# Let Sinead O'Connor Help You Die! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 9, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114 "2003-05-09T14:53:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/41 "2003-05-10T04:05:56Z")
Celeb bashing is fun, but i don’t get why people are mocking the idea of death as an experience of growth. It’s badly expressed, because we don’t have much of a vocabulary for this kind of thing, but i would hope to learn as much from my (eventual) upcoming death as I would from any other phase of my life. ---
**Author:** ![Shana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@Shana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shana)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/42 "2003-05-10T04:33:27Z")
**Eve** honey…thanks for making me belly laugh. I really needed that tonight!! lolol… As for poor, wacky **Sinead** , I have always been a big fan. Ever since I heard “Troy” and “Mandinka”…but of course some of the most brilliant artists are lunatics. Still, I wish her luck - and I wish her patients luck. Oh yea, and the Sunday school kids…Eeek.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satisfying_Andy_Licious)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/43 "2003-05-10T06:02:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Coldfire \* > \*\* > I say rock on, Sinead. And yes, she does have gorgeous eyes. \*\* Yeah, but Sineads more hair. ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/44 "2003-05-10T13:06:49Z")
Ahh, Sinead 🙂 Talk about your broken angel… The voice, the looks, and mad as anything. The saddest thing of all is that she doesn’t appear to have any friends that would just say “No, Sinead, don’t do that”. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/45 "2003-05-10T14:52:45Z")
Ya know, I wonder if all the people who slagged Sinead for tearing up that picture of the pope ever apologized in the wake of the priest sex abuse scandals…oh that’s right, they didn’t. She accused the Catholic church and its leader, the pope, of engaging in and systematically covering up the abuse of children and golly gee, turns out she was right all along. Good on ya, Sinead. As for the lesbian thing, [here’s](http://www.advocate.com/html/stories/877/877_sinead.asp) what she had to say about that: > [@](#): > > I think it might have even been an interview for The Advocate? [Editor’s note: It was for Curve.] I don’t remember exactly, but this woman reporter asked why did I think lesbians liked me so much or why was I so popular with lesbians, and I said it was probably because they thought I was one of them, meaning that I don’t believe in gay or straight and I don’t believe love is conditional. But obviously the reporter ran with it and the paper hyped it, because it probably sold a lot of issues, and, really, I was quite happy for them to do that. I didn’t mind. I think [the gay press] should do whatever they can to sell as many papers as anybody else. ---
**Author:** ![Liz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/liz/32/17737_2.png) [@Liz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liz)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/46 "2003-05-10T14:54:42Z")
Nothing but love for Sinead here. She’s slightly nuts, but I think she’s dealt with a lot of fucked-up shit in her life, and she’s come out of everything with a incredibly beautiful glow about her. Beautiful, yes. The voice, undeniable. God damn it. Now I have to listen to “Nothing Compares 2 U”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lux\_Fiat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Lux\_Fiat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lux_Fiat)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/47 "2003-05-10T15:38:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by alice\_in\_wonderland \* > If you’re stuck in a hospital bed with tubes coming out you every which way and every shred of dignity gone, I imagine a soft beautiful face like Sinead’s coupled with her soft beautiful speaking voice would be quite a comfort. I suppose, until I swam up out of the morphine long enough to pay attention to what she was actually **saying**. Still, _ceteris paribus_, I’d be happy to replace dying alone and afraid with dying perplexed and amused. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/48 "2003-05-10T16:48:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mockingbird \* > \*\*_lays down offerings of gold, John Frankenheimer, and Merv_ > > A goddess among the mortals, truly. > > Catch Eve in her first feature length film where she plays an erudite and witty New York writer who finds that we’ve all been programmed by bad media into believing in a false reality in **The Matron**. \*\* The last two words have plunged me into confusion. Eve-witty? Obviously. A Goddess-clearly. Matronly-words fail me. While I, like many other Dopers, yearn to curl up in Eve’s lap-it isn’t because we see her as a mother figure. My head hurts and the world seems ready to crumble about me. ---
**Author:** ![Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satisfying_Andy_Licious)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/49 "2003-05-10T20:40:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Otto \* > **Ya know, I wonder if all the people who slagged Sinead for tearing up that picture of the pope ever apologized in the wake of the priest sex abuse scandals…oh that’s right, they didn’t. She accused the Catholic church and its leader, the pope, of engaging in and systematically covering up the abuse of children and golly gee, turns out she was right all along. Good on ya, Sinead.** Was that the reason she gave for it? I thought it was over birth control, but I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/50 "2003-05-10T22:14:43Z")
Andy, she’s been speaking out on child abuse for a long time. I wonder if she wasn’t religious would Eve be so harsh on her? ---
**Author:** ![Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satisfying_Andy_Licious)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/51 "2003-05-10T22:17:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TwistofFate \* > \*\*Andy, she’s been speaking out on child abuse for a long time. > > I wonder if she wasn’t religious would Eve be so harsh on her? \*\* Well, if she really was speaking out about the abuse going on, I commend her for it. Most of the world was looking the other way at the time. I still think Sineads more hair. (I’m proud of that pun, and I’m going to repeat until someone laughs.) ---
**Author:** ![japatlgt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df705f/32.png) [@japatlgt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/japatlgt)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/52 "2003-05-10T22:52:04Z")
The female, Irish, Catholic version of Cat Stevens. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/53 "2003-05-10T22:56:37Z")
Hell, I thought she was _anti_-religion! I haven’t kept up on her, so the last thing I remember is her ripping up the Pope’s photo–which I thought was just pompous grandstanding. Come on, the woman is a certified plum-duff. The Irish Anne Heche. ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/54 "2003-05-10T23:06:31Z")
[http://www.rockonthenet.com/artists-o/sineadoconnor\_main.htm](http://www.rockonthenet.com/artists-o/sineadoconnor_main.htm) Well, you thought wrong. She has always been religious, but spoke out against the sexism in the Catholic church, and when she ripped up the photo of the Pope it was at the time of breaking scandal in Ireland about child abuse. Well, she certainly has some interesting viewpoints, and has changed her opinion on certain things, but she has always been honest and true to her beliefs. I’d vote for “not plum duff”. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/55 "2003-05-10T23:25:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by japatlgt \* > \*\*The female, Irish, Catholic version of Cat Stevens. \*\* Um, _no_. Cat Stevens(now Yusef Islam) spoke in favor of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. Sinead just tore up a picture of Pope John Paul Ringo George and said something about fighting the real enemy. One person calling for death is NOTHING like one person calling for fighting against religious oppression and dogma. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/56 "2003-05-10T23:28:08Z")
DUBLIN, Ireland (CNN) – She once ripped up a picture of the Pope John Paul II on live television. Now, Irish musician Sinead O’Connor has found a new way to alienate herself from the Vatican: She’s been ordained as the first woman priest in the Latin Tridentine Church, a Roman Catholic splinter group. 'Connor says a donation of 150,000 pounds (US$200,000) to Bishop Michael Cox, the bishop who ordained her, had nothing to do with it. O’Connor gained notoriety in 1992 when she tore up a papal picture on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” She now says she’s sorry she did that. “I have never even met the Pope,” she says. “I’m sure he is a lovely man.” “To this day Irish children will be taught in their history books that there was a famine in this country when in fact there was never a famine in this country, there was a potato blight. But the British doing the job for the Vatican, had made a law that Irish people were only allowed to eat potatoes.” “I believe that God is gonna show up in the next I’d say five years. That there’s going to be so much physical evidence, physical prove to people that what we’ve been given to believing is a lie that there won’t be any way denying it. And therefore there will be the immediate return to the Garden of Eden which is the circumstances under which we were supposed to live in the first place.” ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/57 "2003-05-11T00:40:22Z")
So she regrets a rebelious act, underlines the British role in the Irish famine (poorly worded on her behalf, I’ll give you that), and believes (like many Christians from whichever end of the spectrum) that God will return to earth. And she’s planning on devoting her life to help others in their dying moments. Yet, she’s “plum-duff”. **[Eve**, sometimes it’s possible for someone to be too anti-religion to see the good in people. That’s what my impression is, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/58 "2003-05-11T01:04:59Z")
Well, to be fair, she has every right to say how she feels about the Pope. However, a musical performance on SNL wasn’t the place to do that-especially as it gave them a lot of grief. _shrugs_ I think she’s flaky, but she’s got talent, that’s for damn sure. And yes, the potato blight caused a famine. Although I don’t recall that there was a LAW about only eating potatos. It’s been a while since I read _The Great Hunger_ by Cecil Woodham-Smith. ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/59 "2003-05-11T01:14:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\* > And yes, the potato blight caused a famine. Although I don’t recall that there was a LAW about only eating potatos. It’s been a while since I read _The Great Hunger_ by Cecil Woodham-Smith. \*\* Sinead didn’t exactly phrase it accurately, but the gist of the message is [true](http://allsands.com/History/Events/irishgreatfami_bim_gn.htm) > [@](#): > > In a lush island surrounded by water teaming with fish and land that fattened pig and cattle alike, how could one failed crop cause a Famine? According to British law, Irish Catholics could not apply for fishing or hunting licenses. Their pigs and cattle were sent to England to feed the British and to export for trade, while the landlords kept the fine cuts for themselves. Ireland was part of the British Empire, the most powerful empire in the world at that time - yet the British government stood by and did nothing to help their subjects overcome this hardship. In our time, an enforced famine such as this would be labeled genocide yet in the 1800s it was merely an unfortunate tragedy. ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114/60 "2003-05-11T01:20:57Z")
And FWIW, does Kalhoun think that **all** the folks who said that maybe Sinead doesn’t deserve much scorn in this instance are “humor impaired”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-sinead-oconnor-help-you-die/174114.md?page=4)