The Magdalene Laundries

[Verse 1]

I was an unmarried girl, I'd just turned twenty-seven

When they sent me to the sisters for the way men looked at me

Branded as a jezebel, I knew I was not bound for Heaven

I'd be cast in shame into the Magdalene Laundries

[Verse 2]

Most girls come here pregnant, some by their own fathers

Bridget got that belly by her parish priest

We're trying to get things white as snow, all of us woe-begotten daughters

In the streaming stains of the Magdalene Laundries

[Bridge]

Prostitutes and destitutes and temptresses like me

Fallen women sentenced into dreamless drudgery

Why do they call this heartless place Our Lady of Charity?

Oh charity

[Verse 3]

These bloodless brides of Jesus, if they just once glimpsed their groom

Then they'd know and they'd drop the stones concealed behind their rosaries

They wilt the grass they walk upon, they leech the light out of a room

They'd like to drive us down the drain at the Magdalene Laundries

[Verse 5]

Peg O'Connell died today

She was a cheeky girl, a flirt, they just stuffed her in a hole

Surely to God you'd think at least some bells should ring

One day I'm going to die here too and they'll plant me in the dirt

Like some lame bulb that never blooms come any spring

[Outro]

Not any spring

No, not any spring

Not any spring