Saturday, February 01, 2025

Joni Mitchell was threatened by Irish woman over her song about Magdalene laundries

Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell has described how she was threatened by an Irish woman over a song she wrote about the Magdalene laundries.

The song, which was the sixth track on her 1994 album Turbulent Indigo, described how thousands of women in Ireland were locked up by the religious orders for “bad behaviour”, including having babies outside marriage.

It is estimated about 30,000 women were confined to the laundries, the last of which closed in 1996.

The Canadian-American penned the song after the unmarked graves up 155 women were found on the grounds of High Park in Drumcondra, Dublin, which was owned by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity. The discovery made international news.

The Magdalene Laundries by Joni Mitchell includes the lyrics: “Fallen women, sentenced into dreamless drudgery, why do they call this heartless place Our Lady of Charity?”

In an interview this week, Mitchell said she was left in fear after an Irish woman confronted her over the song.

During the incident, she claimed she was cornered and threatened in a bar.

She told Far Out magazine the woman asked if she was Catholic, to which the songwriter said no.

“Well, then what business is it of yours to be writing about our business?” the woman asked.

It was bad enough with Sinéad ripping up the picture of the Pope, but at least she’s one of ours. 

She said the altercation left her shaken.

“Oh, man,” she said, “she just had me on the grill there for a while about it. But it’s a raw subject.” 

The singer had suffered loss after she fell pregnant in college at 20 and was forced to place her daughter for adoption because she had no partner, family support, or finances.

She eventually spoke about her baby after a college friend sold her story in the 1990s. The article led to her being reunited with her daughter.

The Magdalene Laundries song has long been a favourite of many survivors here.

Diane Croghan, aged 84, and living in Dublin, said she was “pleased” when Joni Mitchell penned the track.

Born into a mother and baby home in Co Wexford, Ms Croghan remained with her mother until she was taken into foster care when she was three years old.

When her grandparents stopped paying towards her keep, she was taken into a laundry at just eight years old and later escaped in a laundry basket with her friend at age 13, before walking to Dublin where she started a new life.

“The song is the truth,” she said. 

“People should know what happened was wrong and cruel."