I really REALLY need your help!

| Mairead

2018 5

(My first White Button)

Ok tiny band of people who read this, I need your help to spread a message:

Sew on a White Button!

It’s a long story which I will write soon but I want to get to the point quickly today. There was a reception yesterday in the President of Ireland’s house for more than 220 of the women who worked in the Magdalene Laundries (over 11,000 women worked in the laundries… against their will). You can read his speech here but here’s the line that breaks my heart,

Ireland failed you.

After the meeting with the president six busses and multiple taxis arrived for a reception at the Mansion House in Dublin. I was lucky enough to be standing on the footpath outside the Mansion House as the women and their families arrived. It was the most emotional gathering I have ever attended. The gardai stopped the traffic when the first woman arrived and there was a stillness. Then the clapping began. The clapping continued for an hour until every woman was inside. Then we walked home. I can’t forget these woman. And I don’t want to.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men (or women) do nothing. Edmund Burke.

2018 1

(Everyone has a white button lurking in a drawer, right?)

I woke up this morning with a fire in my belly – I don’t want these women forgotten! This is where I need your help. I want you to share the be-japers out of this idea. There is so little we can do but we can do this. Honour these women by remembering them.

Sew a white button for the Magdalenes, any white button, many white buttons, on to your clothes. Anywhere it will be seen. The Bigger the better. To remember, to honour, to start conversations, to share what you remember about that old kind of Ireland (the one before this generation voted for a new kind of Ireland.) Wear it to tell these woman they don’t need to feel shame, they don’t need to hide, they don’t need to stay quiet. Wear it to tell them you will listen and you will remember.

Thank you, Mairead.

PS Why white? A symbol of their beautiful essence untouched by the shaming.

PPS: There’s a website now… whitebutton.ie

11 thoughts on “I really REALLY need your help!”

  1. That is a fab idea Mairead. I have thought about these women so much. They will never recover from what they have been through. They have lived lives of hardship and pure struggle. Yes Ireland as a society failed them. I love the white button idea. Sending you light

    1. Thanks Cathy! Would you take a picture of you wearing your button/s and add it to the facebook page, also, please? There’s a place to send them m.me/SewWhiteButton. I think that works… Thank you again! x Mairead

    1. Thank you editor13! There’s also a Facebook page to add a photo of your button/s… m.me/SewWhiteButton. x Mairead.

  3. Talk to London’s Pearly Queens and Kings. I’m sure they’d get involved!

  4. I have posted a photo on my facebook page I think. I will have to find out how I post it to your page Mairead. I will ask my son later. I actually did the first part myself. I think it has landed some place anyway. God knows where mind you – maybe it up in the clouds????

  5. Wonderful Idea. It’s the least we can do for these amazing women that endured so much at the hands of an organization supposed to protect them an organization that pontificates to all to honour cherish the sanctity of human life.

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