Sinead

A legend of popular music, Sinéad O’Connor has always been one of my favorite singers; hearing that she passed so soon was a profound shock. She was undeniably a complex individual, but she left us far too early. As a teenager, Sinéad was arrested for shoplifting and sent to a Magdalene Orphanage —a place she later described as a "prison where girls cried every day." There, she witnessed the horrors of institutional Catholicism firsthand. As she explained in the Showtime documentary Nothing Compares: “There was no therapy when I was growing up. I got into music for therapy. I just wanted to scream.”

Legs McNeil, an American music journalist who knew her well, echoed this sentiment in the film, noting, “What bugged me was the atrocities Sinéad’s mother committed on her.” Sinéad herself never held back when discussing her upbringing. “She was a very violent woman, not a healthy woman," she said of her mother. "She was physically, verbally, psychologically, spiritually, and emotionally abusive. My mother was a beast. Our family is very messed up... we are all in agony. I, for one, am in agony. I was able to use my voice to make the devil fall asleep.”

One of the most defining moments of her career occurred on Saturday Night Live, when she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II. Following the performance, she urged the audience to “fight the real enemy” and protest child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. The backlash was swift: she was banned for life by NBC, and copies of her records were publicly destroyed in New York’s Times Square.

Even in her private life, her non-conformity was striking. McNeil recalled a morning when he suggested having cheeseburgers for breakfast, an idea Sinéad found appalling. “Here was the world’s most famous non-conformist telling me that I couldn’t have a cheeseburger for breakfast. I was pissed!” McNeil remembered. “I told her, ‘I can have whatever the f*** I want to eat. You don’t have to have one.’ She sat glaring at me while I gobbled down my cheeseburger. I knew right then and there that our relationship wasn’t meant to last. And it didn’t.”

In 2017, Sinéad changed her name to Magda Davitt, explaining in an interview that she wished to be “free of patriarchal slave names and of parental curses.” Reflecting on her legacy, Belfast filmmaker Kathryn Ferguson remarked, “She is one of the most radical and incredible musicians we've had. We were very lucky to have had her.”