The Chieftains The Magdalene Laundries - With Joni Mitchell lyrics

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? Ohh, 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 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, ohh

No, not any spring, no, not any spring
No, not any spring, no, not any spring
No, not any spring, not any spring
No, not any spring, not any spring
No, not any spring, not any spring
No, not any spring, not any spring