Maureen Sullivan – in Carlow, joins the KCLR Daily When she was 12, she confided in her teacher that she was being physically and sexually abused by her stepfather. Within 24 hours, she was taken from her home and her beloved grandmother, and sent to the Magdalene Laundry in New Ross, Co. Wexford, run by the Order of the Good Shepherd nuns.
Not allowed to speak, barely fed, and often going without water, the child was viciously beaten by the nuns for years and hidden away in an underground tunnel when government inspectors came. She published a book in early 2023 entitled ‘Girl in the Tunnel’ which told her story. She was also interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. Maureen has revealed that she has been receiving poison pen letters for three years over giving interviews about her story.
She has received more than 10 abusive letters while members of her family have also received similar correspondence. She spent five years moving between institutions, including laundries in Athy, Co Kildare, and New Ross, Co Wexford, as well as one on Dublin’s Sean MacDermott Street — the last to shut its doors in October 1996. In the letters written in pen and seen by the gardaí, Ms Sullivan has been called a bigamist and a liar, and that she has made up a lot of her story. She thinks other abuse survivors of Magdalene Laundries are behind this campaign against her. Maureen is still getting counselling
