Sent the pretty ones away, allowed only to pray
To escape the eternal damnation
To labor all day and give 'em no pay
It was done for the good of the nation

The babies were sent to the poorhouse
The orphans with luck would survive
How bad was the curse could it be any worse
To fold sheets forever alive

A nation of love, a nation of love
Behind yellow walls locked away
A nation of love, a nation of love
In a darkness forever to stay

And they rested on Christmas Day

The authorities came around every village and town
With a list of the girls who might fall
From grace in the place their own families turned out
Behind the high Magdalene walls
The neighbors all filed a consensus
Of those to be taken away
With rumors of nameless offenses
To keep silent the rest of their days

So where did they go almost nobody knows
When they finally got out of the tower
With there disarrayed souls goin out of control?
Or did life pass 'em by in an hour?
I carried it round in my pocket
Hopin' time could fade it away
I lost all the names but the story remains
Of the Magdalene Laundries today