Mary Norris (née Cronin, 1932 – 31 May 2017) was a young woman in Ireland who was sent to a Magdalene asylum, where her name was changed and she was imprisoned until removed by an aunt.
[1] Norris spent two years performing hard labor in the Good Shepherd Convent, a Magdalene asylum.
[4] She was sent to a Magdalene laundry or asylum run by the Good Shepherd Order in Cork, Ireland, in 1949 at the age of 16.
[3] Norris's father died when she was twelve and her mother then pursued a relationship with a local farmer, which caught the attention of the parish priest.
[4] The priest wanted Norris's mother to marry the farmer or end the relationship, "and when neither happened with the alacrity he expected, the children were seized and made wards of the courts.
(Later Mary petitioned the sisters of the Good Shepherd in Cork to obtain a list of the names of the Magdalenes who had been buried in unmarked graves behind the laundry.)