but they were incredibly cruel, and all run in the name of God. Watch "The Magdalene Sisters". It is loosely based on one of the asylums and several girls sent to them. The last one closed in the mid nineties.
hey i am actually doing an art project on this at the moment. i am looking at Eglinton District Lunatic Asylum along the Lee Road in cork city, its now being turned into flats but one third of it is still only in the process of being changed. I went there last weekend to take pictures and it was a bit creepy, one stairs is still in the original state-its a long windey stairs with bars that run all the way up so people couldnt jump off the sides of them, the view from that building is so beautiful and it so sad when u think of all the people wrongly locked up there that had to just look out on it. Many women were locked for having babies out of wedlock and spent there lives in a mental asylums and workhouses. Living in pretty awful conditions and not having contact with the children. i'll write up a list of all the resources i have found when i have a bit more time later on.