DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) – Sinead O’Connor says she plans to teach religion after quitting the music business this July. “I am retiring because I want to train to become a religion teacher of primary school children,” the 36-year-old Irish singer said in a letter published Thursday in Dublin’s Evening Herald newspaper. O’Connor, who has two children, said she also plans to work as a “visiting” church singer, “where I can hide and not be looked at. And maybe sing with a choir. Hire myself out for services. NOT WEDDINGS! Don’t believe in them!” O’Connor, who married for the second time in 2001, said she hopes to start studying theology in September. She is particularly interested in a group called Death Midwives. “They help people who are dying not to be afraid and help make death gentle and calm and even a growing experience,” she wrote. “I am very interested in that area of pastoral care.”
—I dunno what’s funnier . . . Sinead teaching little kids to tear up photos of the Pope, or her making death “a growing experience.” I guess if I had Sinead O’Connor at my deathbed, I would be grateful to expire, too . . .
Well, even if I approved of “teaching religion to children,” leaving it to a helium-filled balloon like Sinead might not be a good idea.
And, while hospice care is among the best work one can do, “death as a growing experience” is among the silliest things I have heard in, oh, minutes and minutes.
Oh no. I think Sinead has been as crazy as a loon in the past. From interviews I’ve seen recently though, she seems to have matured a bit, so I say good on her. And doing hospice work…even more so, it’s a tough gig.
She’s a bit of a mystery to me but I’m not quite ready to add to the Sinead bashing. A celebrity making a spiritual change is often viewed with suspicion and when someone like her turns toward Christianity it’s more unexpected. At the very least she does a poor job of explaining herself and her motives. Vaya con Dios Sinead.
The Irish are an odd lot. Keep in mind that when U2 first came to prominence they were known as a Christian band.