“This body of work confronts one of the darkest stains on Ireland’s modern history, the Magdalene Laundries. For over a century, young women and girls, often abandoned, pregnant, or simply deemed “fallen,” were imprisoned, exploited, and dehumanised under the control of Catholic Nuns and Priests. Cloaked in piety, these institutions became sites of forced labour, violence, and silence, where power was misused in the name of morality.

The last laundry closed as late as 1993. The Irish Government has since admitted responsibility, offering compensation schemes to survivors. The Catholic Church, however, continues to deny its culpability, refusing to acknowledge its role in this systemic abuse. This denial is a second crime, one that deepens the wounds of the women and their families.

It must also be said that not all Nuns were cruel. Some were compassionate, kind, and quietly humane. But even they were bound by the strict rules of the convent, silenced by obedience and by fear of disbelief if they ever spoke out. The system itself ensured that individual kindness was powerless against collective cruelty.

Through these works, I aim to strip away the veil of sanctity, exposing the cruelty that hid behind religious authority. The imagery is deliberately confrontational: irony against iconography, violence against virtue. It is not just a reminder of the past but a reflection of the present, a commentary on power, silence, and the dangerous cost of blind faith. The people’s response is clear: a turning away from Catholicism, from institutions that chose protection of power over truth.”