The Ulster Magdalene Asylum was founded in 1839 at

Donegall Pass Ormeau Road is a road in south Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. Ormeau Park is adjacent to it. It forms part of the A24. History The road, as currently laid out, dates from the first decades of the 19th century when a bridge was built ...

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

(now in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

), by the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...

. It cared for "fallen women" like other

Magdalene asylum Magdalene asylums, also known as Magdalene laundries, were initially Protestant but later mostly Roman Catholic institutions that operated from the 18th to the late 20th centuries, ostensibly to house "fallen women". The term referred to femal ...

s.Government, politics and institutions in Belfast in the early 20th century
National Archives of Ireland. It was founded as part of the St. Mary Magdalene Parish and was to provide an asylum for "penitent females" with a chapel attached and named the Ulster Magdalene Asylum and Episcopal Chapel (St Mary Magdalene Chapel). It was opened on December 1, 1839. While the laundry closed in 1916, the institution survived and the home operated until the 1960s. Set up to rehabilitate the women, generally, women who were

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out of wedlock, women involved in

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and others convicted of

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s. It was described, "For the reception of erring and repentant females". As the residents, in keeping with similar institutions, worked in a laundry, the Asylum was sometimes termed the "steam laundry". The English architect (and future MP and Mayor of Belfast) Sir Charles Lanyon renowned for many buildings in Ireland, particularly in Belfast, designed a new

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styled school and chapel for the Ulster Magdalene Asylum in 1851. The Ulster Magdalene Asylum in Belfast maintained a close relationship with other Protestant evangelical organisations set up in the Victorian era such as the ''Belfast Midnight Mission'' (which was a rescue for "unfortunate women and their offspring") as well as the ''Belfast Female Mission'', a School was affiliated to the Asylum run by the ''Church Education Society'' these organisations shared members and trustees. The Magdalene Asylum was run by a board of trustees, five clergymen and four lay members of the church. While the Ulster Magdalene Asylum was established by the Church of Ireland, similar institutions in Belfast were established for other denominations such as the Catholic refuge was set up at the Good Shepherd Convent, Ballynafeigh (established in 1867), or the earlier Ulster Female Penitentiary and Laundry, ''Edgar Home'', named after its founder Rev. John Edgar, initially non-denominational but became associated with the

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. The Salvation Army also had a shelter. The Ulster Magdalene Asylum was closed as a steam laundry in 1916 and demolished in 1918. During its existence from 1849–1916 it supplied shelter, maintenance, employment, instruction and encouragement to upwards of 3,000 women. The Church provided services to women after the closure, as well as other services provided by the Belfast Mission. Chaplains to the Asylum include a Rev. T.F. Miller, and Rev. Walter Riddell. The Chapel survives as the parish of St Mary Magdalene, Donegall Pass, Belfast, and it celebrated its 175 anniversary in 2014.St Mary Magdalene Celebrates 175 years
Diocese of Connor, December 3, 2014.

References

{{coord missing, Belfast 1839 establishments in Ireland Buildings and structures demolished in 1918 1960s disestablishments in Northern Ireland Church of Ireland buildings and structures in Ireland History of Belfast Defunct prisons in Northern Ireland Magdalene asylums Women's prisons in the United Kingdom History of women in the United Kingdom

See also

References