War - Sinéad Tears the Pope a New One

Dear Gen Xer,

It was the rip heard round the world.

On October 3, 1992, Sinéad O’Connor - having performed an acapella version of Bob Marley’s ‘War’ - raised a picture of Pope John Paul II and tore it to pieces in front of millions of viewers. “Fight the real enemy,” she said, then dropped the pieces and left the stage.

The studio audience remained silent; shocked, no doubt, by what they’d just seen. It didn’t help that Lorne Michaels, famed producer of Saturday Night Live, demanded the applause sign stay unlit.

“I remember knocking on the door [after the performance]. I went in and she was talking to herself. Her hands were behind her back, she had her socks on and she was doing something between poetry and chanting. I didn’t know what to do.” – Daniel Glass, Executive at Chrysalis Records

Daniel Glass had accompanied Sinéad to Saturday Night Live. They were there to promote Sinéad’s new album, Am I Not Your Girl?

She’d nailed her first song: ‘Success Has Made a Failure of Our Home’. A couple of big-shot radio figures were so impressed, they assured Daniel Glass that they’d be adding Sinéad’s single to their playlists immediately.

Then Sinéad performed again.

‘Going viral’ wasn’t a thing in 1992, yet that’s what happened when Sinéad tore the Pope a new one. Pearls were clutched. Phone lines were flooded. And the righteous came out swinging.

Media outlets condemned Sinéad. So did the Anti-Defamation League. Celebrities got in on the act as well. Joe Pesci, who hosted SNL the following week, held up the photo that Sinéad had torn up and said he’d asked for it to be taped back up. You can bet the applause sign burned bright for that one.

Pesci went on to say: “I’ll tell you one thing: She’s very lucky it wasn’t my show. ‘Cause if it was my show, I woulda gave her such a smack”. Cue more cheers and applause.

Not to be outdone (and certainly not due to flagging record sales), Madonna recreated Sinéad’s famous act when she appeared on SNL later that year. At the end of her performance, Madonna held up a picture of Joey Buttafuoco and said “fight the real enemy” before tearing it to pieces. Because as we all know, the Pope’s got nothing on Buttafuoco.

Speaking of the Pope - he wasn’t impressed. Neither was Cardinal Bernard Francis Law, who called Sinéad’s act a “gesture of hate” and “neo-anti Catholicism”.

Sinéad attempted to explain her behavior by revealing that she’d suffered physical, sexual, and emotional abuse as a child; abuse she held the Catholic Church responsible for. The picture Sinéad tore up on television had been taken during the Pope’s visit to Ireland in 1979. It had hung in her mother’s bedroom until her death. Sinéad had been waiting for the moment to destroy it.

But nobody cared about Sinéad’s abuse. And nobody came to help. Not SNL, who banned her for life. Nor the radio stations, who refused to play her songs. Not even a popular feminist of the day:

“In the case of Sinéad O'Connor, child abuse was justified.” – Camille Paglia

Nine years after Sinéad’s defiant act, the very same Pope - John Paul II - acknowledged (surprise!) that children had been abused in the Catholic Church.

One year after that, Bernard Francis Law, the Cardinal who’d called Sinéad’s act a “gesture of hate”, resigned as the current Archbishop of Boston when it was found he’d been covering up child abuse in the church.

Nobody thought of Sinéad O’Connor when light was finally shed. It was too little, too late for her anyway. Her career had been dead for years.

“She never recovered after [her performance on SNL]. No one judged the music, that’s what I was very pissed off about. Being outspoken should not be a penalty.” – Daniel Glass

I’d like to admit, in the name of transparency, that I’ve never been a fan of Sinéad O’Connor’s music. Especially not then when the shit went down. I was listening to grunge and rap in 1992, with plenty of punk sprinkled in between. But I was watching SNL the night she tore up the picture and I remember how impressed I was by her defiance. I was 21 at the time. Sinéad was barely four years older.

Happier Days: Sinéad O’Connor with an armful of awards at the MTV VMAs in 1990, two years prior to her appearance on SNL

The episode with Sinéad came back to me recently while watching the documentary, Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music. In it, producer Lorne Michaels states, “There was a part of me that just admired the bravery of what she’d done. And also the absolute sincerity of it.”

It’s a far cry from what Michaels said in an interview with Spin Magazine in 1993:

"I thought it was sort of the wrong place for it, I thought her behavior was inappropriate. Because it was difficult to do two comedy sketches after it." – Lorne Michaels

That’s right. Turns out Michaels wasn’t pissed off because Sinéad had blasphemed or offended Catholics. He was upset that his musical guest had cramped the flow of masterful skits like Book Burning Campfire and Sweet Jimmy: The World’s Nicest Pimp.

Let’s recap, shall we?

• Sinéad calls out the Pope on television

• Sinéad is ‘cancelled’ by the music industry

• Lorne Michaels bans Sinéad, but continues airing the episode

• Lorne Michaels whitewashes history, switching Sinéad’s original performance with footage from Sinéad’s rehearsal

• Lorne Michaels profits for 33 years

• Lorne Michaels claims to admire Sinéad’s bravery during a self-congratulatory doc

• Lorne Michaels whitewashes history a second time to realign with contemporary values

• Lorne Michaels continues SNL’s brand narrative that it’s always been ‘edgy’

I know it’s not a revelation that showbiz is rife with scum. But the horrible way Sinéad was treated offers a valuable lesson:

Listen to those who defy convention and the powers that be. Be patient with those who have the courage to challenge society’s heroes.

Odds are they were trod upon on the road to glory.