27-02-2016, 12:52 AM
11
Re: Philomena
It was, in some ways, similar to that excellent film, The Magdalene Children (I think that was the title), portraying the way Catholic families and especially children were treated by what I see as evil and un-Christian nuns and priests, as discussed in this thread:http://www.over50sforum.com/showthre...805#post846805
28-02-2016, 10:35 AM
17
Re: Philomena
Meg. there are actually thousands of Philomenas out there! Thousands of children were adopted out to Rich Americans who could easily afford the £1000 (which was a fortune then) to "buy" a child from the nuns who then pocketed the money.It was a massive moneymaking scheme along with all the money the girls made for them in the laundries which supplied all the hotels, hospitals and private homes in Ireland. the girls were paid nothing at all but the Magdalen laundries had massive contracts worth a fortune.
Aside from the children who were adopted many young Mums and their babies died in childbirth as they had no midwives or doctors present and no pain relief. Just very uncaring, unqualified nuns. They just touched on that very briefly in the film but huge numbers of unmarked graves have been discovered and I believe it was at Roscrea that they found masses of bodies not even in graves, just all thrown in together. If you search you will find all about it. It's terribly shocking and was happening right up into the 1970s.
28-02-2016, 11:08 AM
18
Re: Philomena
Originally Posted by Flowerpower
->
Meg. there are actually thousands of Philomenas out there! Thousands of children were adopted out to Rich Americans who could easily afford the £1000 (which was a fortune then) to "buy" a child from the nuns who then pocketed the money.It was a massive moneymaking scheme along with all the money the girls made for them in the laundries which supplied all the hotels, hospitals and private homes in Ireland. the girls were paid nothing at all but the Magdalen laundries had massive contracts worth a fortune.
Aside from the children who were adopted many young Mums and their babies died in childbirth as they had no midwives or doctors present and no pain relief. Just very uncaring, unqualified nuns. They just touched on that very briefly in the film but huge numbers of unmarked graves have been discovered and I believe it was at Roscrea that they found masses of bodies not even in graves, just all thrown in together. If you search you will find all about it. It's terribly shocking and was happening right up into the 1970s.
I am aware of this and I worked with an Irish girl who had her baby taken away and came over here to start a new life. I just didn't know this particular film 'Philomena' was about the scandal of the Magdalen laundries, I thought it was about something else.
One of the things I dislike about 'religion' is the hypocrisy, the Catholic Church is full of it.
28-02-2016, 12:29 PM
19
Re: Philomena
Don't read this if you haven't seen the film yet, my post may tell you too muchI have seen many films on this type of subject, and they were all very sad!
Going back to Philomena though, I was captivated by Judi Dench's acting abilities. When she was being irritating to to her companion, I found that I , too, was irritated by her. In her position, I would have been very angry, but her acting displayed just how easy it would be to convince these girls that they deserved the punishment of having their child taken from them. The only time I was close to tears was at the son's grave when she was happy because he had come home to her.
I can't think of anybody who could have played that part so well!
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