Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan, author; Aidan Kelly, narrator
In a brief eye-opening novel, the author has uncovered and illuminated the history of a shameful church practice, disguised as a charitable endeavor. Although not well known, it is a tragic story about the treatment of women that continued until almost the end of the 20th century. Beginning in 1922, the Catholic Church ran the Magdelen Laundries, which could only be compared to prisons or houses of horrors, to supposedly care for young girls, sometimes young women, who were pregnant out of wedlock, those who chose to sell their bodies for whatever reason, and those that were abandoned by or had no families to help them deal with their problems, mental or physical. They were discarded by society and their plight was ignored because of the power of the Church.
Some were victims of circumstance, some of personal choice, but all were abused. Under the guise of ostensibly helping them, they were overworked, underfed, under clothed, and provided with little or no hygiene. They were nothing more than prisoners. Often their babies were taken from them. The children that survived were also subjected to the same substandard treatment.
In this brief tale, a brave man is driven to do the decent thing after he makes a dramatic discovery and learns more about his own past. Hopefully, it will encourage readers to to some further research into the subject. I highly recommend it.