These three dark paintings [The Crucifix, Magdalene, and The Expulsion] are thoughts on the bleak past when the RC church had a dominant position in Irish society. In the name of Christianity it destroyed the lives of countless men, women and children, dominating the thoughts of parents and instilling a regime of cruel and unforgiving punishment on any who transgressed their rules. 

The figure MAGDALENE represents the vast number of girls and young women who were confined to workhouse conditions of appalling cruelty in which hundreds of babies died and were buried without ceremony or any compassion. Many of the young girls committed suicide!