There was no closure here: four Irish women composers give voice to women of the Magdalene Laundries in remarkable performances from Lotte Betts-Dean & Deirdre Brenner in Oxford

The Magdalene Songs - Deirdre Brenner, Lotte Betts-Dean - Oxford International Song Festival (Photo: TallWall Media)

The Magdalene Songs: Elaine Agnew, Elaine Brennan, Rhona Clarke, Deirdre McKay; Lotte Betts-Dean, Deirdre Brenner; Oxford International Song Festival at the Holywell Music Room
Reviewed 23 October 2025

Deirdre Brenner's remarkable project to honour the women from the Magdalene Laundries in music, her given outstanding and devastating voice by Lotte Betts-Dean

The early evening concert at Oxford International Song Festival on 23 October 2025 continued the day's Irish theme yet with a very different tenor to the subject matter from the lunchtime focus on Thomas Moore [see my review]. 

From 1922 to 1996 more than 10,1000 women and girls were incarcerated in Ireland's Magdalene Laundries. Pianist Deirdre Brenner's The Magdalene Songs is an ongoing project to honour these women by giving voice to their experiences. I interviewed Deirdre Brenner earlier this year when she introduced the project, see my interview.

On 23 October 2025 at the Holywell Music Room, pianist Deirdre Brenner was joined by mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean for The Magdalene Songs presenting a sequence of ten songs by Elaine Agnew, Elaine Brennan, Rhona Clarke and Deirdre McKay, with six of the songs being world premieres. Nine of the songs were settings of extracts from interviews with survivors preserved by Justice For Magdalene Research, with each song named after the woman whose testimony it presented. The final song, Litany to the Magdalene Dead by Deirdre McKay was intended to honour the life of each woman who died in a Magdalene Laundry.

We began with premieres of three songs by Elaine Agnew who studied composition at Queen’s University Belfast with Kevin Volans and at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with James MacMillan. Philomena complemented Lotte Betts-Dean's lyrical, movingly direct performance with an atmospheric piano, the result almost a slice of life presented straight to us. Frances Walsh had a steady forward beat in the piano underpinning the rather conversational line which Betts-Dean gave with remarkable immediacy and directness. Mary Creighton moved between vivid and edgy drama and more conversational elements with moments of real anger. Agnew's piano writing here gave plenty of space for the voice.

Next came two songs by Elaine Brennan who studied at Trinity College Dublin and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama London, and who performs extensively as accompanist and improviser with film. Pippa Flanagan was bleak and direct using the language of laid-back blues to express the intense meaning. Mary Currington had strong, slow piano chords creating a threatening start with fractured vocal contributions, strong yet disconnected lines, leading to a powerful climax. At one point the voice refers to a piece of music reminder her of her past and at the end Brennan introduces a sentimental hymn tune as counterpoint.

Dublin-born Rhona Clarke studied at University College Dublin and Queen's University Belfast, and she was influenced early on by Luciano Berio and Witold Lutoslawski. Her three songs were all premiered at the Boyne Music Festival in 2022. Evelyn had a spiky motor rhythm in the piano driving things forward with powerful melismatic blues-inspired vocal lines. Martina Keogh began with a devastating chord followed by Betts-Dean speaking the words, then a lyrical vocal line appeared with a hint of slow blues and a feel of Bach in the piano accompaniment. In Nancy Shannon the piano was also ominous, but here Brenner was using her right hand inside the piano. The sense of threat underpinned Betts-Dean's passionate arioso, leading to something vividly urgent.

Deirdre McKay's work represented Ireland at the 2023 International Society for Contemporary Music World New Music Days, and she received a Paul Hamlyn Composer Award, London, in 2018. The text for Nora Lynch was tiny, just one line yet it was haunting, the voice moving between slow blues and folk-like keening over held piano notes. Simple, but devastatingly effective. The final work in the programme was McKay's Litany to the Magdalene Dead which was originally inspired by McKay seeing an image of a gravestone carrying the names of 72 women who died in the Peacock Lane Magdalene Laundry in County Cork. For the text, Betts-Dean intoned the names, year and location of 72 women, on a monotone supported by a simple piano part that developed in complexity as the two performers brought a sense of slow build. Twice, Betts-Dean interrupted her monotone to chant 'Requiescat in pace' the second time forming a climax, from which voice and piano gradually died until Betts-Dean merged into silence. As with much else in the programme, the restraint and simplicity of this piece spoke volumes, though it is not one of those works that transcends its origins.

The Magdalene Songs - Lotte Betts-Dean - Oxford International Song Festival (Photo: TallWall Media)

These songs were very much about the words. Often short, but still devastating expressing as much by what was left unsaid. All four composers managed the balancing act between discreetly sitting in the background and bringing a sense of musical personality to the songs. There was often a sense that a song did not end, it just stopped. There was no closure here, and some of the songs talked about the impossibility of this. There was passionate identification from Lotte Betts-Dean, the sense that in each song she was channelling that person.

As an event, this was a remarkable and powerful programme that really stayed in the mind thanks to strong performances. But this close to the subject and the music, I was unclear whether these pieces will transcend their origins, only time and further performances will tell.

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