Absolutely those people were and are fucking cowards. Sinead was RIGHT years before people would admit what was going on in the Catholic Church and a lot of churches in general. It was nothing but pure misogyny that almost destroyed her and her career, but she’s still here fuckers.
As I recall, she appeared at the Dylan anniversary concert about a week later, and after Kris Kristofferson introduced her, the boos and catcalls stopped her -- who would expect an anti-free speech demonstration at a Bob Dylan Anniversary Concert? She wasn't able to sing, and just stood there sobbing. Kristofferson returned to the stage, stared out at the crowd for a couple of seconds, shook his head, put his arm around her and muttered, "Sinead, people will be talking about you music and your courage for a long. Fuck them!" and walked her off the stage.
Pope John Paul II was viewed as a hero then, and it wasn't really until after his death that some of the problems with his papacy came out -- his blindness where the Vatican bank was concerned and his failure to stomp on the sexual molestation cases that began surfacing during his Papacy. However, the conduct of clergy in Ireland was none for decades before the scandals came out, in part because the Church in Ireland was really a co-equal offender with the government. As I recall, the Constitution of Ireland carves out some space for that establishment, and while it should have been gone by now, they are still prying the cold, dead and sinful hands off the document.
It would have been nice for more than Kristofferson to come out on the stage and support Sinead. That no one did is sad but not hard to understand. Those shows are largely chaotic, and Kristofferson was probably the only one of the headliners watching this. But, what he did was show moral courage. And, Sinead O'Connor may be a broken vessel, as are we all, but a lot of her career could seen as carrying a lamp for moral courage, for the stranger, and for the poor and the abused.
Sharappa earlier mentioned this song. I was a Kristofferson follower in college, and still play a lot of his music, but I was doing other things for a long time. He'd written similar songs about Johnny Cash, by the way...here's what he wrote about Sinead. https://youtu.be/3HwWDOQoCBM
Man, Sinead, she's a visionary. You know why she ripped up that photo of the Pope? She was protesting child abuse by priests and the Pope's refusal to acknowledge it. That act ended her career more or less. But she was RIGHT. Ten years later it all started coming out and it still hasn't stopped.
I recall the night on SNL she tore that photo. I raised my fist right there on couch and said, Right on... Good for her. I also was rather miffed at the reactions. I thought why the hell are some in the then current younger generation not able to embrace and appreciate her actions. I mean it's damn SNL. Not exactly an audience known to be uptight and that would react so negatively. I assume folks who saw and reacted were actually usual viewers in audience and watching at home.
Guess maybe these whiners would turn out to in time morph into what would become the party's Young Republicans. To this day that incident and negative fallout makes me shake my head.
I loved Sinéad!! So Much… but as a man I could never really completely understand… BUT… these words help me … I am one WHO cheered her on when she ripped up the pope picture.
I am one who then HATED The crowd at Madison Square Garden. She performed on the Dylan tribute concert not long after that SNL appearance. She was practically booed off the stage. Kris Kristofferson sweetly went out and gave her a hug. He actually wrote a song about it. Which I know because he tried to pitch the song to his new band; the highwaymen. They didn’t care for it.
I remember watching the Dylan tribute on PBS and I’ll never forget the hurt and rage I felt when that crowd booed her. I still want to go back in time and punch those people in the throat on her behalf. It’s interesting to think about how it could be thought of as an early form of cancel culture. She got blackballed from there on out.
AND we should add, that she was completely right. This is what I’ve been saying about child abuse in the last few years; “if you think there is not an international child sex trafficking ring, you haven’t heard of the Catholic Church. I don’t know which comedian said it, but if the Catholic Church was a department store, it would not exist anymore. Like, Kmart, couldn’t just be raping children and then everybody still buying their shirts there.
So sad that she was essentially cancelled for telling the truth 20+ years before it became okay to talk about sexual abuse in the church. She is brave and talented and should have had a much better career. I can only hope that the people involved in the moral outrage at the time of the SNL thing have shitty lives.
If it were possible to wear a groove into a CD, I'd have used up Furnace Room Lullaby within a year of its release. Right on time for a thing I was working through, so - Thank you.
1990 was a different transitional year altogether, reconciling myself around being an Irish American and American man in opposition to almost everything I saw the world becoming/remaining. I did quietly wear out a cassette of I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, unable to embrace her publicly under the burning supernova of its overplayed singles, rebelling against intensity of emotion as a state of being. I lost her social protest in the same way, unwilling to see it for itself versus the call to wear solidarity as a gang sign. 20's are weird.
Hello, I appreciate the ending on this entry -- thank you Neko Case. Ahh the swears...it's a whole additional topic.
I too totally relied on Sinead O'Connor, to echolocate through parts of the world. I know she was or is not trying to be a queer icon but I hold her in that place. And queering childbearing, rearing or not that....gender traitors at their own peril.
Sometimes now, I watch the video for 8 Good Reasons, and listen to Neko Case's At Last, and these songs both work for me like reclaiming songs that share out but also claim the right to a privacy. Maybe Sampha's No One Knows Me also has that sharing out and saying, you won't know, at the same time. You have to trust that the songwriter with alot of experience knows what they mean and listen, but let it be. I like that with each of these songs and maybe all of Sinead's songs, come to think of it.
Yes! Thank you for this. It's interesting to hear your perspective as a musician and a producer. I just know how it makes me feel, but reading your words makes me appreciate Sinéad O'Connor that much more. I started listening to this album at the beginning of the pandemic, and it has been in heavy rotation since. "The Last Day of Our Acquaintance" is one of my favorites to really belt out in the car.
Love that you are rediscovering this music at a point of personal exploration! Universal Mother ended up being a very important album for me at the point when I really got to grips with my trauma and the painful process of 'moving through' - and it is a 'through', there really is a better end point. Do make sure you have plenty of Kleenex to hand before you revisit it though! x
I was an enormous Sinead fan — my college bff was obsessed. We went to her concert at the Wilshire Theater, in LA, and it was just her and a giant looping machine on stage with her. The music was incredible. But the “memorable” moment was seeing Linda Ronstadt (in front of us a few rows) narc on some person near them who had lit a doobie… I was lucky enough to have access to my dad’s copies of Rolling Stone so got to read about her… I’m loving your appreciation of her talents. ❤️
I didn’t at the time understood why she was tearing up a picture of the Pope i think the problem is she did this shock thing and didn’t bother putting anything into context until later when the damage had been done.
one of the best performers I've ever seen. such an inspiration. and her later stuff is also amazing, like "How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?" She was working on a new project about motherhood during the pandemic, and tragedy after tragedy keeps falling on her & delaying it. I hope she gets healthy.
one of the best performers I've ever seen. such an inspiration. and her later stuff is also amazing, like "How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?" She was working on a new project about motherhood during the pandemic, and tragedy after tragedy keeps falling on her & delaying it. I hope she gets healthy.
one of the best performers I've ever seen. such an inspiration. and her later stuff is also amazing, like "How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?" She was working on a new project about motherhood during the pandemic, and tragedy after tragedy keeps falling on her & delaying it. I hope she gets healthy.
Absolutely those people were and are fucking cowards. Sinead was RIGHT years before people would admit what was going on in the Catholic Church and a lot of churches in general. It was nothing but pure misogyny that almost destroyed her and her career, but she’s still here fuckers.
100 % f the Catholics
As I recall, she appeared at the Dylan anniversary concert about a week later, and after Kris Kristofferson introduced her, the boos and catcalls stopped her -- who would expect an anti-free speech demonstration at a Bob Dylan Anniversary Concert? She wasn't able to sing, and just stood there sobbing. Kristofferson returned to the stage, stared out at the crowd for a couple of seconds, shook his head, put his arm around her and muttered, "Sinead, people will be talking about you music and your courage for a long. Fuck them!" and walked her off the stage.
Pope John Paul II was viewed as a hero then, and it wasn't really until after his death that some of the problems with his papacy came out -- his blindness where the Vatican bank was concerned and his failure to stomp on the sexual molestation cases that began surfacing during his Papacy. However, the conduct of clergy in Ireland was none for decades before the scandals came out, in part because the Church in Ireland was really a co-equal offender with the government. As I recall, the Constitution of Ireland carves out some space for that establishment, and while it should have been gone by now, they are still prying the cold, dead and sinful hands off the document.
It would have been nice for more than Kristofferson to come out on the stage and support Sinead. That no one did is sad but not hard to understand. Those shows are largely chaotic, and Kristofferson was probably the only one of the headliners watching this. But, what he did was show moral courage. And, Sinead O'Connor may be a broken vessel, as are we all, but a lot of her career could seen as carrying a lamp for moral courage, for the stranger, and for the poor and the abused.
Sharappa earlier mentioned this song. I was a Kristofferson follower in college, and still play a lot of his music, but I was doing other things for a long time. He'd written similar songs about Johnny Cash, by the way...here's what he wrote about Sinead. https://youtu.be/3HwWDOQoCBM
Man, Sinead, she's a visionary. You know why she ripped up that photo of the Pope? She was protesting child abuse by priests and the Pope's refusal to acknowledge it. That act ended her career more or less. But she was RIGHT. Ten years later it all started coming out and it still hasn't stopped.
I recall the night on SNL she tore that photo. I raised my fist right there on couch and said, Right on... Good for her. I also was rather miffed at the reactions. I thought why the hell are some in the then current younger generation not able to embrace and appreciate her actions. I mean it's damn SNL. Not exactly an audience known to be uptight and that would react so negatively. I assume folks who saw and reacted were actually usual viewers in audience and watching at home.
Guess maybe these whiners would turn out to in time morph into what would become the party's Young Republicans. To this day that incident and negative fallout makes me shake my head.
I loved Sinéad!! So Much… but as a man I could never really completely understand… BUT… these words help me … I am one WHO cheered her on when she ripped up the pope picture.
I am one who then HATED The crowd at Madison Square Garden. She performed on the Dylan tribute concert not long after that SNL appearance. She was practically booed off the stage. Kris Kristofferson sweetly went out and gave her a hug. He actually wrote a song about it. Which I know because he tried to pitch the song to his new band; the highwaymen. They didn’t care for it.
Anyway… thank you!
I remember watching the Dylan tribute on PBS and I’ll never forget the hurt and rage I felt when that crowd booed her. I still want to go back in time and punch those people in the throat on her behalf. It’s interesting to think about how it could be thought of as an early form of cancel culture. She got blackballed from there on out.
AND we should add, that she was completely right. This is what I’ve been saying about child abuse in the last few years; “if you think there is not an international child sex trafficking ring, you haven’t heard of the Catholic Church. I don’t know which comedian said it, but if the Catholic Church was a department store, it would not exist anymore. Like, Kmart, couldn’t just be raping children and then everybody still buying their shirts there.
So sad that she was essentially cancelled for telling the truth 20+ years before it became okay to talk about sexual abuse in the church. She is brave and talented and should have had a much better career. I can only hope that the people involved in the moral outrage at the time of the SNL thing have shitty lives.
If it were possible to wear a groove into a CD, I'd have used up Furnace Room Lullaby within a year of its release. Right on time for a thing I was working through, so - Thank you.
1990 was a different transitional year altogether, reconciling myself around being an Irish American and American man in opposition to almost everything I saw the world becoming/remaining. I did quietly wear out a cassette of I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, unable to embrace her publicly under the burning supernova of its overplayed singles, rebelling against intensity of emotion as a state of being. I lost her social protest in the same way, unwilling to see it for itself versus the call to wear solidarity as a gang sign. 20's are weird.
Hello, I appreciate the ending on this entry -- thank you Neko Case. Ahh the swears...it's a whole additional topic.
I too totally relied on Sinead O'Connor, to echolocate through parts of the world. I know she was or is not trying to be a queer icon but I hold her in that place. And queering childbearing, rearing or not that....gender traitors at their own peril.
Sometimes now, I watch the video for 8 Good Reasons, and listen to Neko Case's At Last, and these songs both work for me like reclaiming songs that share out but also claim the right to a privacy. Maybe Sampha's No One Knows Me also has that sharing out and saying, you won't know, at the same time. You have to trust that the songwriter with alot of experience knows what they mean and listen, but let it be. I like that with each of these songs and maybe all of Sinead's songs, come to think of it.
Thanks you all.
oh i forgot to say, I was at a Sinead show in Portland, Maine a long time ago -- State Theatre.
Yes! Thank you for this. It's interesting to hear your perspective as a musician and a producer. I just know how it makes me feel, but reading your words makes me appreciate Sinéad O'Connor that much more. I started listening to this album at the beginning of the pandemic, and it has been in heavy rotation since. "The Last Day of Our Acquaintance" is one of my favorites to really belt out in the car.
Love that you are rediscovering this music at a point of personal exploration! Universal Mother ended up being a very important album for me at the point when I really got to grips with my trauma and the painful process of 'moving through' - and it is a 'through', there really is a better end point. Do make sure you have plenty of Kleenex to hand before you revisit it though! x
I was an enormous Sinead fan — my college bff was obsessed. We went to her concert at the Wilshire Theater, in LA, and it was just her and a giant looping machine on stage with her. The music was incredible. But the “memorable” moment was seeing Linda Ronstadt (in front of us a few rows) narc on some person near them who had lit a doobie… I was lucky enough to have access to my dad’s copies of Rolling Stone so got to read about her… I’m loving your appreciation of her talents. ❤️
I love these posts so much! I always listen to the song while reading (and end up down a rabbit hole of Muppets videos) and it's a joy. 💜
I didn’t at the time understood why she was tearing up a picture of the Pope i think the problem is she did this shock thing and didn’t bother putting anything into context until later when the damage had been done.
one of the best performers I've ever seen. such an inspiration. and her later stuff is also amazing, like "How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?" She was working on a new project about motherhood during the pandemic, and tragedy after tragedy keeps falling on her & delaying it. I hope she gets healthy.
one of the best performers I've ever seen. such an inspiration. and her later stuff is also amazing, like "How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?" She was working on a new project about motherhood during the pandemic, and tragedy after tragedy keeps falling on her & delaying it. I hope she gets healthy.
one of the best performers I've ever seen. such an inspiration. and her later stuff is also amazing, like "How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?" She was working on a new project about motherhood during the pandemic, and tragedy after tragedy keeps falling on her & delaying it. I hope she gets healthy.