Is this the same Viscountess Jackson I knew in Goldenbridge?

Sunday May 8th 2005

Sir - Gosh! I read recently, in another Sunday newspaper, the story about Viscountess Geraldine Jackson and her horrific time in Goldenbridge, Dublin. While I was there I met a girl, also called Geraldine Jackson.

However, the Geraldine I knew didn't work in a rosary bead factory until 3am. We usually finished in the bead room two-to-three hours after starting. Usual start time was 4pm. Even the slowest would be finished by 7.30pm, and that would include a tea break.

This Geraldine didn't abscond in terror from Goldenbridge at 16 years of age, but was placed in nurse training in St Ultans Hospital by Sr Xaveria.

Geraldine possibly did drink from a toilet bowl (I know I didn't, especially as there was a tap in the yard). Some of the residents might have at night-time as we didn't have sinks upstairs, but they must have had very long necks, for the bowls were the old-fashioned very high ones. Flushing got water for some, and don't forget, in those days, this would not have been seen as unhygienic.

The poor Viscountess possibly did have teeth extracted by adentist, like the rest of us, but I see hers were "yanked out . . . needlessly".

The Geraldine I knew wasn't kept in a state of starvation, but like the rest of us was always "starving", especially before meal times. There's a big difference.

Geraldine is perfectly aware that Sr Xaveria always had the toddlers in the nursery running after her when she walked in. She'd hand them sweets, pat them on their little heads, and they'd run after her pulling at her habit. Wonder if the two Geraldine's are related?

Angel Howard,
c/o Let Our Voices Be Heard, 10 Seaview Wood,Shankill, Co Dublin www.voicesemerge.com

Sir - Such heartbreaking times for young women who found themselves pregnant in the Forties, Fifties, Sixties, and even Seventies, especially when the fathers didn't want to know.

Parents would have murder in mind if their offspring came home 'on the double'. Wasn'tit great to have the nuns andeven the horrible laundries, asit was better than suicide for lots of them.

Parting with the babies when given up for adoption must have been soul-destroying, especially if they had time to bond with them.

How times have changed. It's good that a more human and natural view is taken in modern times, but the pendulum has swung to the extreme. They get a bit of money now and are welcome at home. Sure it's almost cool to have a babe in tow.

Kathleen Corrigan,
Cootehill,
Co Cavan