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Sinéad O’Connor Died Last Year
She marched to the beat of her own drum
I remember Sinéad Marie Bernadette O’Connor as someone with a hauntingly beautiful voice and a shaved head. When I heard her speak in interviews, I found her Irish accent charming.
Her debut album was released in 1987, when she was just 20. It received international acclaim. Her music was not narrowly defined — some of it had a soulful, folk sound while other songs seemed to be reggae, pop, or alternative in style. Her voice had an extraordinary range — both in terms of octaves and in terms of emotion.
She wasn’t just an amazing singer and song writer, however. She was also an activist.
At an appearance on Saturday Night Live in 1992, she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II. One reason for her protest — the abuse of children by the Catholic church, which the Pope had acknowledged several years prior.
As she said in an interview with Rolling Stone, “It’s not like I got up in the morning and said, ‘Okay, now let’s start a new controversy.’ I don’t do anything in order to cause trouble. It just so happens that what I do naturally causes trouble. And that’s fine with me. I’m proud to be a troublemaker.”
Ironically, she was later ordained as a priest in an independent Catholic church that was not…
