Veiling
Veiling looks at the history of the Good Shepherd Magdalene laundry and how said history is veiled.
The Good Shepherd Convent and Magdalene Laundry was an institution that housed unwed mothers, disabled women, women 'at risk' of becoming pregnant, illegitimate children, orphans, rape victims, and any other woman deemed to be an outcast of society. They were often admitted against their will, by their families or otherwise, and had no clear idea of when they would be released. They would be put to work indefinitely in the laundry with minimal, supervised contact with the outside world. Those with children would have their babies taken from them without consent and they would often be sent to the orphanage and get adopted, never to see their birth mother again.
The institution closed in 1994 and the building now hosts Limerick School of Art and Design. However, there is a disturbing lack of information on the history of the structures and symbols still present in the college. The goal of this project is to unveil this buried past, this carefully hidden history by comparing the old with the new and examining what remains versus what has been strategically removed in an unspoken censorship of the past and the lives of the women who lived there.
