The untimely demise of Sinead O’Connor at the age of 56 on Thursday 27th July 2023 has inevitably led to much discussion of her life, and achievements, both mainstream, and controversial, so determined was she to speak her mind, tell her truth, and campaign for what she believed in, no matter the cost, something which many victims of abuse yearn for, but never get the chance to fulfill. Undoubtedly, she was both a survivor, and a genius.
Here are some of the facets of her life, which illustrate what a perturbed yet determined character she was:-
- Although born in Dublin in 1966 Sinead Marie Bernadette O’Connor. In 2017, she changed her legal name to Magda Davitt, saying in an interview that she wished to be “free of the patriarchal slave names. Free of the parental curses.” On her conversion to Islam in October 2018, she adopted the name ‘Shuhada’, and before mid-2019 also changed her surname from Davitt to Sadaqat.
- Sinead’s parents divorced. Sinead was encouraged by her mother to shoplift, which resulted in her being prosecuted and sent to a Magdalene Borstal by way of punishment. Sinead’s mother was killed in a car accident in 1985 when she was 18.
- Sinead was married and divorced four times, and had four children. On 7 January 2022, two days after her 17-year-old son Shane was reported missing from Newbridge, County Kildare, he was found dead by suicide. She had lost his custody in 2013, and his death provoked in her suicidal thoughts
- In the early 2000s, O’Connor revealed that she suffered from fibromyalgia (a condition which is not uncommon in our clients who have suffered abuse). In 2007 she told the Oprah Winfrey Show she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and had attempted suicide on her 33rd birthday, 8 December 1999. In 2014 she revealed that 3 second opinions had reversed the diagnosis of bipolar. O’Connor was also diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder
- In a 2000 interview, O’Connor said that she was a lesbian but later retracted the statement, and in 2005 told Entertainment Weekly “I’m three-quarters heterosexual, a quarter gay”
- Politically Sinead was in favour of a united Ireland, and was reported to have joined Sinn Fein.
- On 3rd October 1992 on the US program “Saturday Night Live”, she tore up a picture of the pope John Paul II proclaiming him to be evil, and sang a different song “War” by Bob Marley instead of the intended song to promote her then album. The act was a protest at the Catholic Church’s cover up on child sexual abuse. It would be another 9 years before Pope John Paul acknowledged the veractiy of the sexual abuse allegations against clergy.
- The protest by O’Connor resulted in thousands of complaints to NBC in America. The civil rights organization Anti-Defamation League officially condemned O’Connor, while the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations hired a steamroller to crush hundreds of copies of her albums outside of her record company’s headquarters; she was also called out publicly by conservative newspaper The Washington Times, who named her “the face of pure hatred”, and Frank Sinatra, who called her “a stupid broad”.
- Religiously Sinead was brought up a Catholic, her mother was devout, but used to physically punish Sinead. She was later in life ordained a priest by a bishop from an independent Catholic group and announced that she wanted to be known as Mother Bernadette Mary. She said, in interview that had she not been a singer she would have wanted to be a priest. Her dillusionment with the Catholic Church is clearly demonstrated by her pope picture tearing, but it would be 2018 before she converted to the Islamic faith
- Her death is not being treated as suspicious, but the Coroner will be doing an autopsy. The cause of death has not yet been revealed
So why am I writing about the death of Sinead O’Connor on an abuse survivor’s blog? Simply because she was miles ahead of us in terms of wanting to draw attention to the prevalence of child sexual abuse as early as 1992. She had experienced it, and was an extraordinarily bright and enlightened woman.
My first child abuse case was in 1994. I remember the shocked and aghast expressions on people’s faces when I tried to tell them how prevalent child sexual abuse was, and how we had all lived in complete ignorance of what was all around us, yet was something which we had either turned a blind eye to, or been completely ignorant of, even though it had been apparent in plain sight. People were incredulous and almost disbelieving.
It says a lot for the guile and intrigue of sex offenders/paedophiles that they can hide so effectively in plain sight, and present to the world such a convincing image of charm, normality, and trust. How else would it have been possible to convince others, when they are discovered, that they are completely innocent, and the victim of false allegations by evil, mendacious children?
The question is, would Sinead O’Connor have the same reaction to the tearing up of a picture of the Pope if she did it now, to what happened in 1992. Frankly I doubt it. There would still have been those who remain loyal to the Pope ie devout Catholics, but not the common man on the street, because we have endured 30 years of multiple stories about the prevalence of abuse by priests, and other officers of the Catholic Church. Not only have we been led to believe that such allegations are rife, but also discovered the extent of religious cover ups, not only by the Catholic Church, but also the Church of England, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims and many other faiths.
In 2023 we are no longer the faith adherent society, to the extent that we were in 1992. Neither England nor America hold religious leaders in high office with as much reverence as we did at the time. Because we know about the scandals, we might have the same sort of reaction as we did to the climate change protesters who have glued themselves to the roundabout on the A3, or thrown orange confetti over George Osbourne in support of the campaign group “Just Stop Oil”. I very much doubt that the offended would have publicly smashed her CD’s as they did at the time.
Sinead O’Connor had experience of abuse, knew what should be revealed, and had the fame and exposure to make a smash. When we look back now 30 years later, it is an outrage that it severely disrupted her career. She was doing what all survivors want. She was speaking her truth so that she would be believed.
Some of you may know Peter Saunders, who was the founder member of NAPAC – National Association For People Abused in Childhood. He has written an excellent book called, “The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth, so help me….”, which I have reviewed recently on this site. Peter was brought up a devout Catholic, such that, like Sinead, he thought of becoming a priest. He was systematically abused by Jesuit Priests in childhood as well as his Brother-in-Law, yet still remained faithful. In later life he was invited to meet the Pope as part of a PR stunt by the Catholic Church to appear to listen to the survivors of abuse. He was invited to be part of an international forum of abuse survivors. Like Sinead, he continued to speak out to the media about the cover ups in the Catholic Church, and his work. The Church didn’t like it, and banished him from the group. Peter was so disillusioned and hurt by the shameful attitude of the Church. He was not surprised, however, at the backlash, which confirmed that it was simply a sham PR stunt for the benefit of the world’s media, and not a genuine effort to engage with survivors, and make a difference.
In his book Peter bemoans the Church with its protectionist attitude. His outspoken broadcasts have eventually been his undoing. He now is no longer part of NAPAC, yet his unquenchable enthusiasm cannot be suppressed. He complains, however, that no one has stepped up to the plate to take his place as the voice of the abused, the victims, and survivors. So in the death of Sinead O’Connor we have lost a great advocate for the cause, someone with enormous insight, who was way ahead of her time in 1992. Who could have predicted that there would follow 30 years of scandals in every echelon of society, a feature, which, thankfully, continues to this day.
No longer are we shocked when yet another allegation of abuse surfaces, committed many years ago by an adult on a child, who is now an adult, and sometimes involving celebrities who should know better. Indeed the Me Too movement, and similar groups have overturned the veil of cover ups such that we could be forgiven to think that we have finally heard the last of it……but somehow, I very much doubt it.
