"Where Do You Wander?" is a harrowing lyrical testament to the enduring trauma of Ireland's Magdalene Laundry survivors. Through a series of haunting, repetitive questions, the poem maps the psychological hellscape of a survivor—referred to with heartbreaking irony as "Grace." It probes the visceral, waking nightmares of institutional abuse: the sting of the strap, the blistering heat of industrial washing machines, the terror of nighttime footsteps, and the cruel removal of personal dignity, symbolized by the taking of "your laces." The lyrics force the reader to confront the physical and emotional brutality inflicted upon young women and girls, whose children were stolen from them and whose very identities were systematically stripped away.

The piece escalates from intimate terror to a searing indictment of the system that enabled this abuse. The chorus condemns the "manufactured disgrace"—the calculated, religiously-sanctioned shaming used to control and break the vulnerable. It shifts the focus from individual torment to collective guilt, asking why the entire country was "on the same page" in its silent complicity. The poem ultimately points a direct finger at the powerful, intertwining entities of the Church and the State ("The daughters of Rome... Shame on the state!"), holding them accountable for bending lives irrevocably "out of shape" and for the enduring silence that compounds the survivors' grief.

The poem's structure itself performs its catharsis. The relentless questioning builds a crushing emotional weight, which is finally released in the devastating, whispered-to-screamed coda: "(Galway's disgrace)." This repeated line transforms from a personal memory into a public accusation, growing in volume and intensity until it becomes an unstoppable, collective scream for justice. It is no longer just a question of where one wounded soul wanders in memory, but where a nation's conscience must wander in the face of a historical atrocity it has yet to fully acknowledge or atone for.

Where Do You Wander?

Collection of songwriters under the leadership of Bill Kinlough

Where Do You Wander?

The Great Unwashed