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Caitriona

@caitmcd4.bsky.social
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DrDinD.bsky.social @drdind.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
I cannot recommend "Small Things Like These" enough. Based upon real events, anchored by a fantastic performance by Cillian Murphy, the film is an inspiring reminder of how personal acts of integrity thwart authoritarians - like Bishop Bidde's request for mercy for LGBTQ+ children and immigrants.
Movie poster for "Small Things Like These" featuring a shot of a contemplative Cillian Murphy.  It is a story about how one man, in the 1980s,who experienced kind grace as a boy, extends that grace to another person, in opposition to the leadership of one the infamous Magdalene Laundries entrenched in Ireland from 1765 to 1998.  

The laundries, run by the Catholic church, took in young women who got pregnant out of wedlock,  put them to work doing hand laundry, and sold their children to adoptive parents.  Misbehaving women were punished harshly. 

The laundries also held sex workers, orphans, deserted children, and abused children.  They were run with the blessing of the state. Mass graves were discovered at laundry sites,  and the government issued a formal apology in 2013, paying millions of euros of reparations to over 800 survivors. 

In the time of the film, an impoverished Ireland still used coal for home heating.  Now, Ireland is ine if the wealthiest nations in per capita income.  The turnaround, in just 40 years, 30 since the Magdalene Laundries were closed,  is a larger reminder that things catching for the better and quickly even in the face of oppressive institutions.
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