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- One of the last songs that Sinéad O'Connor made recently debuted in a BBC series.
- The Magdalene Song was an unreleased track used in the series The Woman in the Wall.
- O'Connor died on 26 July at age 56.
An unreleased Sinéad O'Connor song recently debuted in the BBC series The Woman in the Wall. This comes months after the singer died on 26 July 2023 at 56.
The song that debuted in the show's finale on Sunday is titled The Magdalene Song.
The Woman in the Wall is a psychological thriller that stars Ruth Wilson and was created by Joe Murtagh. The series focuses on a woman with a history of trauma-based sleepwalking, which links back to her time in Ireland's Magdalene laundries.
The Magdalene laundries or asylums were initially Protestant and then mostly Roman Catholic institutions that were for pregnant, unmarried women and sex workers.
READ MORE | Sinéad O'Connor: a troubled soul with immense talent and unbowed spirit
O'Connor herself was sent to a Magdalene laundry for more than a year for shoplifting and truancy at age 15.
In 2013, she wrote an open letter to the Irish Post about her experiences in the Magdalene laundries.
She wrote the letter to The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity after they published an apology upon the release of the Magdalene Laundries report, which exposed the wrongdoings of the institutions.
She wrote:
She wrote that babies were born in the institutions and often taken from their mothers against their will. In one instance, she recalls waking to hear her friend screaming while nuns were tearing her baby away from her.
She also told Spin magazine in 1990, "I will never experience such panic and terror and agony over anything like I did at that place."
O'Connor was also openly critical of the Catholic church; during her performance on Saturday Night Live in 1992, she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II in protest of the church ignoring child abuse.
O'Connor received significant backlash for her protest, with celebrities like Frank Sinatra, Joe Pesci and Madonna speaking out.
David Holmes, a musician who produced for O'Connor, said to The Guardian: "Sinéad sanctioned the track for use before they had even started shooting, and when the producers heard it, they were amazed to have something so strong. We all felt the only place this can go is at the end."
"In the lyrics, Sinéad was trying to say, I think, that though she'd been through great turmoil, it would not stop her being who she wanted to be," Holmes said.
The Woman in the Wall's producer, Susan Breen, told Holmes that she was a fan of O'Connor's music. Holmes then told O'Connor, "The script was not like anything else anyone has done on the subject, and it had Ruth Wilson, one of the finest actors in the world – on a different level. Sinéad said: 'I believe you. Give them The Magdalene Song.'"
Holmes added:
"My big regret is that Sinéad's not here to see the series… She would have been proud."
