https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/may/29/sinead-oconnor-ill-always-be-a-bit-crazy-but-thats-ok-rememberings

Last time we met, 11 years ago, O’Connor was a Catholic priest (she had been ordained by a breakaway church in 1999) who had just been vindicated. In 1992, she had torn up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live as a protest at child sex abuse in the Catholic church. At the time many people dismissed her as a loopy self-publicist. Two weeks later she was booed off stage at a Bob Dylan tribute concert, and her records were publicly smashed. But in 2010 Pope Benedict XVI issued an apology to the victims of decades of sex abuse by Catholic priests in Ireland, expressing his “shame and remorse” for their “sinful and criminal acts”. (She viewed the apology as wholly inadequate, calling the Vatican “a nest of devils and a haven for criminals”.)...

She’s at home in Wicklow when we speak, decked out in grey – grey jumper, grey hijab (she changed her off-stage name to Shuhada Sadaqat when she became a Muslim in 2018), grey cropped skinhead and grey fag [cigarette!] ash. She’s 54 now, her cheeks more rounded but her eyes still bright. For three hours, she talks and talks – eloquent, indiscreet, potty-mouthed, poignant, conspiratorial....

O’Connor’s worldview has always been one of gods and devils – perhaps not surprisingly for somebody who was brought up to believe the incontestable truth of the scriptures. Of her 20-odd tattoos, all but one are scriptural. On the back of her hand is printed “The lion of Judah shall break every chain” (“My Rastafari fist”), on the other “Lumen Christi” (light of Christ), and on her chest is a huge Jesus tattoo. On her neck is “All things must pass”, another biblical quote. The exception is a tattoo saying “Vampire slayer” – which is what some friends called her after the Saturday Night Live incident...

Despite everything that has happened to her – the abuse, the breakdowns, the betrayals and fallouts – she has never lost her faith. Yes, she has been hypercritical of formalised religion, particularly the Catholicism she was born into, but that’s different. Religions are simply platforms for faith, she says, and she decided Catholicism was a lousy platform, so she chose Islam. “I guess I was born with a huge faith and it never left and nothing would shake it,” she says.

Why did she become a Muslim? “What I like about Islam is that it is anti-religious. In the same way that Jesus was a militantly anti-religious figure, Allah is saying that people are not to worship anything but God. The worst thing that happened to God is religion.” She means we’ve spent too long worshipping priests rather than God. “Islam is the most maligned religion on Earth because it has the truths that would make you not worship money, make you not steal, make you be good to your brothers and sisters, make you gentle.”

“In 1992, she had torn up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live as a protest at child sex abuse in the Catholic church. At the time many people dismissed her as a loopy self-publicist. Two weeks later she was booed off stage at a Bob Dylan tribute concert, and her records were publicly smashed. But in 2010 Pope Benedict XVI issued an apology to the victims of decades of sex abuse by Catholic priests…”


I remember this live on TV. It shocked me. I secretly rejoiced. Outwardly, however, I listened politely and silently to everyone’s horror and condemnation of O’Connor. I hated the disparity between my inward reaction and my outward behaviour.

This is one of many reasons to value artists. They allow their inward self out, damn the consequences. They are also often ahead of the curve. It took 18 years for the Papacy to catch up to O’Connor. But that’s not right. The Papacy could never catch up to the likes of O’Connor.

God bless the Sinead, and Éirinn go Brách.

Human, lover of the free spirits

I also remember when she tore up a picture of the pope on SNL. I would have been in high school at the time. I hadn't seen it coming, and my jaw dropped when it happened. My dad was walking by in the passing at the time, and he said something like, "Well, isn't that something." I also remember her being booed at the Bob Dylan tribute that was televised. Willie Nelson hugged her when it happened, which was a thoughtful gesture.

She had broken a cardinal (pun intended) rule of not feigning that all religions are deserving of respect. I know several great people who are Catholic. That church, though!

She wasn’t wrong in her criticism of the Catholic church, but she needed to have played it smarter to be more effective. She wasn’t going to take them down, but she could be a pain in their A, and host protest vigils, and stuff like that. She was more of a visionary than that, though.

I love her song “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” “Though their own words, they will be exposed. They’ve got a sovereign case of the Emperor’s New Clothes...” You know what it makes me think of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhfATC9baPo

Sinead wasn't wrong about the Catholic church, but she comes off as a religious nutter. Who puts 20+ scriptural tattoos on your body?

Yes. However:

Aren’t all artists “nutters” of one kind or another from the point of view of Mencken’s booboisie?

I remember seeing that on SNL when it happened, as I was in high school at the time. Even though I was on the west coast, they didn't edit that out although the local NBC station easily could have.

I assumed one of RfM’s anti-Catholics would have brought up this story by now - I’ll do it:

Headline: Remains of 215 children found buried at former B.C. residential school, First Nation says

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/tk-eml%C3%BAps-te-secw%C3%A9pemc-215-children-former-kamloops-indian-residential-school-1.6043778

Snippet:

"To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths," Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir said in the statement.

"Some were as young as three years old. We sought out a way to confirm that knowing out of deepest respect and love for those lost children and their families, understanding that Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc is the final resting place of these children."

Is the Roman Catholic Church helping in this case? No:

“[Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond] said "massive ongoing problems" with historical records, including those "held by certain Catholic entities that they will not release" have made it very hard to understand accurately what happened.



As far as I’m concerned, each one of these residential schools* is a potential scene of mass murder and should be investigated as such. The problem is, the RCMP are complicit.

*The history of the residential school system in Canada:

https://www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2020/09/the-residential-school-system.html

O Canada…

How awful. :(

I just saw a headline that said she announced recently that she is not going to perform or tour anymore and is leaving the music business. I actually thought that happened years ago.

Who ?