Julianne Flynn is the deputy editor of the University Times magazine in leafy Trinity. She just published a piece on the church and sex work.

For the latest issue Julianne spoke with Kate McGrew of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland and looked at how the The Good Shepherd Sisters and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity previously ran the Magdalene Laundries and now run Ruhama.

For the uninitiated, Ruhama are the organisation orchestrating the whole Turn Off The Red Light campaign.

Along the way, questions posed to Ruhama by the University Times were met with a frosty response.

Read on:

“Two religious orders that previously ran the Magdalene Laundries now run Ruhama, a state-funded organisation for women affected by sex work.

Questions posed to Ruhama by The University Times Magazine, however, were greeted with paranoia and denial.”

“Email correspondence between McGuire and Sarah Benson, Ruhama’s CEO, were inadvertently forwarded to The University Times Magazine. One particularly telling line between the two says: “I reckon once it goes to print we can criticise such attacks as ‘pimp-thinking’.”

Ouch.

Read the whole piece here on the University Times site. We looked at this whole topic ourselves way back in #rabble6.