she was sentenced 'to be detained in a Roman Catholic Reformatory, until she attained the age of nineteen

God help her; it was no wonder she was scarifying as an old lady. Those reformatories were under the vicious rule of nuns including the Sisters of Charity; they also ran Magdalene Laundries and their victims were often moved from the prison of the reformatory (or of the nuns' awful orphanages) to the prison of the laundry at around fifteen years of age. From a witness statement in the Ryan Report on the laundries (the statements from the Murphy Report on the reformatories were the same, with extra added rape and abuse):

"it didn't matter how ill you were, you still had to work that day". She says that she never refused to work at High Park, Drumcondra, "I knew I had no choice, I had to do it ... or else I would get a good slapping and I didn't want a slapping. So I had to persevere and just get on with the work".

Another punishment:

"They'd put me down the hole because I wouldn't work … a four by four room ... There was nothing in it, only a bench – no windows. You were put in there; your hair was cut, more or less off completely. Your hair was cut, and you were there all day without anything to eat until they came down for you at five o'clock and took you up. Then you had to go into the Sacred Heart room where the recreation was and kneel down in front of everybody in the room, kiss the floor and say you were sorry, and then the nun read the riot act to you. The Sr d_ C______, Mother d_ C______, whatever, read the riot act to you."