Sinéad O’Connor dies: The Irish singer who took on the Pope

Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor was known for more than her wonderful music. She was an activist and she spoke about the Church and mental health at a time when it was taboo. The artist gained fame in her mid-20s and has now died at the age of 56. Announcing the news, her family shared a statement with Ireland’s public broadcaster: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad. Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.” The cause of her death is not known yet. Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Leo Varadkar said her music “was loved around the world and her talent was unmatched”. O’Connor’s music Born in Glenageary, County Dublin in 1996, O’Connor had a tough childhood with a mother she alleged was abusive and encouraged her to shoplift. As a teen, she was placed in a training centre, which was once a Magdalene laundry or Magdalene asylum, institutions run by Roman Catholics originally established to rein in girls who were thought to be promiscuous, according to a BBC report. A nun brought her a guitar and a music teacher was assigned. This is where her interest in music bloomed. She started off singing on the streets of Dublin. The singer-songwriter released her first album “The Lion And The Cobra” in 1987. Critically acclaimed, it entered the top 40 in the United States and the United Kingdom. But it was her 1990 album “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” that shot her to fame. Nothing Compares 2 U, a song written by Prince became a global hit, topping music charts. It was nominated for multiple Grammys and she bagged the MTV Video of the Year and the Best Video by a Female Artist awards. [caption id=“attachment_12923282” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Sinead O’Connor performs at Akvarium Klub in Budapest, Hungary in December 2019. O’Connor became a superstar in her mid-20s but was known as much for her private struggles and provocative actions as for her fierce and expressive music and her activism. AP[/caption] A lifelong non-conformist O’Connor became synonymous with Nothing Compares 2 U. But it was not just the music but also the iconic music video which featured her in close-cropped hair and a dark turtleneck which left the world fascinated. “It was the bald head that became the avatar of a million dreamy rebellions; the shaved pate that bridged the gap between the angry and the sublime. It is almost impossible to think about Sinead O’Connor, the Irish singer whose death was reported Wednesday, or her work, without thinking about her hair. Or lack of it,” says an article in The New York Times (NYT). O’Connor was a lifelong non-conformist. She said she shaved her head in response to record executives pressuring her to be conventionally glamourous. [caption id=“attachment_12923292” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Sinead O’Connor performs during the Italian State RAI TV programme in Milan, Italy in October 2014. Her most famous protest was against the Roman Catholic Church during a ‘Saturday Night Live’ performance. AP[/caption] Taking on the Pope Often it was her political viewpoint that grabbed headlines more than her music. She spoke of human rights, Irish politics, and mental health even though it took a toll on her career. But O’Connor made one of her strongest statements while performing on Saturday Night Live, an American late-night television show. On 3 October 1992, at the end of her second performance, a cover of Bob Marley’s War, she replaced the lyrics with the words “child abuse”. “We have confidence in the victory of good over evil,” the singer went on to say. She then grabbed a photograph of Pope John Paul II, held it up as the cameras were trained on her, and tore it three times. “Fight the real enemy,” she said, as she threw the pieces on the ground, removed her ear-ins and walked off the stage.

A critic of the Roman Catholic Church, O’Connor was protesting against child sexual abuse in the institution long before allegations were widely reported. Turns out, the photo of the Pope hung on the bedroom wall of her mother. The singer’s protest triggered outrage across the world with many concluding that her future was bleak. NBC banned O’Connor for life from SNL and the show would then reduce her actions to a joke in its sketches. American actor Joe Pesci, who appeared as a host the following week, said, “If it was my show, I would have gave her such a smack.” Interestingly, Pesci’s monologue is still available on the official YouTube channel of SNL but O’Connor’s performance is not, an NYT report points out. Madonna too mocked the Irish singer, ripping up a photo of auto body shop owner Joey Buttafuoco, who earlier that year had become something of a celebrity following a high-profile scandal, according to a report by TIME. When O’Connor appeared at a tribute concert for Dylan at New York City’s Madison Square Garden she was booed again. She was supposed to sing Dylan’s “I Believe in You,” but switched to an acapella version of Marley’s “War,” which she had sung on SNL. Although consoled and encouraged on stage by American singer and her friend Kris Kristofferson, she left and broke down, and her performance was kept off the concert CD. She was also targeted by the religious right and as she wrote in her memoir years later, a couple of ego-tossing men. Years later, the stories of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church shocked the world. But by then O’Connor and her powerful protest were largely forgotten. [caption id=“attachment_12923332” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Kris Kristofferson comforts Sinead O’Connor after she was booed off stage during the Bob Dylan anniversary concert at New York Madison Square Garden in October 1992. The performance was O’Connor’s first live event since she ripped a picture of Pope John Paul II during a performance on ‘Saturday Night Live’. AP[/caption] The protests continued However, there was no stopping her. In 1999, O’Connor caused uproar in Ireland when she became a priestess of the breakaway Latin Tridentine Church, a position that was not recognised by the mainstream Catholic Church. For many years, she called for a full investigation into the extent of the church’s role in concealing child abuse by clergy. In 2010, when Pope Benedict XVI apologised to Ireland to atone for decades of abuse, she condemned the apology for not going far enough and called for Catholics to boycott mass until there was a full investigation into the Vatican’s role, reports The Associated Press. “People assumed I didn’t believe in God. That’s not the case at all. I’m Catholic by birth and culture and would be the first at the church door if the Vatican offered sincere reconciliation,” she wrote in the Washington Post in 2010. In 2018, she converted to Islam. However, she continued to use Sinéad O’Connor professionally. She spoke up often but is still remembered for her SNL protest. The singer said that had no regrets. In an interview with NYT in 2021, she said, “I’m not sorry I did it. It was brilliant. But it was very traumatising. It was open season on treating me like a crazy b-tch.” With inputs from agencies