# Hey, remember when Sinead O'Connor tore up the Pope's picture and pissed everybody off? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 23, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511 "2010-03-23T18:10:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/1 "2010-03-23T18:10:23Z")
I’m thinking the reaction would not be so hostile if she did something like that today. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/2 "2010-03-23T18:24:47Z")
Well, this month would probably be the optimal time to do it in if she was looking to minimize outrage, given that the Pope is already having a bad couple weeks in popular opinion. ---
**Author:** ![2ply](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/b2d939/32.png) [@2ply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2ply)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/3 "2010-03-23T19:05:36Z")
I thought the same thing when I was back in high school and the Catholic sex abuses started to come to light. I was too young to have watched SNL when that happened but didn’t it end her popularity. NBC still would have flipped a lid over it, but she definitely would have had more people defend her now than she did in 1992. Part of that is we know more about the bad things that went on under John Paul II’s reign than we do now, and that he was very popular with Protestants in this country, where as Pope Benny isn’t nearly as much. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/4 "2010-03-23T19:22:44Z")
Followed the next week of Madonna saying “Fight the real enemy” and tearing up a photo of Joey Buttafuoco. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/5 "2010-03-23T19:27:15Z")
It wouldn’t be so hostile now mainly because I’d wager far fewer people know who she is than did in 1992. Her relevance isn’t what it used to be. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/6 "2010-03-23T19:41:45Z")
It was inappropriate behavior then, and it would be inappropriate behavior now. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/7 "2010-03-23T19:48:06Z")
Why? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/8 "2010-03-23T19:50:59Z")
Less negative, sure, but a lot of people would still manage to get upset because it was on television and it was disrespectful of a religious figure. A lot of Catholics who disapprove of what he’s done lately would probably still be upset if she ripped up his picture. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/9 "2010-03-23T19:53:19Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > It was inappropriate behavior then, and it would be inappropriate behavior now. I’m not so sure. We tend to forget _why_ she did it. The Wikipedia article on Sinead has this: > [@Wikipedia](#): > > O’Connor’s career took a political shift — especially in the United States — on 3 October 1992, when she appeared on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest. She was singing an a cappella version of Bob Marley’s “War,” which she intended as a protest over the sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, by changing the lyric “racism” to “child abuse.”[13] She then presented a photo of Pope John Paul II to the camera while singing the word “evil,” after which she tore the photo into pieces, said “Fight the real enemy,” and threw the pieces towards the camera.[14] Is protesting sexual abuse “inappropriate behavior”? Back in 1992, we really didn’t know about all the sexual abuse happening in the Catholic Church so when Ms O’connor pulled her little stunt, it was met with skepticism an derision. It turned out she was right though, didn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/10 "2010-03-23T20:00:34Z")
I didn’t think it was any more inappropriate than it would have been had someone torn a picture of Jim Jones in '78. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/11 "2010-03-23T20:02:13Z")
I don’t know, I’m a Catholic and my reaction at the time was a great big yawn. She tore up a photo on TV. Big deal. And I’m supposed to care about this why? I don’t think the priest even mentioned it at all in church, so it wasn’t a big deal there, either. ---
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/12 "2010-03-23T20:03:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t know, I’m a Catholic and my reaction at the time was a great big yawn. She tore up a photo on TV. Big deal. And I’m supposed to care about this why? > > I don’t think the priest even mentioned it at all in church, so it wasn’t a big deal there, either. Same here. She was not important enough to me to care about it. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/13 "2010-03-23T20:12:59Z")
[Video of the song in question](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYw8JR1N90o). At the time I owned none of her work. After seeing her on SNL I bought some cds. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/14 "2010-03-23T20:19:14Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > Is protesting sexual abuse “inappropriate behavior”? No, but doing so with someone else’s microphone is. Had she done the same thing at a political rally, I’d have no problem with it. Doing it on live TV, without the consent of the network, was inappropriate. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/15 "2010-03-23T20:22:09Z")
She’s [still speaking out](http://www.salon.com/news/catholicism/index.html?story=/mwt/broadsheet/2010/03/23/sinead_o_connor_pope): > [@](#): > > Many of my fellow Catholics were similarly unswayed by the papal missive, including O’Connor, who in a Tuesday letter to the Irish Times wrote, “The Vatican strategy, as shown in the Pope’s letter, is to sell the Irish Catholic hierarchy down the river, by making it seem it was acting independently of the Vatican when it covered up abuse. That is a lie … What victims deserve, the world over, is a full confession from the Vatican, that it ordered the cover-up. And that it is now trying to cover up the cover-up.” It wasn’t the first time she’s spoken out on the issue – earlier this month she wrote in the Irish Independent, “How an organization which has acted, decade after decade, only to protect its business interests above the interests of children can feel it has the right to dictate to us what Christians should do is beyond belief…. If Christ was here, he would be burning down the Vatican. And I for one would be helping him.” ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/16 "2010-03-23T20:45:48Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > [Video of the song in question](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYw8JR1N90o). At the time I owned none of her work. After seeing her on SNL I bought some cds. After seeing that video I can see why she’s pretty much ignored as a serious artist. I don’t think NBC should be mad about the Pope thing. They should be mad because her singing probably put the audience to sleep. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/17 "2010-03-23T20:54:03Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > After seeing that video I can see why she’s pretty much ignored as a serious artist. I don’t think NBC should be mad about the Pope thing. They should be mad because her singing probably put the audience to sleep. \*\*BubbaDog \*\*- she has issues (clearly!) but she has a phenomenal voice and with the right material, can excel. Stuff like Mandinka and Jerusalem off her first CD, and Nothing Compares 2 U are really great songs and performances… …as for the OP - the point is made: she was a bit of a [Cassandra](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra), i.e., speaking of something that no one wanted to hear and castigated her for it…IANACatholic, so can’t comment on that angle. It was an aggressive act within the context of what was supposed to be a bit of entertaining music - some folks don’t take to that too well, then or now… ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/18 "2010-03-23T21:21:26Z")
I was actually a pretty big fan of Sinead when she first came out, and did happen to be watching when she pulled that stunt. I wasn’t offended by ripping up the pope per se, but my patience with her was at an end. You see, it tends to get overlooked in hindsight, but Sinead O’Conner had a pretty well established history of obnoxious, hostile & ill-thought out ‘protest’ stunts that pretty much amounted to Sinead being an asshole for the sake of appearing ‘edgy’ and ‘rebellious’ - refusing to play the Star-Spangled Banner before a show was one thing, calling Bono of U2 a ‘douchebag’ was quite another. What’s more, her career was already going into a downslide. Her debut album “the Lion & the Cobra” was a surprise alternative hit. Her second album “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” was a huge mega-seller. Her third album (which she was on SNL to plug) “Am I Not Your Girl?” was mediocre at best. I got a taste of her bad attitude myself when I went to see her in concert. During one number, the audience was cheering her on. She stopped the show and yelled at us. “I’m trying to sing a song here. SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!” she growled. Sinead, honey, rule #1 about show business is “don’t alienate your audience.” Anyway, the moment that Sinead really lost my support (and I’ll bet a lot of other people’s support as well) was a few days _after_ the SNL gig. She appeared on MTV news to talk about it. Sinead was defensive, evasive, back-tracked on everything she’d said, and clearly had not researched her accusations, or even thought out what idea she was trying to express by her stunt. When you’re being confrontational and in-your-face when you’ve got a real message to get across, you’re a rebel. When you’re being confrontational and in-your-face just for the sake of looking like a rebel, you’re just an asshole. I mean, it was _MTV news_! It’s not exactly like they were asking her any hardball question. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/19 "2010-03-23T21:29:53Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > refusing to play the Star-Spangled Banner before a show was one thing What was this all about? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/20 "2010-03-23T21:30:15Z")
I was never clear on the nature of Sinead’s objection to JPII, back in 1992. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511.md?page=2)