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.

Spoiler alert

Interesting article

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/fa...Hess.html?_r=0

Interesting as you say DM I don't know how factual the film was but I found it surprising that 'Mary' the sister didn't ask Philomena any questions about her own mother who might still have been alive.

As someone who can't remember their Mother (she died when I was a baby) I have always been eager to find out any details I can about her.

I thought that too, but I suspect the producer thought it would detract from the story about Philomena's son.

Interesting as you say DM I don't know how factual the film was but I found it surprising that 'Mary' the sister didn't ask Philomena any questions about her own mother who might still have been alive.

As someone who can't remember their Mother (she died when I was a baby) I have always been eager to find out any details I can about her.