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 those 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
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
Not any spring
No, not any spring
Not any spring
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 those 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
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
Not any spring
No, not any spring
Not any spring
Contributed by Alessandro - 2010/2/15 - 10:14
Il terribile documentario del 1998 che rivelò al mondo gli orrori delle Case Magdalene, attraverso le interviste ad alcune internate.
Alessandro - 2010/2/15 - 10:18
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Album "Turbulent Indigo"
Una canzone sulle "Case Magdalene", gli istituti "correzionari" gestiti da ordini della chiesa cattolica dove per oltre un secolo, e fino ai primi anni 90, furono accolte o, meglio, sequestrate, schiavizzate e brutalizzate migliaia di ragazze irlandesi colpevoli di condotte "immorali", come il fatto di essere state stuprate e ingravidate o, semplicemente, di essere considerate delle "ribelli" in una società maschilista e bacchettona.
Si vedano al proposito il documentario "Sex in a Cold Climate" di Steve Humphries, che per primo nel 1998 rivelò gli orrori perpetrati per decenni nelle Case Magdalene in Irlanda, ed il film di Peter Mullan "The Magdalene Sisters" del 2002, Leone d'Oro al 59° festival del cinema di Venezia.