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 memories of what never was
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10 February 2004 16:26 the magdalene sisters just wont leave me alone. two questions remain in my mind. the man who talked about the film before and after the showing cited the reason for these institutions as the existence of high social and familial ideals in ireland, and the inability to deal with lapses in these ideals. what do you do with the children of a broken family, in a country where divorce does not exist, but there are broken families nonetheless? im fascinated, how does a country get to this point? how does the gap between ideal and reality become an abyss? and why is this particular to ireland, as the speaker suggested? a much more pressing issue in my mind is the realization of how these ideas and attitudes persist in the world around me, in an irish american family, at an irish catholic university. they might not have realized it, but i heard what my aunts and uncles said about my family when my parents split up. the things my mother has said, joking or not, about marrying "a good irish catholic." but more astonishingly, the presence of the same gap between ideals and reality at notre dame, and the denial of the existence of lapses in that ideal. the attitude that sex just doesnt happen at notre dame, and rape definitely doesnt happen. the near denial that gay and lesbian students attend notre dame, and the attitude in the general student body that this invisibility creates. can we learn from ireland and the magdalene sisters? can we change? |
