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