Remember when the world turned on Sinead O'Connor?

[CatWoman]

seems like she was way ahead of her time.

Even Frank Sinatra threatened to kick her ass.

[postulater]

1. One of SNLs great moments.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

17. pity Lorne Michaels completely caved

ordered the applause sign turned off and banned the segment from rebroadcast

the next week, host Joe Pesci held up the taped-up photo of the pope during the monologue and went off on a rant about how, if he had been there, he would have "punched her in the face so hard"

he got massive applause for threatening violence.

Madonna mocked her a few weeks later on the show.

Tim Robbins, who hosted the Sinead episode, stood by her at the end when a good deal of the cast refused to appear during the closing credits

[malaise]

2. She was light years ahead of them

You go girl!

I'm switching between Bill Moyers and Rachel - Black was great on Moyers

[MinneapolisMatt]

3. Rachel's segment is tremendous.

I can't wait till it's on YouTube or I can share it on Facebook.

[Mojeoux]

38. I Love What Sinead Said About The Holy Spirit

And I love her idea of taking our church back.

I guess you had to have had a Catholic School background to really understand why some of us stood up and cheered when she ripped up the pope.

And still at the time, I was clueless in regards to the heinous Irish Catholic experience.

[WeDidIt]

4. Sinead O'Connor is the BRAVEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD

I knew she was brave in '92.

Today, she is proven a prophetess.

[Walk away]

5. I remember that night so well. I was so proud of her.

My (thankfully) short association with the catholic church left me thoroughly disgusted with organized religion.

[WeDidIt]

6. "The church should be run by people who actually believe in God"

Powerful interview.

Incredibly powerful.

If Sinead O'Connor's view of Catholocism, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit were reflected in the Catholic Church today, I would be a Catholic.

[LoZoccolo]

7. People generally didn't know what she was protesting.

She sang a song that did mention child abuse, but also other issues, and ripped up a picture of the Pope, telling them to fight the real enemy. It wasn't clear what she was talking about, and people thought she was attacking Catholicism.

[msanthrope]

8. She'd been sent to a Magdalene laundry....and abused there.

She was a decade ahead---she was right.

[LoZoccolo]

11. It took seventeen years, but now I know. n/t

[Luminous Animal]

9. She was very vocal about child abuse prior to that incident.

Nobody wanted to listen. Kudos to Kris Kristofferson for being on the right side. He supported her.

[LoZoccolo]

12. And I'm sure that Madonna made fun of it the next week because she thought child abuse is humorous.

I feel that Sinead O'Connor was genuine in her sympathy and anger, but I also thought that she didn't take responsibility for being understood.

[Pushed To The Left]

23. I don't know if she was making fun of it. She seemed pretty angry when she ripped the Joey

Buttafuoco picture.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

18. agreed. I've always loved Kris for that. Bob Dylan, however, was a douche about it

She got booed off the stage by the boomer hippie-turned-yuppie audience at the Dylan 30th anniversary show.

Kris stood up for her.

Dylan on the other hand, laughed about the whole thing, shrugged his shoulders and said "people get booed. elvis got booed" in an interview with Kurt Loder.

Dylan would continue this pattern of disappointment by playing private corporate parties and appearing in lingerie commercials. He now justifies his selling out by claiming he was never political in the first place. Then explain "Masters of War" to me, Bob.

[Luminous Animal]

29. "My political songs are love songs"

I once saw Kris at a county fair shortly after the 1st Iraq "war". He was playing mostly political protest songs and most of the audience was a tad disgruntled which led him to remark, "People ask me to stop singing so many political songs and sing more love songs. Well, I say to them, my political songs are love songs."

[eShirl]

24. +1

[SmileyRose]

27. I certainly had no idea then what she was trying to do.

I didn't condemn or condone her - I figured she was just another celebrity singer whackjob doing whatever it takes to cause a stir and maybe sell a few records.

[druidity33]

10. I do.

I was so proud of her.

:)

[Arugula Latte]

28. Me too. I remember seeing that and jumping up and applauding her.

[AnArmyVeteran]

She was ABSOLUTELY RIGHT about the Pope and the Catholic Church...

But the world went into a herd mentality stampeding over her. Sinead was right, and those who attacked her were doing so out of ignorance. To some, the Pope and Catholic Church can do no wrong, even if they regularly molest children. How can they support evil???

[lib_wit_it]

16. One wonders how so much ignorance abounds. It was general knowledge that the church was full of

abusive authority figures. I was behind Sinead all the way and was shocked at how much grief she got. From personal experience I knew the church was emotionally abusive--for instance, I had genuine questions about what they were telling us in CCD, and the nun could not handle that without treating me as some sort of evil threat.

And every Catholic school kid I'd ever known had horror stories to tell. Not sexual abuse, but other sorts of physical and emotional abuse like having students kneel on upturned bottle caps for punishment, making kids who were sick and vomited clean up the mess. That sort of thing. I worked as a remedial teacher for a state program that serviced private schools, and almost lost my job because I objected to one of the nuns punishing learning disabled students for not doing well academically.

Check out the film Liam for the general societal abuse to which the church subjected the Irish.

My dad used to yell curses at us and backhand us in the car on the way to mass, at which he would then get up and be lector, so I rejected that whole cult pretty early on. Yet he still tries to guilt me out by saying, "I know some day you will come back to the mother church." Yeah, Dad, and one day you'll go back to the mother ship.

[AnArmyVeteran]

13. I like her music too!

[MkapX]

14. What happened to Sinead?

The flying spaghetti monster smite her with a maraina favored meatball im guessing

[movonne]

15. She was on rachael's program...

[Shell Beau]

30. She has children, had some bouts with bipolar disorder.

She is Christian, though. I think many people didn't beleive that (not that it mattered) because of what she did. She is living her life.

[Ladyhawk]

19. I saw it as it aired. I AGREED WITH HER.

I watched as the world gave religion respect it didn't deserve and shook my head. I still shake my head as the world bends over backward trying not to step on religious toes, especially the very violent religious toes of Muslims moving into Western societies.

Religion deserves no respect. Zero.

[JI7]

20. has anyone apologized to her ?

[CatWoman]

34. I sincerely doubt it.........

[Warren DeMontague]

21. I never liked her music all that much, but that took major guts. I thought so at the time, too.

God Forbid someone should point out the Emperor's naked ass.

[dembotoz]

22. original snl clip on you tube

seach sinead o'conner

just saw it again very powerful
wish i knew then what we know now.

[Pushed To The Left]

25. She also didn't want the National Anthem played because she didn't like how the band 2 Live Crew was

being censored by the government. Anybody else remember "Banned In the USA"? That, along with the Pope ripping, had the right wing pretty livid back then.

Edit: Here's Banned In the USA. Awesome song!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEH_ms8d1ws

[deminks]

26. Sinead O'Connor-War (SNL performance)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYw8JR1N90o

Profound, prophetic. A Bob Marley song.



Here is a "duet" with Marley and O'Connor. It cops out by not showing Sinead's version shouting "Child Abuse" and by not showing the pope's picture at the end, but it is still a great video, IMHO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7KmFjefAt0

[Raster]

31. I watched SNL that night and cheered. She was right then and she is right now.

She LIVED through the horrors of the catholic church's brutality against the people of Ireland, the large majority of which were children. She was forced to do hard labor in the notorious Magdalene laundries. She had every fucking right to rip the photo and speak the truth. Every fucking right. Oh yeah, Frank Sinatra was cheap hood wannabe and the epitome of punk-assed bitch.

[calimary]

33. Sometimes we crucify those who say the things that need to be said.

As a lifelong Catholic, I had both my children baptized in the Presbyterian Church in our neighborhood. You're not supposed to do that as a Catholic. But then again, you're also not supposed to molest children from your own position of power and authority, either. That is NOT what Christ meant when He said (or was quoted as saying) "suffer the little children to come unto Me."

I saw that performance too. I didn't know Sinead O'Connor's background at the time. I thought it was pretty gutsy to do what she did on SNL - but I went to a free-wheeling art school and provocative performance art was what it was all about. I remember worrying though that her message was gonna get crowded out by the hysteria over her tearing up the photo of JP2. She picked a target who was appealing to many people so I knew the effective delivery of her message was going to be severely diluted - and twisted. Everybody was going to lemming straight toward the outrage factor while disregarding what motivated it.

[Raster]

35. What a wolf in sheep's clothing he turned out to be. Oh yes, the Polish Pope who stood against the

communists. He was elected by the conclave because he was billed--and open advertised himself--as a moderate. And what a moderate. Took a major u-turn right back toward the Middle Ages when it came to matters of the rights of women and the modernization of church doctrine. JPII then proceeded with his own brand of Inquisition, ridding the Curia of anyone progressive and replacing them with moral hardliners. And make no mistake, he actively encouraged Ratzinger and those of his ilk to hide evidence of molestation. It was JPII that ordered Bishops NOT to turn pedophile priests over to the legal authorities. If there is a hell, JPII will have his own special place in it.

[Bert]

32. You people are all bigots!

How dare you criticize the catholic church! It's not like were killing anyone! Just molesting boys and girls(mainly boys) and then blaming gays for it. After all, it's been centuries since we engaged in an inquisition or burned anyone at the stake so we should get some points for that right?

[autorank]

36. Excellent point! She was right. k*r n/t

[Brewman_Jax]

37. She's been vindicated

too bad it took so long.