Eclipsed

“From the foundation of the Irish State in 1922 until 1996, at least 10,000 girls and women were imprisoned, forced to carry out unpaid labor and subjected to severe psychological and physical maltreatment in Ireland’s Magdalene Institutions. These were carceral, punitive institutions that ran commercial and for-profit business, primarily laundries and needlework. After 1922, the Magdalene Laundries were operated by four religious orders (The Sisters of Mercy, The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Charity, and the Good Shepherd Sisters) in ten different locations around Ireland. The last Magdalene Laundry ceased operating on 25th October, 1996. The women and girls who suffered in the Magdalene Laundries included those who were perceived to be ‘promiscuous,’ unmarried mothers, the daughters of unmarried mothers, those who were considered a burden on their families or the State, those who had been sexually abused, or had grown up in the care of the Church and State. Confined for decades on end- and isolated from their families and society at large- many of these women became institutionalized over time and therefore became utterly dependent on the relevant convents and unfit to re-enter society unaided.”

The author of our play, Patricia Burke Brogan, was a young novitiate in the 1960’s when she encountered the abuses of the Magdalene Laundries. Rather than take her vows as a nun, Burke Brogan chose to write about what she witnessed and Eclipsed became her first produced play. At the time of its first public performances, she received personal attacks and threats in the mail due to subject matter. The play has subsequently been produced on three continents. 

I hope that this story will inspire you to reconsider “blind obedience.” In our play, the Mother Superior tells the young novice not to question authority, but instead to follow without asking questions, as the pathway to grace. May this play inspire you to always ask questions of authority, particularly in service of uplifting those who have been silenced.