Dublin by Lamplight

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Dublin by Lamplight or the Lamplight Laundry, at 35 Ballsbridge Terrace, Ballsbridge, Dublin, was a Protestant-run Magdalene Laundry, founded in 1856, that like other such laundries housed so-called "fallen women". [1] [2] It was administered by a committee of Anglican women, a matron, and a chaplain who was a Church of Ireland priest. The motto of the asylum was "That they may recover themselves out of the snares of the devil" (II Timothy 2:24). [3] [ better source needed ]

A chaplain and secretary to the laundry, Rev. Dr. James S. Fletcher DD (parish priest of Brookfield, Milltown Co. Dublin), wrote a paper titled Our Female Penitentiaries can be made self-supporting!, which was discussed at the International Prison Congress. [4]

The site of the institution has been redeveloped. There is a campaign to have the location commemorated with a plaque. [5]

It was mentioned in James Joyce's short story Clay in Dubliners. [6]

References

  1. Oram, Hugh (2014). The Little Book of Ballsbridge . Dublin: The History Press. p.  68. ISBN   9780750958295.
  2. Eide, Marian (2011). "James Joyce's Magdalenes" . College Literature. 38 (4). The Johns Hopkins University Press: 57–75. doi:10.1353/lit.2011.0043. JSTOR   41302888. S2CID   220827432.
  3. Gifford, Don (1982). Joyce Annotated: Notes for Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man . Berkeley, California, USA: University of California Press. ISBN   9780520046108.
  4. Circular[s] of Information, Page. 235, Volume 10, Issues 1-4 By United States. Office of Education, 1891.
  5. Whelan, Zuzia (28 November 2018). "The City Should Mark the Sites of All Long-Gone Magdalene Laundries, Some Councillors Say". Dublin Inquirer. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  6. Joyce, James (2006). Norris, Margot (ed.). Dubliners . New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company. p.  82, footnote 1. ISBN   978-0-393-97851-3.