# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/61 "2010-03-29T15:20:54Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > And I’m sure if a US artist did this in Scotland they’d be very understanding! Either that or they’d kick their teeth in… :rolleyes: You’d be wrong, because we in the UK rarely feel the need to overemphasize our patriotism with anthems. The last time I recall hearing the UK one before a show was at a really old-fashioned cinema in the mid-1970s. Also, Sinéad O’Connor is Irish, so your ‘Scotland’ comment is head-scratchy at best. The Irish play their national anthem more than the Brits, but if a foreign performer objected to it, I can’t see anyone in Ireland making much of a fuss. I think she a) is completely barking mad, and b) was right to use her SNL publicity to cause a fuss. Shame it’s taken 18 years for the truth of what she was saying to be acknowledged, even in a half-assed manner. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/62 "2010-03-29T17:05:54Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Followed the next week of Madonna saying “Fight the real enemy” and tearing up a photo of Joey Buttafuoco. I may well be wrong, but wasn’t Joe Pesci on the next week, and he had retrieved the photo (or so he claimed) and taped it back together? ---
**Author:** ![beergeek279](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@beergeek279](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beergeek279)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/63 "2010-03-29T18:07:13Z")
> [@Perciful](#): > > The Pope is all about Life and not death. He has probably saved more lives then you will ever know. I’m sure the people of Africa, suffering through an HIV/AIDS pandemic because the Catholic Church says condoms are “sinful”, would be disinclined to agree with you. ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/64 "2010-03-29T18:33:41Z")
I thought it was a gutsy thing to do at the time… frail, bald (when the only other bald woman in entertainment was Lt. Uhura in Star Trek) Irish singer does an a’capella version of War on live American TV, but speaks out against child abuse in the church at a time when it was not well-known or widely protested… ends by tearing up a photo of the Pope, which is a symbol of organized Catholicism… I think it would a gutsy thing to do today… ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/65 "2010-03-29T21:20:09Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > She didn’t have to perform it herself - the venue (someplace in NJ) said it was their policy to play a recording of the SSB before any event. She told them she’d refuse to perform if they did, so they didn’t play it before her show. From my point of view, it was Sinatra who was throwing the hissy fit. If I were a performer, I wouldn’t want to be forced to begin my show with a rendition of any country’s national anthem, no matter who was playing it. It’s childish and inappropriate to enforce patriotism on an artist’s performance, and doubly so when the artist is from a different country. Furthermore, it’s antidemocratic to force people to engage in country-worshipping at entertainment venues or any other venue. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/66 "2010-03-29T21:52:45Z")
Nichelle Nichols was bald? When was this? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/67 "2010-03-29T22:01:34Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > 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. That’s your reason for having a problem with it? She deceived the wide-eyed infants at NBC? You’re funny. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/68 "2010-03-30T13:49:40Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Nichelle Nichols was bald? When was this? I assume he meant [Persis Khambatta](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001422/), who played a very bald yet ridiculously hot Lt. Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I had no idea she’s been dead for 12 years. ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/69 "2010-03-30T14:32:30Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > We may have to agree to disagree. Long before she had her Pope tantrum I thought that her performance of nothing Compares 2 U was just pretentious artsy twaddle. I don’t deny her vocal abilities and strengths. In fact, I think she wastes a beautiful voice trying to do something special with it instead of letting herself just sing. Anyone who doesn’t appreciate vocal performances such as this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klLguqi3pqY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klLguqi3pqY)… well, I’ve got to question whether it’s possible for such a person to know any type of quality singing when they hear it. I’m just sayin’.™ ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/70 "2010-03-30T14:36:06Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > People want to see her. I don’t think “see” is the word I’d go with in this case. Something more, ah, carnal, perhaps? ---
**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 30, 2010, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/71 "2010-03-30T14:46:21Z")
> [@MTCicero](#): > > Anyone who doesn’t appreciate vocal performances such as this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klLguqi3pqY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klLguqi3pqY)… well, I’ve got to question whether it’s possible for such a person to know any type of quality singing when they hear it. > > I’m just sayin’.™ Let me help you with that **MTCicero’s List of People Who Don’t know any Type of Quality Singing** Bubbadog 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/72 "2010-03-30T14:48:30Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > Let me help you with that > > **MTCicero’s List of People Who Don’t know any Type of Quality Singing** > Bubbadog > 😃 Thanks for that. Been meaning to start one of those, and just haven’t had the wherewithal to start it. And as they say, once begun is half done, so I do owe you. Again, thanks! 🆒 ---
**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 30, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/73 "2010-03-30T16:03:00Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Well gee, she’s a foreign national touring America in support of an album which, primarily due to US sales, has made her world famous (not to mention rich) and she responds by shitting on that country’s national song. Selfish, pretentious, one-hit-wonder bitch deserved to get her ass kicked! > > And I’m sure if a US artist did this in Scotland they’d be very understanding! Either that or they’d kick their teeth in… :rolleyes: 😃 This _is_ satire? Mind you, the Butthole Surfers’ rendition of _Scotland the Brave_ was interestingly different… ---
**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 30, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/74 "2010-03-30T16:11:44Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > She didn’t have to perform it herself - the venue (someplace in NJ) said it was their policy to play a recording of the SSB before any event. She told them she’d refuse to perform if they did, so they didn’t play it before her show. Ah, OK. Thanks for the explanation. I thought it was a widespread thing, not a venue policy. ---
**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 30, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511/75 "2010-03-30T16:15:52Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > I assume he meant [Persis Khambatta](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001422/), who played a very bald yet ridiculously hot Lt. Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I had no idea she’s been dead for 12 years. That’s sad, I didn’t know that either. She meant a lot to the young **Greenback**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-remember-when-sinead-oconnor-tore-up-the-popes-picture-and-pissed-everybody-off/533511.md?page=3)