Cillian Murphy calls Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries scandal a ‘collective trauma’

The Oppenheimer actor spoke about the abuses at the homes for unwed women ahead of the premiere of Small Things Like These, the new film about the scandal, at the Berlin film festival

Learning about the abuses of the church in the “dysfunctional Christian society” of 1980s Ireland amounted to a “collective trauma” that has still not been fully processed, actor Cillian Murphy said as a new film set against the backdrop of the Magdalene Laundries scandal premiered at the Berlin film festival.

In Small Things Like These, the Oppenheimer star plays Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man who accidentally becomes aware of abuse happening at the local convent in New Ross, southwest County Wexford, Ireland.