According to nme.com, over this past weekend unreleased song from the late Sinéad O’Connor premiered in the finale of the BBC TV show The Woman In The Wall.
The show is about the Magdalene Laundries of Ireland, which is the institutions ran by Roman Catholic orders between the 18 century and the 1990s that have been likened to labour camps for young mothers.
Before her death at the age of 56 this past Summer, O’Connor gave BBC the rights to an unreleased song called “The Magdalene Song” to use in the series. On the track O’Connor sings about the pain of losing a child and recalls her own experience of being in a similar institution at the age of 15.
Discussing the track, producer David Holmes told The Guardian: “The first half of the track is completely heartbreaking, and the second half is pure defiance. I stripped the song away to just Sinéad’s voice and then let the full power come in for the second half. It’s incredible how the meaning of the song came together with this story It was just meant to be. There’s a certain magic when you bring music to an emotive story.”
Holes adds: “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.”
Speaking about the process of the song ending up in the series, Holmes stated: “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.
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