The Magdalene Laundries Lyrics - The Wide World Over: A 40 Year Celebration - The Chieftains

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 

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 steaming stains 

Of the Magdalene laundries 

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! 

These bloodless brides of Jesus 

If they had 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