Rocking the system: M(h)aol on using their songs to rail against misogyny
M(h)aol have upcoming gigs in Ireland, as well as support slots with Steve Albini's band, Shellac.
The first time Irish-UK indie band M(h)aol played their song Laundries in Dublin, they felt a ripple spread through the room. “The shame of those houses/With windows of steam,” singer Róisín Nic Ghearailt intoned with chilling solemnity. “And the shame of those/Sheets that came out/ So clean”.
“There was the biggest reaction,” says Nic Ghearailt of a propulsive dirge which explores the toxic legacy of the Magdalene Laundries and the culture of misogyny of which the laundries were both symptom and a mechanism of reinforcement.
