A NEW DOCUMENTARY reflecting on Sinéad O’Connor’s influence on Irish life and Irish people throughout her life will air on RTÉ tomorrow.
The documentary – Sinéad – will hear contributions from David Holmes, Imelda May, Christy Moore, Don Letts, BP Fallon among many others.
Sinéad O’Connor died, aged 56, at her home in London in July. Many vigils were held nationwide in honour of the rebellious singer.
The documentary takes a look at various events throughout O’Connor’s life, including perhaps the most infamous moment in her career when she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live in 1992.
During her appearance, she performed an acapella version of Bob Marley’s 1976 song War.
She sang the lyrics: “And we know we shall win/As we are confident in the victory/Of good over evil”, before holding up a photo of the Pope to the camera and tearing it in half.
The next week, actor Joe Pesci hosted Saturday Night Live and held up a repaired photo of John Paul II and said if he had been on the episode with O’Connor he “would have gave her such a smack”.
Singer Christy Moore tells the documentary that one of the things that impressed him about Sinéad from early on was that “she wasn’t going to take the shit lying down, that she was going to stand up and she was going to scream about some of the ugliness that was in our society”.
“A lot of us weren’t ready for it,” he says.
He adds: ”It was a powerful act and to me it was an important act. She was addressing the society that we live in, that was dominated by the Catholic church, the Government, the state, the Brits left and Rome took over.”
Speaking of the impact of the performance, singer Imelda May says that “Pope John Paul II was like Elvis”.
“He was up on the walls, there was Elvis, Jesus, John Paul, Bruce Lee,” she says.
Film director and DJ Don Letts tells the documentary: ”Not only was I gobsmacked, America was gobsmacked, the planet was gobsmacked.”
Sinead O’Connor’s funeral, held in Bray, Co Wicklow, attracted thousands to the streets to pay their respects and wish their last goodbyes to the singer.
Reflecting on her death, Christy Moore says: “What a terrible, terrible loss. She had her struggles and she had her difficulties but she was a wonderful, wonderful woman.”
May says that “we always be thankful for everything she did for us as women in Ireland”.
Sinéad airs at 9.35pm tomorrow on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
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