Peter Mullan’s THE MAGDALENE SISTERS is based on the shocking true story of thousands of women who were rejected by their families and abandoned to the mercy of the Catholic Church. Dismissed as ‘fallen’, these women were institutionalised often having committed no crime other than being poor, orphaned, victims of rape, having a child out of wedlock, or deemed to be in ‘moral danger.’

The Magdalene homes were set up in nineteenth century Ireland as a place of refuge for prostitutes and ‘fallen’ women. They were named after the biblical Mary Magdalene, a former prostitute who repented before Christ and was given the honour of washing his feet. As the twentieth century loomed in Ireland the homes were taken over by the Catholic Church, who brought in a much stricter regime. Run by the Sisters of Mercy, women were forced into unpaid labour 8-10 hours a day, 7 days a week, cleaning the laundry of local hotels, universities and institutions. This was seen as penance for their sins by the society that deemed them unfit or ‘unsafe’ for normal life.

At the turn of the century, Ireland was a nation crippled with poverty and an overburdened social welfare system. Families were under great pressure to institutionalise children that brought shame on the family, often handing them over to the local priest. The Church would then encourage their illegal incarceration in the Magdalene Laundries. The strict dogma of the Catholic Church ruled with an iron fist over Irish society allowing these institutions to exist well into the 1970’s. Within the Magdalene homes a life with no hope, strict punishment and emotional and physical abuse was standard.

On arrival the girls had their clothes and belongings taken away from them, had their heads shaved and had their real names taken from them and replaced by the names of Catholic saints. A strict regime of work, prayer and sleep was enforced with no contact with the outside world in the form of books, newspapers, or personal contact with their families. Locked in the homes, many previous inmates described their existence as worse than prison. They claimed that in prison you had some rights, whereas in The Magdalene Laundries you had none. Held against their will, some women lived an entire life behind the walls of the Magdalene Convents, living and dying in exile from the outside world. The nuns did not prepare the girls for outside life, so that on leaving the Magdalene Laundries many had a daily struggle coping with their new lives. The stigma attached to being a former inmate of the homes was such that many never mentioned their incarceration or left Ireland altogether to hide the shame.

Young mothers giving birth to children outside of marriage had their babies forcibly adopted and were made to sign documents preventing them from tracing their children at a later date. The sisters running the homes colluded with a system already in place, a society that saw young women as a danger to the strict moral codes of the church and family. They justified this incarceration as being for the girl’s own protection, believing them to be in moral danger outside the home’s walls. In addition to this the conspiracy of silence and shame that surrounded the inmate’s family meant that many girls did not have a home or community to return to. Pregnancy outside marriage was seen as falling away from Christ and children of such penitents were thought to be in danger of being led astray for 7 generations. Children of unwed mothers were often placed in orphanages only to be sent to the Magdalene at 17 for the sins of their mother.

Dickensian standards of starvation, beatings and abuse led to runaways and later riots in Scotland Magdalene homes in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Some of the ten homes existing in Ireland were phased out in the 1970’s, with the consumer boom encouraging washing machines in the home and loosening of the Catholic Church’s power over Irish society. In 1996 the last Magdalene home was closed, with 40-50 women still in residence unable to cope with life outside the institution. To this day the Catholic Church has not formally apologised or paid compensation to the Magdalene women. Many of the women left Ireland on release to rebuild new lives in England or further a field. It has been estimated that 30,000 women and girls lived and died in The Magdalene Laundries.

The plight of the Magdalene women was initially brought to the attention of the media in 1992, with the award winning play Eclipsed by Patricia Burke Brogan. Brogan had worked in one of the homes during the 1960s, and sought to break the stigma surrounding the homes. She has commented that the women were, “ innocent victims of a Puritanical Irish society, locked up for life, condemned to oblivion, anonymous even in death.” Singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell later wrote the powerful song The Magdalene Laundries in 1997, which became an unofficial protest song for the survivors on the laundries.

Acclaimed Director Peter Mullan wrote THE MAGDALENE SISTERS after being inspired by the Channel 4 documentary Sex In A Cold Climate which highlighted the plight of the Magdalene women.

Peter was drawn to the project on several levels. He was appalled by the hidden suffering of the Magdalene women.  Having been deeply moved by documentary footage he saw, Mullan was incensed by the level of injustice these women suffered and wanted to bring their story to a wider audience. He decided to base the film on four distinct stories and used video evidence as his main source of research. Having seen several documentaries about the Magdalene women, Mullan allowed their testimonials to speak for themselves, taking the essence of these to make a feature length film. “It’s a drama, it’s a fiction, but is inspired by their stories”, he says.

Mullan was fascinated by the absolute power the church held over Irish society stating,“ A woman once said to me when I asked what it was like to be a young woman in Ireland in the 1960’s-‘ think KGB’. She was right; it was tantamount to the KGB. If a priest said he wanted your child then you gave him your child and never asked questions. So you have this weird combination where the people don’t ask questions of the Church and the Church asks no questions of itself.”

The longevity of the Magdalene homes also intrigued Mullan who comments, “I think the state, the church and the family conspired against young women who they deemed to be morally irresponsible. Theocracy, particularly the Catholic Church, sees itself as the moral guardian of young women.”

Mullan set THE MAGDALENE SISTERS on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland in 1964. In a time when many women were experiencing new found cultural freedom, four young women struggle in the Magdalene Laundries to survive incarceration in ‘god’s sweatshop’. The narrative is centred on their lives during incarceration and their difficult relationships with the nuns who act as their jailers.

Having won over 25 awards internationally for her work, as well as a BAFTA in 1996 for Best New Producer, Frances Higson has worked with Peter Mullan on several projects including 3 short films and the feature film Orphans. She was interested in working with Mullan again as she sees him as, “ a very talented writer and director with an incredible capacity for telling stories.” Feeling that THE MAGDALENE SISTERS was both a politically important film and a strong film for women, she was immediately drawn to it.

With an extensive career in film, television, and theatre Geraldine McEwan was cast as the ominous Sister Bridget. Mullan comments that Geraldine was chosen as he was, “determined that the person who plays Sister Bridget (had) to bring her soul to it… Geraldine gives me the opportunity to show an immediate living, breathing contradiction. She is someone who doesn’t look particularly nasty, who doesn’t sound particularly nasty and someone who is not particularly nasty. She brings a great soul to what could have been just a cardboard cut out bad nun.” Geraldine was attracted to the role for both the complexities of her character and the powerfully written script. She comments, “ As an actor, as someone who interprets other peoples writing, what is called for is to make the character human. That’s what is interesting. She (Sister Bridget) has things that she might have wished were different in her life had she not been given this great belief and mission to bear.”

The roles of the Magdalene girls were played by a variety of experienced actresses and newcomers; many having come from Irish Catholic communities. Newcomer Nora –Jane Noone was cast as Bernadette, an orphan deemed in ‘moral danger’ for being too attractive. Nora was cast at an open audition in Galway and this was her first major acting role. Mullan was impressed with her natural ability stating, “Most naturals don’t need the stage or a camera, they are acting as far back as they can remember but they never had the guts to stand up and say so.” When describing the individual characteristics that made Nora right for the role Mullan continues, “She had to have the potential to show a young woman changing from being feisty and mischievous, into very dark and damaged and back again. She needed to be someone that just had the natural ability to make that jump.” By coincidence Nora’s father had been a van boy for St Michael’s Magdalene Home in Galway as a young man and was a great help in giving the young actress additional source material to draw upon for her role.  When asked about her interest in the role and the film Nora comments, “It’s a true-life story which makes it especially interesting and Bernadette is just such a brilliant character.”

Dorothy Duffy was cast as Patricia / Rose, a young unwed mother abandoned by her family to the Magdalene homes and forced to change her name to bring her in line with the institution rules. Dorothy cut her heels in amateur and Irish language roles before THE MAGDALENE SISTERS, which is her first feature role. When asked why she was interested in the role Dorothy commented, “ the script is brilliant. I think it is really important that people in Ireland see what happened because I think that a lot of people know about what happened but don’t like to talk about it. I think for the women who had to go through it, it has to be shown.” Being herself from a very religious Irish Catholic background, Dorothy brought a quiet believability to the role that was central to Mullan’s vision of the character. He states, “ When you look at her you believe she is the character and it doesn’t take huge realms of dialogue to get there. Dorothy has got a lovely sense of quiet, almost internal, conversation.”

Annie-Marie Duff was cast as Margaret, a small town country girl who is raped by a cousin and sent to the Magdalene to hide the family shame.  Previously Annie-Marie has been nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actress and has built up an impressive collection of theatre, television and recent film roles, including Enigma directed by Michael Apted. Seeing the role as, “something to get her teeth into”, Londoner Annie-Marie drew inspiration from her Irish Catholic roots, uncovering stories of Magdalene women through her own family’s experiences. Mullan has commented that she, “brings a lovely fragility to the part and yet you know that although she is fragile she will fight to survive.”

Eileen Walsh was cast as Crispina, the young mother of a baby born out of wedlock. Nominated for Best Newcomer at the 1999 British Independent Film Awards, Eileen has notched up a succession of theatre and film roles, notably opposite Peter Mullan in Mike Figgis’s Miss Julie. Mullan was immediately drawn to the fact that Eileen was, “very gregarious, hugely intelligent and experienced”, and continues, “I think it’s vital that actors bring their own personalities and judgements to a character and to hell whether the audience likes them or not. She has the courage to do that when a lot of actresses would have played Crispina as someone to be felt sorry for and that would be totally wrong.”

Peter Mullan himself took on a role as O’Conner, father of Una, a Magdalene inmate who tries to run away in a desperate attempt to escape the laundries.  Peter says of his character, “ The Catholic Church, the faith, family and reputation matters more to him than his own child and that’s the whole dilemma.” In a time when reputation and family dignity was central to a family's standing in a community many found themselves in similar positions, wrestling to keep their social standing in tact. Having acted himself for several years Mullan understands the need to give his cast the space to develop their characters stating, “the actors have to be let off the hook sometimes so they can just explore, make mistakes, and find the character.” In addition, he cast two women who worked in the laundries during the period, both a former inmate and a nun, which helped with the authenticity of the film. “I’ve still taken dramatic license but it gives you a sense that you are not completely in the wilderness, that you are actually creating something that is as close to factually correct as possible”, says Mullan.

Production designer Mark Leese, has a long career in both theatre and film and he has previously designed one of Mullan’s short films. He heads the design team at The Traverse Theatre and enjoys the challenge of working on diverse film and theatre projects commenting, “film is more like a circus on the road.” Researching the project proved initially to be difficult with little in the way of photographic or film references to the laundries, but in talking with people who had worked in and around the Magdalene, source material began to take shape. The building used to represent the home was St Joseph’s convent in Dumfries, Scotland. It was designed to show both the scrupulous cleanliness that the nuns would have demanded and the terrible conditions of the laundries themselves. Leese comments, “We decided to have areas of our Magdalene which the public saw: the clean, neat, crisp, efficient side of the home and contrasted that with the kind of drudgery, grime and sweat of the factory element where the girls live.”

Locations were scouted all over Ireland and Scotland. The perfect location was found in Dumfries in the Borders of Scotland which gave the girls a sense of displacement akin to the alienation their characters had to live with. Mullan has stated, “they were working in a foreign country in the same way the characters were living in a foreign environment. It worked both ways.” The building itself had initially been a Benedictine order named St Joseph’s, but as the small community that surrounded it dwindled, the convent became a local court and was used in the early stages of the Lockerbie Trial before the proceeding were transferred to Holland. Dumfries was used again to represent Dublin in the 1960’s and the early 1970’s towards the end of the film. Magdalene homes were also common in Scotland in the same period so this brought authenticity to the location itself.

There were few difficulties in filming but whilst researching the project Mullan and his team came up against a wall of silence from the Catholic Church and older generations not wishing to remember the past. When trying to place an advertisement to help with research in several Irish newspapers, they were told it would not be printed as it was too controversial.

Due to the moving nature of the story and the fact that it is based on a true story a wide audience is expected for the film. Producer Frances Higson has stated, “I hope that the film will find a really wide audience, but especially among young women. I think it is particularly relevant now after the fall of the Taliban and the exposure of the terrible religious and sexual repression women are facing even today.  I also hope that it stimulates controversy, because the Catholic Church should pay for what it has done.” Mullan has stated that he hopes it will appeal to viewers aged 16-90, but is especially keen that young women will see the film, “to be reminded of the effect of theocracies and patriarchies on women and other marginalized groups over history.” He hopes that the film will provoke young women to challenge repression or discrimination, whether from the church, society, or elsewhere. He continues, “I’d like to think they (young women) would ask a lot of questions of their parents and of the Catholic Church and of other churches that promote this sort of incarceration.”

Higson has commented that she sees the film as a really strong emotional journey for an audience to experience. She feels that the film really pulls you by the heart strings and draws you into a compelling story with beautifully drawn characters, making it a really strong cinematic experience.  She also hopes to draw attention to the suffering of women and to remind the viewer that “thousands of women worked for most of, or all of, their lives in these laundries, under terrible conditions. They are still alive, and have never received compensation for the destruction of their rights.” Higson hopes that the prevailing spirit of the characters portrayed leave a mark on the viewer and hopes to draw awareness to the fact that, “even now women are trapped, imprisoned, and tortured on behalf of religious dogma.”

“I would like to think that the Catholic Church has the guts to stand up, admit its mistakes, compensate the victims and ensure that it never happens again,” says Mullan. When asked if he sees the film as controversial, Mullan states, “I don’t think you can ever set out to be controversial. The Church is far too sophisticated for that. If people don’t come to see it the Church will pay no attention to the film whatsoever. If people go and see the film then they will care.”

As a testament to the survival of human spirit in terrible conditions, THE MAGDALENE SISTERS seeks to shed light on an archaic system that lasted well into the twentieth century and remained hidden for years. THE MAGDALENE SISTERS demands that society takes a closer look at these injustices to ensure that they will never happen again.