To read an excerpt from the book, please click on the following link:

ashaveilbook.blogspot.com

An excerpt from The Pleasure Palace, my romantic comedy, can be found here:



Sunday, December 04, 2022

What Sinead Did

Yesterday I revisited a video of a Saturday Night Live performance which I found bizarre and scandalous when it first came out: Sinead O'Connor's acapella performance of Bob Marley's "War," where she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II at the end, saying, "Fight the real enemy."

I had not seen this video in many years. It shows Sinead looking like an ambassador from the future, with her shaved head (not so unusual now), her beautiful white dress which made her look like an acolyte, her astounding voice...and her courage to shed her unique light on the abuse which so many, many of us who grew up in the Catholic Church experienced. She was mocked, vilified, treated with the worst disrespect because she dared to speak what so many could not, because no one wanted to hear.

I wonder how many people know that a teenage Sinead O'Connor was sent to one of the infamous Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, a Church-run, prison-like environment for (perceived) "throwaway" and "wayward" girls and women. You can read about her experience here:

https://www.her.ie/celeb/sinead-oconnor-reveals-how-her-time-in-a-magdalene-laundry-as-a-teenager-affected-her-26994

She knew. She experienced it all firsthand. She knew people who had suffered, and whose suffering was ignored by the very institution which should have been a refuge. The picture of the Pope she tore up had been displayed in her childhood home, and represented, for her, lies and abuse inside and outside her home.

When I watched the infamous video last night, I burst into tears at the end. It is cruel and unfortunate that this talented, outspoken woman has been mocked so much in her career. I cannot imagine the strength it has taken to get through all the difficulties in her life, including the recent death of one of her children, and still keep singing. 

I am posting the video here to say, "Thank you. And I am sorry I did not understand at the time."

 





 





 


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