Unreleased Sinéad O'Connor song airs on BBC's Magdalene Laundries series
Sinéad O'Connor previously spoke openly about the abuse she faced while spending more than a year in a Magdalene laundry as a teenager. Photo: Maria Bastone/AFP via Getty Images
A Sinéad O'Connor song which was previously unreleased has aired on a BBC One show based around the Magdalene Laundries.
The late singer-songwriter gave psychological drama permission to use and it aired at the end of the last episode on Sunday.
The six-part series takes a look at a mysterious death in the wake of the Magdalene Laundries scandal, which saw women talk about being detained against their will and forced to give up their children.
O'Connor — who died in July aged 56 — previously spoke openly about the abuse she faced while spending more than a year in a Magdalene laundry as a teenager.
According to Chrysalis Records, the use of the song was proposed by her producer, the Belfast DJ and composer David Holmes, and was "approved by Sinéad before her passing".
Holmes said: "The first half of the track is completely heartbreaking, and the second half is pure defiance. I stripped the song away to just Sinead's voice and then let the full power come in for the second half.
In the BBC series, Tipperary actor Daryl McCormack stars as Detective Colman Akande opposite British actress Ruth Wilson — who takes on the role of Lorna Brady.
The show follows Lorna, who has suffered from bouts of sleepwalking after being put in the Catholic institution as a teenager when she became pregnant, as Colman investigates the death of a priest.
Holmes said: "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.
"She never really spoke about the meaning of her songs. She used to joke that she would often tell people that her songs were about something completely different to what they were about."
He also said that his "big regret" is that O'Connor, who protested against sexual and physical abuse in the Catholic Church when she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live in 1992, would not see the series.
In August, as O'Connor's funeral procession passed by her former home in Bray, Co Wicklow, a guard of honour was made for the late singer by survivors of Magdalene laundries and mother and baby homes.
She is buried in a south Dublin plot called The Garden.
