Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year
Tripping Along The Ledge
Blog
Isn’t Sinead O’Connor overdue a massive, grovelling apology from absolutely everybody?
In 1992, Sinead O’Connor ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live as a protest against paedophilia in the Catholic Church and the complicity of the church hierarchy. It was viewed as an act of career suicide. The following day, steamrollers crushed hundreds of her CDs outside Rockefeller Center to huge cheers from protesters. On the next SNL, presenter Joe Pesci quipped that “if it had been my show, I would have gave her such a smack.”
A few days later, O’Connor was booed off the stage at a Bob Dylan Tribute in Madison Square Garden. (That last clip is particularly well worth watching, by the way, both for the virulence of the abuse directed towards her, and the courage with which she stands up to it.) It wasn’t just in American that she was dismissed as a crank. Lest we forget, in this episode of Father Ted she was parodied as a bonkers feminist making any number of preposterous allegations against the Catholic Church. (Among them, that the church kept a secret hoard of potatoes during the famine, which they hid in pillows and sold abroad at potato fairs… Okay, that’s still funny!)
It won’t have troubled her unduly, but in the interest of disclosure, I should admit to having myself written spoof articles for The Slate magazine in Dublin in which – following her shock, rapid-fire conversions to lesbianism, Rastafarianism and the Catholic priesthood – she outed herself as, amongst other things, the elusive mastermind behind the September 11th terror attacks. It was unanimous. We all thought she was nuts.
Well, she wasn’t nuts. In fact, even the most outlandish allegations O’Connor made against the Catholic Church eighteen years ago seem pretty tame in comparison to what we now know to have occurred. And in the wake of the most recent wave of revelations, which have implicated the current Pope, the US media seems belatedly to have acknowledged as much.
On Friday, she contributed this well written op-ed piece to the Washington Post (Damien Rice, take note!) and discussed her views with readers in this online Q&A. The same day, she spoke articulately about the abuse scandal in Ireland, via a dodgy laptop hookup, with Anderson Cooper on CNN.
But no one to date (that I’m aware of) has apologised to Sinead O’Connor for the ridicule heaped upon her, as a result of her having the courage to speak out on this issue long before it was fashionable to do so. So let me be the first. Sinead, I apologise. We were wrong. You were right. And you had more balls than anyone I’ve ever seen. In the words of one of our mutual heroes If it was a big, big tree, you were a small axe…
March 31st, 2010 at 12:04 pm
[…] 31. März '10 · Hinterlasse einen Kommentar – Missbrauch I: Sinéad O’Connor ist derzeit Dauergast bei diversen US-Medien (z.B. in der Washington Post)zum Thema Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche Irlands – wird sie 18 Jahre nach dem “pope incident” von der öffentlichen Meinung rehabilitiert? […]
March 31st, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Colin you may find yourself stalked by an albino monk if you’re not careful 😛
March 31st, 2010 at 7:21 pm
Why are you censoring peoples legitimate opinions? Shades of hypocracy I think.
April 2nd, 2010 at 5:34 am
Brenda, O’Connor was being falsely accused of hypocrisy by ignorant people who don’t know the difference between an automatically excommunicated woman priest and a Roman Catholic nun. The people who made those posts are likely unfamiliar with Catholicism. I don’t think it’s profitable to spread their misunderstandings.
April 2nd, 2010 at 3:32 pm
[…] Isn’t Sinead O’Connor overdue a massive, grovelling apology from absolutely everybody? |… […]
April 2nd, 2010 at 3:42 pm
I never thought she was nuts, and I never made fun of her. If you think she’s owed an apology, speak for yourself. Don’t try to drag everyone else down with you.
April 2nd, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Curses! my plan to drag Miconian down with me (where?) has been thwarted…
April 2nd, 2010 at 10:55 pm
well done sinead on late late show you look great and keep your head up
April 2nd, 2010 at 11:52 pm
Well done, great performance tonight on the late, late, the words of the song were so appropriate, lets hope people sit up and take notice
April 3rd, 2010 at 12:01 am
Id like to second MILLLY post.
Ive never disagreed with Sinead’s central message I was just often confused by her tactics. However not recently as she has been tremondous in her media appearences.
Best wishes and best of health Sinead
April 3rd, 2010 at 5:17 am
Pedophilia is NOT why she ripped up the picture. Read the article closely.
She used a picture of JPII (not Benedict) to represent a church that allowed Magdalene laundries to exist (Google that, I’m not just copping text from the article). She could not have known then what we know now. It was a long while back. I don’t know if URLs are allowed so add this to youtube — watch?v=iYw8JR1N90o
You can see it was a particular poor performance from a “singer” that was, is, and forever shall be about message over melody. And in the end — she chooses a gesture that puzzled the entire planet. She made zero attempt at the time to explain her nonsequitur.
The sex abuse scandals broke years later. Sure, it happened much earlier, but to pretend Sinead had a front row seat or even had a slight hint of the allegations would be absurd. She didn’t. It was about Catholic-sponsored violence against young women by what were essentially sweat shops in Ireland.
Don’t make her some sort of retroactive folk hero. Nobody could even come close to making sense of her dada-esque gesture at the time. Let’s focus on the problem of the existence of the Catholic Church. Forget apologizing to some “artist” pulling an on-air stunt that, years later, has seen fit to write an editorial that people are misreading.
April 3rd, 2010 at 6:24 am
Great post. Sinead is surely more complicated than all the dismissive caricatures would have had us believe.
But what isn’t complicated is the unnecessary use of ‘balls’ towards the end of your post. It’s 2010 and I think you know, or would know if you thought about it for a few secs, that there are plenty of other applicable words that could be chosen that wouldn’t be quite so offensive to half the population.
April 3rd, 2010 at 9:08 am
I definately agree that sinead is due an apology. Although i am a catholic and love my religion i don’t agree with the vatican and what it stands for. They stand on their throns of wealth and pretend to be the word of god but as far as i was aware jesus was poor so how does this reflect the life of jesus. And the worst sin of all to ignore the pain and hurt of the children of the church. the church needs radical change and it takes people like sinead to make it happen.
April 3rd, 2010 at 11:52 am
look people i dont know what age you are or even if that has a bearing on this subject,i watched the late late show last night and i must say i was left in tears,not only by the passion of this lady throughout her life and where it stems from,but also by the pure emotion she desplayed when she was signing that song ,The times they are a changing,she knows they are,and so do we.I have something in common with sinead like many others. i dont think for one moment that this is some pr for her.she has been persecuted and ridiculed for her belive,s.so christians and catholics dose that remind you of anyone else you might profess to know…….happy easter everyone and dont forget to eat a nice chocolate egg…sainthood for sinead o connor i say
April 3rd, 2010 at 11:56 am
join my facebook group…sainthood for sinead o connor
April 3rd, 2010 at 4:01 pm
@ Ted – She specified “child abuse” which I think is a fair enough catch-all term for the myriad of abuses committed by the church. In interviews at the time she specifically cited paedophilia. Also your point re: Benedict v JPII is absurd, since the former wouldn’t be Pope for another 13 years.
Post the YouTube link you’re referring to, your instructions there don’t work. If it goes to Spam I’ll find it and make sure its published.
April 4th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7086738.ece
April 5th, 2010 at 2:08 am
Brenda,what does that have to do with your previous comment?
April 8th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Who needs an apology for doing things for principles they are willing to die (in the figurative, “career”, sense) for & live by?
April 17th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
I knew Sinead was right…im still her huge fan ..well those who booed her should really apologise…She’s amazing and is very very brave to do that –to risk her whole career and fame… and it was worth it now that people knew she was right…. the damage has been done–many people hurt her ..thru nasty words by the media…called her nuts and treated ..
she should gain a well RESPECT now….
WE love you sinead!!!!
April 26th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
[…] DougJ notes, everyone from Phil Donahue and Ashleigh Banfield to Bill Maher and Sinead O’Connor can tell you about that first-hand. As can the cable television news reporters who were […]
April 26th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
[…] DougJ notes, everyone from Phil Donahue and Ashliegh Banfield to Bill Maher and Sinead O’Connor can tell you about that first-hand. As can the cable television news reporters who were […]
April 27th, 2010 at 12:09 am
[…] DougJ notes, everyone from Phil Donahue and Ashliegh Banfield to Bill Maher and Sinead O’Connor can tell you about that first-hand. As can the cable television news reporters who were banned by […]
April 27th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
[…] DougJ notes, everyone from Phil Donahue andAshliegh Banfield to Bill Maher and Sinead O’Connor can tell you about that first-hand. As can the cable television news reporters who werebanned by […]
April 27th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
[…] DougJ notes, everyone from Phil Donahue and Ashliegh Banfield to Bill Maher and Sinead O’Connor can tell you about that first-hand. As can the cable television news reporters who were banned by […]
May 11th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
[…] DougJ notes, everyone from Phil Donahue and Ashliegh Banfield to Bill Maher and Sinead O’Connor can tell you about that first-hand. As can the cable television news reporters who were banned by […]
May 11th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
2000 year old institution
Proclaimed Christ’s Word through the dark ages
Invented hospitals
Produced countless saints who worked and died with the poorest of the poor
Abuse is a human institution. The Church always proclaimed it a sin. Rates of abuse are higher in schools than the Church.
What does the Church proclaim?
Chastity and Charity; prudence and temperance. Love.
“Besides, there is no king,
be his cause never so spotless,
can try it out with
all unspotted soldiers.
Every subject’s duty
is the king’s,
but every subject’s soul
is his own.”
-Henry V
May 15th, 2010 at 8:12 am
Religion has always divided people against each other and rendered their followers as groveling masses ready to commit crimes in the name of their god. After all, their god is never around to do the dirty work so they have to do it for “Him”.
Sinead is still deeply religious and thus her confused state of mind persists. If your in touch with the Truth of your own being then their is no confusion. Confusion arises from delusional belief. Hence the masses.
May 29th, 2010 at 5:48 pm
The truth is the truth.
Simple and inherently so.
Even moreso today no one really cares about what the truth really is. We’re detached and very selfish mostly caring only about ourselves. No, certainly this description doesn’t apply to everyone but it does apply to a great many!
Why so many around the world–peoples of all types, all companies, all businesses, all religions, all vocations, all societies etc. etc. etc. why they don’t care at all about the truth is far beyond me???
When we’re talking about priests and all other members of authority in the Catholic Church who have THEMSELVES committed GREAT MORTAL AND VENIAL SINS/ things/personal situations/the outright evil abuse of each and every one whose sufferings, abuse, and shame are only made much, much, much worse by the lies, deception, coverups, denials, etc. by the abusers.
The innocent victims are not only abused by the actual incidents but continously abused–abused forever. Adding insult to injury the abuser is almost always protected by ‘their own’ and those abused are made to feel as if they are someone horrible, as a person who has no worth or rights, viewed as being an evil liar (how ironic!), and they continously fight (silent or vocal) for the remainder of their lives.
Why? A priest can commit these very sins that ‘no one’ is to? They are held to a much different standard? They don’t need to face the justice system or the courts? How can all of this be? IT’S NOT RIGHT! WE KNOW IT!
Sinead, I can’t thank you enough for the support and for standing up for all of those who cannot for any reason. Thank you for never ending your crusade and your fight for the truth, for the justice, for the love, for everything that is right! I’m happy that you can use your ‘status’ in such positive ways!
You are a rare and beautiful gem!
For some odd reason the people who stand up for the truth are almost always dismissed completely and made out to be some crazy individual. The innocent are attacked and so is the messenger. It’s just really sad and pathetic. Honesty is always the best policy but the honest will be persecuted as well.
PLEASE KEEP ON EVERYONE!!!
Thanks so much!
Thank you, Eoin Butler!
June 17th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
I recall seeing the SNL moment and as a lapsed Catholic found it powerful. Yet even now there are co-workers of mine here in the US who greatly dislike Sinead for that, despite the revelations exploding around us all. Seeing the Mad SG link was fairly emotional for me — what utter and absolute courage shown on the one hand and mastabatory mob bullying on the other!
We all have our stories. When I listen to Sinead’s voice, her music, the soul of it, I sometimes find myself crying, sometimes raging, sometimes smiling in pleasure, so often thankful for her poet’s song.
Sinead, thank you.
July 22nd, 2010 at 7:49 am
[…] Isn’t Sinead O’Connor overdue a massive, grovelling apology from absolutely everybody? |… […]
October 7th, 2010 at 12:40 am
[…] DougJ notes, everyone from Phil Donahue and Ashliegh Banfield to Bill Maher and Sinead O’Connor can tell you about that first-hand. As can the cable television news reporters who were […]
October 11th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
[…] Butler’s piece ‘Isn’t Sinead O’Connor overdue a massive, grovelling apology from absolutely everybody?‘ goes deep where others graze the surface in regards to this […]
December 16th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
[…] #1 Isn’t Sinead O’Connor Overdue a Massive Grovelling Apology From Absolutely Everybody? (March … Twenty minutes after this story appeared online, my inbox showed forty new Twitter followers. In the next 24 hours, the story got about 40,000 hits on my blog and made the front page of Reddit. By the following evening Sinead O’Connor had been in touch. (It was also translated into a whole bunch of languages and linked to by Glenn Greenwald.) This was when I understood the awesome power of the internet. […]
March 17th, 2011 at 6:04 pm
To Ted Fagan, plenty of people knew, why do you think there was such a massive cover up?
Sinead is a brilliant and brave warrior for her truth which is not constrained by conventional allegiances to the gangs that call themselves organized religion, media networks, governments, and corporations.
April 17th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Eoin – great work. Ms O’Connor is indeed owed an apology especially from the likes of Madonna and Pesci. Revelations of systematic child abuse were starting to surface in Australia back then. I’m sure that they were also breaking in other parts of the world. In reply to people such as Ted – the systematic cover up of great crime by the current Pope and his coworkers in the Church does not warrant forgetfulness or forgiveness. It really is time that the Catholic Church faced up to its responsibilities to its followers and reformed in such a way that these terrible crimes do not happen again. Sinead – you are an inspiration and a hero.
May 10th, 2011 at 6:11 pm
Thanks for the post and all the thought-provoking comments. One thing that I think many people miss is how amazingly consistent Sinead has been over the years. Yes, amazingly so! Even in her very earliest interviews, she was exploring how honesty and truth-telling are the artist’s primary – if not only – job. Yes, she has been angry, adversarial, and (gasp) tactless at times. Umm. She IS human, ya know. Also, her fame hit while she was working through her own very abusive childhood, all while in the public eye. BTW, there IS a NOVEMBER 1992 interview from Time/CNN (writer is Janice Simpson) in which Sinead very clearly states that priests in Ireland “have been beating the shit out of the children for years AND sexually abusing them.” Yup. 1992. The writer, for some unfathomable reason, did not pick up on this and run with it. Nor did any other media outlet, apparently. The press and media failed us on that one, not Sinead. Let’s hope that they (and we) don’t let this issue lie anymore. Children deserve absolute protection and artists who commit to truth deserve our respect and attention.
June 10th, 2011 at 10:05 pm
Thank you everybody here. My heart has swelled with emotion every time i see or hear her, from the first time onward. She’s always come across so genuine and courageous, she has been a great inspiration to me in my life and still is. From early childhood on i have both sensed and experienced the evil in the C. priesthood and went through a lot of frustration with the brainless reactions to my speaking up about it. As a musician, i have found it very depressing how bandmates always seemed to want to just bend over and let the enslaved money bosses wield our band as a cultural influence tool, promoting degeneracy. They’d call me naive and sign it away and I’d quit the band and go on. I’d have felt much more alone and discouraged if not for her presence in my life, helping me stand out from my own center, regardless of outside approval.
Several times I have turned a toubled, violent, woman fearing/hating male friend on to her music, and began seeing a healing in my friend !!! Her songs also have a healing effect on women who have a victim psychology and have been falling into nasty abusive relationships.
Saw her at Lollapolooza 95 with tears streaming down my face.
Saw her in dreams and she kissed me or hugged me or told me something meaningful.
I just saw her on a stage at a free show in a dream a couple nights ago and she said something unexpected-compassionate-controversial about people with cancer.
My memory of her always helps me not to become intimidated by police when I have to inform them that they have no jurisdiction over me. Just keeping that feeling of loving, honest, self-respect and mutual respect. With all of their training and flashy gimmicks they fail to intimidate me into bending over and contracting into their bogus no-victim “authority.”
I can’t think of a more praise-worthy artist in the world!
WHAT A GREAT FUCKING HUMAN BEING !!!!
And who in the world can sing like she did up thru the early 2000’s ? !!!
I must say i am VERY worried about her using the antidepressant drugs. They mess up one’s natural emotional processes and have very dangerous side-effects!! see for example “drugawareness.org” There are better alternatives, such as quitting cigarettes and practicing excellent health habits and getting lots of excercise, rest, water, quality air, and detoxifying with raw food diet, etc. It brings me sorrow to hear the damage from the cigarettes in your voice Sinead !!.
However i also must say her voice also sounds gorgeous the way it is now. I think i hear deep vivid colors in it! Dark green and purple especially. Each new album I fall in love.
LOVE YOU PEOPLE !!!
LOVE YOU SINEAD !!
June 11th, 2011 at 5:30 pm
Mannix Flynn an actor and politican in Ireland who went to the hell hole that was the Letterfrack industrial school in Galway in Ireland was also laughed at when he made the same allegations 20 years back. The catholic church is a corrupt and out moded organisation that is more concerned with clinging on to its land and power and giving to s**ts about the people.
The catholic churches obsession with guilt and its retarded idea of sexuality basically manifested itself in the abuse and rape of children. The worst insult ever was the last Irish government of corrupt me-feiners making the Irish taxpayer help pay the victims of church sponsored rape. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH should have sold some of its millions of acres of land to do this.
its great the catholic church in Ireland has finally lost its grip on the populace but a deep shame it has taken the exposure of systematic child rape to do so.
oh yeah and Joe Pesci, what an annoying little pip squeak.
Good on ya Sinead. Go girl.
December 13th, 2011 at 3:59 am
[…] Related and long-meant-to-blog: Isn’t Sinead O’Connor Overdue A Massive Groveling Apology From Absolutely Everybody? […]
December 27th, 2011 at 6:41 am
God yes.
February 28th, 2012 at 11:08 am
Dear Eoin
Whilst I appreciate ur lovely article can u please
Remove the absolutely fake, false, outlandish
And untrue allegation u make that I ‘outed myself
As the mastermind behind the September 11th
Attacks.. ‘ I have never in all my life heard anything
So outrageous or scurrilousor false said about me. This did
Not happen. How ever ‘mental’ I may ever have
Been I certainly absolutely never made such a
Remark
February 28th, 2012 at 11:16 am
Hey Sinead
Thanks for getting in touch. You might recall we spoke about this two years ago. The key word there is “spoof”.
Best,
Eoin
March 5th, 2012 at 5:41 am
[…] Is Sinead Due an Apology (Blogger Commentary) […]
March 29th, 2012 at 6:57 pm
As a victim of childhood clergy abuse, I knew exactly what Sinead was doing on SNL. I really admired her courage and strength for speaking out. I was deeply saddened by people’s reactions at the time. Instead of opening a conversation, celebrities mocked her, the public vilified and booed her, the focus was on hating her and not listening to her message.
Looking back now, I see that her message was not exactly clear to everyone (though believe me, it was more than crystal clear to myself). The furor she stirred up – righteously so – came to cloud her message.
Short answer: yes, everyone owes this woman an apology.
April 7th, 2012 at 2:28 am
Absolutely, she is a hero to all that were abused! The popes have hidden the abuse. It appalls me how people bad mouthed JoePa for not doing enough, even on his death bed. Those people probably do not have the same to say to the pope, this one of past ones. Not only did they KNOW, but the hid it, denied it and damned those that claimed it to be true! They say JoePa did it to save PennState football and yes he was wrong, BUT the catholic church is FAR MORE WRONG!!! Thank you Sinead!!!! All those that spoke against you and booed you, shall go to their grave KNOWING that what you said was true and the are almost as guilty as if they abused the kids themselves! The church STILL has not accepted full guilt and never will! And I personally KNOW it is NOT just the Catholic church!
May 12th, 2012 at 12:23 am
She was an idiot. Just trying to make a name for herself. She was a lost soul. Hope she finds the truth.
May 20th, 2012 at 10:36 pm
Totally agree with you here, Conor. No, nobody owes Sinead O’Connor an apology for giving her a piece of their own minds for her disgusting display on SNL!!!
Pope JP II was, is, & will always be recognized for the great religious leader that he was. All too often Christianity –& Catholicism especially –has been downgraded in the media & the public square, & so the average everyday citizen stood up to it when they finally all had the chance.
This wasn’t about the denunciation of the clerical abuse committed by priests. This was just another crazy pop singer trying to make herself look cool by attacking a very Holy figure whom the entire world loved, even outside the Catholic Church.
February 17th, 2013 at 2:32 pm
I don’t think Carolyn and Conor have ever suffered the horror that Sinead did growing up in Ireland, otherwise they wouldn’t dismiss her as trying to ‘make a name for herself’ (despite this being done at time when it wasn’t mentioned at all, but I don’t think logic is something that registers on their radars).
Carolyn and Conor are attempting to justify abuse. Sinead was the first one to bravely stand-up and say something about this injustice. Apart from make a few anonymous comments online what have they done?
Despicable cowards.
May 24th, 2014 at 3:50 pm
You’re bloody right! Respect to Sinead.