On this day in 1992, Sinéad O’Connor tore up a picture of the pope in a protest against systemic child abuse within the Catholic Church.
Iconic Irish artist Sinéad O’Connor sadly passed away in July, but she will always be survived by a legacy of artistry and protest.
One incident that adds to this legacy happened on this day (3 October) in 1992, when O’Connor appeared on Saturday Night Live (SNL). During her performance, O’Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II in protest at systemic child abuse within the Catholic Church.
Background – promotion for Am I Not Your Girl?
O’Connor released her third studio album, Am I Not Your Girl? on 14 September 1992.
O’Connor’s previous two albums, The Lion and the Cobra and I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, had earned her pop star status, particularly with the latter’s cover of Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, which reached number one in the UK and US charts.
Am I Not Your Girl?, however, marked a departure, comprising covers of mostly jazz standards written between 1936 and 1978 that O’Connor “grew up listening to” and “made [her] want to be a singer”.
O’Connor appeared on SNL ostensibly to promote the album. She performed lead single ‘Success Has Made a Failure of Our Home’ and was due to sing album track ‘Scarlet Ribbons’. Instead, however, she sang a cover of Bob Marley’s ‘War’.
O’Connor’s SNL slot – a platform for protest
During her rendition of ‘War’, O’Connor changed lyrics related to racial discrimination and inequality to refer to child abuse.
During the song’s final refrain of “[In the victory of] good over evil”, O’Connor raised a photograph of Pope John Paul II and tore it to pieces, crying, at the end of the song, “Fight the real enemy”.
O’Connor had reportedly been waiting for the right moment to destroy the photo of the man who was symbolic of an organisation “responsible for the destruction of entire races of people and the subsequent existence of domestic and child abuse in every country they went into”.
Explaining her protest, O’Connor told Time that, “In Ireland, we see our people are manifesting the highest incidence in Europe of child abuse. This is a direct result of the fact that in schools, priests have been beating the s*** out of the children for years and sexually abusing them.
“This is the example that’s been set for the people of Ireland. They have been controlled by the church, the very people who authorised what was done to them, who gave permission for what was done to them”.
Backlash and support – reactions to O’Connor’s protest
Unsurprisingly, O’Connor’s protest drew widespread criticism and condemnation. The SNL crew were not privy to her plans beforehand. Chrysalis record label executive Daniel Glass recalled to The Guardian that “Everybody froze at SNL”.
Meanwhile, SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels told of how “the air went out the studio” and that he ordered that the applause sign should remain switched off at the end of O’Connor’s performance.
Actor Joe Pesci hosted the following week’s SNL and told the world that he would have “grabbed her by the eyebrows” and given her “such a smack”, had their respective appearances aligned.
Singer Frank Sinatra described O’Connor as a “stupid broad”, claiming that he would “kick her a** if she was a guy”.
O’Connor remained stoically undeterred by these threats. In her memoir, Rememberings, she humorously recounts staying in the same hotel as Sinatra at the time.
“We might happen across each other in the lift,” O’Connor wrote. “And I’m thinking my father back in Dublin isn’t gonna be too pleased if I tell him I had to, in self-defence, beat the crap out of Ol’ Blue Eyes”.
Another show of the buoyancy of O’Connor’s rebel spirit took place on the stage of New York’s Madison Square Garden during a tribute concert for Bob Dylan just two weeks after her appearance on SNL.
Kris Kristofferson introduced O’Connor as an “artist whose name has become synonymous with courage and integrity”, but the introduction met with jeers from the crowd.
In a show of support, Kristofferson reportedly told O’Connor, “Don’t let the bastards get you down”, to which the Irish singer replied, “I’m not down”.
