Sinead O'Connor Pope Screengrab - H 2011
Irish musician Sinead O’Connor is back in the news because she’s sporting a new look but there was a time when it was her art and politics that made headlines.
O’Connor infamously ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II at the end of a performance on Saturday Night Live in 1992. Two weeks later, her actions came back to her via a chorus of boos at Madison Square Garden while attempting to perform at the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary tribute concert.
Though outspoken about the Catholic Church’s cover-up of sex abuse by priests, O’Conner was cast as the Virgin Mary in Neil Jordon‘s 1997 drama The Butcher Boy. She continues to speak out against the church on various news programs, and in 2007, revealed on The Oprah Winfrey Show that she was bipolar and had attempted suicide.
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (1992)
The singer performed the song “War” a cappella. Song lyrics decry child abuse and during the last line — Children fight/ we find it necessary/ we know we will win/ we have confidence in the victory of good over evil.” On the word “evil,” she brought out a picture of Pope John Paul II and ripped it up. After that, she said “Fight the real enemy.”
BOB DYLAN 30th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT (1992)
Two weeks after shredding the Pope on Saturday Night Live, O’Connor was loudly booed when taking the stage at the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert at Madison Square Garden. Kris Kristofferson introduced her as an “artist who’s name has become synonymous with courage and integrity” and hugged her fiercely after the performance. She was originally slated to sing Dylan’s “I Believe in You,” but sang/shouted “War” when the catcalls would not subside.
THE BUTCHER BOY (1997)
O’Connor was cast as the Virgin Mary in Neil Jordan’s dark 1997 film about a mentally disturbed boy. O’Conner’s Mary comforts the child, whose mother commits suicide.
LARRY KING LIVE (2010)
The singer is cut off several times by the CNN host during a discussion on the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. O’Connor wears a red shirt and a large crucifix for the interview in which she insists that Pope Benedict, aka Joseph Ratzinger, order “every person living who did not go to the police” if they knew about the abuse to be punished as accessories to the crimes.
THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW (2007)
O’Connor admits on The Oprah Winfrey Show that she’s been diagnosed as bipolar and that she attempted suicide on her 33rd birthday. She said her life is completely different now that she’s on medication, “Everything just because too much, and the best way I can describe it to you is you’re so sad, just terribly sad, that you’re like a bucket of water with holes in it. Every pore of you is crying and you don’t even uderstand why or what. I actually kind of died and got born again as a result of taking the meds and having a chance to, you know, build a life.”
