There were fresh tears spilled on to the footpath outside Dublin’s City Hall on Sunday afternoon as a large crowd gathered to pay tribute to the life, music and enduring activism and generosity of spirit of Sinéad O’Connor.
“Fight the real enemy,” the placards carried by dozens of those who took part in the event read, each one echoing O’Connor’s fierce words of protest on Saturday Night Live in 1992.
That protest statement which saw the singer tear up a picture of Pope John Paul II led to her being almost immediately cancelled by “misogynistic media” unwilling or unable to accept the grim realities of clerical sexual abuse that would subsequently be exposed in countries all over the world.
“She took such a hammering from the media and she was cancelled completely,” recalled Ruth Coppinger of ROSA – the socialist feminist movement that organised the event. “They destroyed her record sales.”
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Ms Coppinger said the relentless demonisation and marginalisation of O’Connor continued for decades and she suggested that much of the reporting of her death and her life and legacy had also been coloured by misogyny with her “immense talent” diminished.
“Sinéad O’Connor should be celebrated for her exceptional, unique voice, her artistry, her songwriting and her music spanning four decades. The word ‘controversial’ always being in there is just so patriarchal,” she told The Irish Times.
She said that she was just a few months younger than O’Connor and like the singer, grew up in a Dublin where she could also see “the brutality of the church” and from where “thousands of women leaving the country for abortions. These things were part of our reality but she came along and took a stand”.
Irene Kelly from Griffith Ave in Dublin was among the crowd who had gathered to sing O’Connor’s most well known song Nothing Compares 2 U and was sitting beside her 88-year-old mother Kitty O’Connor.
“It’s just very sad,” Kelly said. “We would have supported her for years and should have supported her more when she was here,” she said. “She was spot on with so much of what she said but there was a lot of sadness attached to her as well. The outpouring of grief has been amazing and there has been a sad pall all week with everyone thinking of her. I walk a lot and I’ve been listening to my radio constantly and crying.”
Tears have also been flowing in Sue Bolger’s Coolock home since the news broke of the singer’s passing last Wednesday evening.
Ms Bolger had travelled into the city centre with her young daughters June and Wren. “It is just so sad and I want the girls to have some memory of how significant this has been for us,” she said.
“Sinead never stopped, she never let anybody tell her what she believed was wrong. Myself and my partner were heartbroken when we heard the news and we’re still heartbroken now. When we hear the songs come on the radio we just stop and have a little cry. I showed the girls the video for Nothing Compares 2 U and maybe in 10 years they will remember their mam showing it to them. She just always stood for what she believed absolutely and I think she changed the country. She lit a fire under us.”
Kate O’Donnell from Minnesota has been in Ireland for the last couple of weeks and felt compelled to come to the event.
“I’m here to remember Sinead and am here with my mom and my sister,” she said. “I was so sad and shocked when I heard the news. She was saying things before other people were ready to say them or hear them and she was a long way in advance of her time.”
