Worth remembering how mind-bogglingly recent the Magdalene Laundries were. The last one closed down on 25th September 1996, which means the Magdalene system outlived Tupac by two weeks.
Saoirse Ní Chiaragáin@miseryvulture.bsky.social · last mo.The last Magdalene laundry closed in my lifetime. Homosexuality was decriminalised in Ireland in my lifetime. Access to condoms without a prescription in Ireland only came in 1985. We repealed the 8th. There's a lot of ways in which Ireland is still bad, but it is an entirely different country.
![Bruce Wayne’s Ted Talk
Wayne [coughs]. “How does a billionaire process trauma and, at the same time, contribute to the city he loves?”
[From the audience: “Pay your fair share of taxes!”]
Wayne [annoyed). “The answer isn’t obvious.”
[From the audience: “It is!”]
Wayne [glaring at the audience and steepling his fingers in a show of power]. “After the brutal murder of my parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, by the hoodlum Joe Chill, I knew I needed to do something.”
[From the audience: “Get therapy!”]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wlfcxxx7u3rcoun3pu2ecuv6/bafkreihsdl6o3zrxnpqxvfvhjv63pdmfvc4zp2ruiovz4ghpcysewalyye)
![Wayne [sticking a hand into his inside pocket and retrieving a batarang]. “Then it came to me: I would hone my body and mind into the ultimate weapon, so I could wage war on the criminal classes.”
[From the audience: “You mean ‘the poor’?”]
Wayne [throwing a batarang into the audience, which produces a thump and a cry of “Ow!”]. “But I also needed an image, a shtick, something to strike fear into the heart of Gotham. For criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot.”
[From the audience: “That hurt!”]
Wayne [ignoring this]. “I would become a bat. I would dress up in a rubber bat suit with ears and everything and hang out down the docks, getting into fights with addicts. I would become the Batman!”
[Round of applause, standing ovation, headlines in the newspapers: “Novel way of dealing with poverty. Wealth redistribution unnecessary”]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wlfcxxx7u3rcoun3pu2ecuv6/bafkreih3nrc53d2th7uu5fy3whunddpukx6etgnxc7sb4hp7vgv27jidlu)
