Sinead ‘O’Connor’ would have been proud of how her final track ‘The Magdalen Song’ was used, says David Holmes (Photo Credit: Wikimedia)
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Singer Sinead O’Connor’s final unreleased track ‘The MagdaleneSong’ was premiered on the finale of the psychological thriller series, ‘The Woman in the Wall’. Talking about it, composer David Holmes said that ‘O’Conor would have been proud of how it was used.
The Ruth Wilson-starring series, created by Joe Murtagh, tells the story of a woman dealing with the trauma that was inflicted upon her during her time spent as a ward of Ireland’s controversial Magdalene laundries, a home for unmarried, pregnant women and sex workers that was run by nuns.
The Northern Irish musician and composer, who scored the series and also produced O’Connor’s music in recent years, told ‘The Guardian’ in an interview : “The first half of the track is completely heartbreaking, and the second half is pure defiance”, according to ‘People’ magazine.
“I stripped the song away to just Sinead’s voice and then let the full power come in for the second half,” Holmes continued. “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.”
According to Holmes, O’Connor gave the production her permission to use the track before filming had begun.
“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,” recalled Holmes, who noted that the producers felt the track would be most fitting during the series’ final moments. “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.”
He added: “She never really spoke about the meaning ofher songs. She used to joke that she would often tell people that her songs were about something completely different to what they were about. But this one – well, it’s called ‘The MagdaleneSong.’ ”
Holmes claimed that prior to her death on July 26, he and O’Connor had been working on her 11th studio album. While making the record, ‘The Woman in the Wall’ producer Susan Breen told him she was an O’Connorfan. This exchange prompted him to call the singer.
“I told Sinéad 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. ‘Sinéad said: ‘I believe you. Give them ‘The Magdalene Song’”.
Holmes admitted his “big regret” is that the ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ singer never got to see the end results of ‘The Woman in the Wall’.
“She would have been proud,” he told the publication. “Some people have criticised the black humor in the script, but growing up in Belfast I’ve seen the dark humor that people use to get through.”
“It’s crazy that the last laundry only closed in the 1990s,”Holmes added. “Those girls were being tortured. I’ve never been able to get my head around the collective evil of those nuns”.
