21 ms·
Sinead O’Connor has died
- user3939382 3y agoWhat how, she is so young. That is super sad.
- JAM1971 3y agoShe lost her son of 17 years only 5 months ago. With no additional details, I know where my mind goes. Edit: whatever article I read said 5 months ago, but that appears to have been written some time ago. Plenty of articles stating that Shane died in Jan/2022: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=shane+oconnor+wikipedia&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=shane+oconnor+wikipedia&ia=...
- AlecSchueler 3y ago...Where does it go?
- xsmasher 3y agoMy mind goes to suicide.
- ngc7293 3y ago> Shane died in January 2022. A week later, following a series of tweets in which she indicated that she was going to kill herself, O'Connor was hospitalised. Wikipedia
- myth_drannon 3y agoMany artists die from suicide. When a young artist dies, I usually assume drugs or suicide.
- pcthrowaway 3y agoOccasionally it's cancer though
- glogla 3y ago> I usually assume drugs or suicide. And sometimes it's hard to discern one from the other.
- LesZedCB 3y ago> I’ve decided to follow my son. There is no point living without him. Everything I touch, I ruin. I only stayed for him. And now he’s gone,” she wrote on an unverified Twitter account linked to her official account. https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/14/entertainment/sinead-oconnor-hospital-intl-scli/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/14/entertainment/sinead-oconnor-... heart breaking to hear :(
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- wonderwonder 3y agoCan't really think of anything worse than losing a kid to suicide. The guilt, warranted or not must be crushing.
- slillibri 3y agoSure, but I’m certain that random internet speculation helps no one at this point.
- toyg 3y agoThere would have been no speculation if the family had stated an uncontroversial cause of death. Instead they "requested privacy", which means it was likely something people would have judged her for.
- notfromhere 3y agoThat just means suicide and the press usually doesn’t publish it to not encourage copycats.
- nimchimpsky 3y ago[dead]
- wkat4242 3y agoIt's not really random though. She's announced she was going to do it before and to be fair she's always had more than her fair share of mental troubles, sadly. As someone who is also cursed with those I know how hard that can be and I didn't even lose a child. Withholding the cause is what leads to speculation and I don't think it's a bad guess in this case. Personally I think it's better if they just announced it because believe it or not something like this can also lead to good things. Because it can make people think, realise these things happen and notice the signs in people around them.
- Fordec 3y agoAnd say what you want about her, but nobody ever said she was one for wavering. In everything she did she committed to and knew all about owning consequences. If she was suicidal, and she had the track record, she was well able to have follow through on this also. Whatever you believe, just for her sake, I genuinely hope she's now reunited with her son to get some peace.
- Bostonian 3y agoRIP. "The Lion and the Cobra" is a great album IMO, although as the album cover suggests, it is intense.
- robertheadley 3y agoShe never deserved to be shunned.
- david927 3y agoThe opposite -- I'm so proud of her for taking that stand.
- yabones 3y agoShe was right. Few people listened, and those who did took little or no action. That puts her in the highest of culture heroes to me. RIP.
- jawns 3y agoEven if you strongly agree with her criticism of the pope, the way that she expressed that criticism -- by deceiving everyone on SNL to pull off her stunt -- certainly branded her as a loose cannon in the industry. Unpredictability might entertain audiences, but it's a huge liability from an entertainment industry perspective. And arguably, her antics greatly overshadowed the message she was trying to get across. How many people even realized what she was criticizing? So it ended up pissing off a lot of people without actually being effective in drawing attention to the issue she wanted to raise awareness toward.
- TehCorwiz 3y agoA protest that doesn’t make anyone uncomfortable has no teeth.
- lotsoweiners 3y agoPlenty of protests that make people uncomfortable also have no teeth.
- redwall_hp 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denying_the_antecedent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denying_the_antecedent
- AlecSchueler 3y agoShe'll be missed. As a youngster growing up in Ireland she not only gave a voice to all of us who wanted to reject the influence of the church, which had only become more entrenched throughout the conflict, but also to the women of this island who had been previously silenced for centuries. If anyone is interested more in feminist voices from the conflict in Ireland I can highly recommend the 1981 film Maeve. The idea of women being a "third side" in the whole conflict who had never been given voice was incredibly eye opening to me as a man moving into my 30s and changed my perspective not only on Irish history but entire history of Europe and the Middle East.
- throwawaymobule 3y agoAnything covering Magdalene laundries or other catholic institutions in Ireland are pretty relevant too. She did spend a bunch of her childhood in one.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- david927 3y agoThe first time I heard the song -- and saw the video -- to "Nothing Compares 2 U" and the screen is nothing but her face and at one point there are tears, and she blares that unreal voice, I think I stopped breathing. She will be missed.
- xnx 3y agoNothing Compares 2 U reliably induces frisson/goosebumps in me. Rare that a cover can match a Prince original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_Compares_2_U https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_Compares_2_U
- pmarreck 3y agohonest question: is the "frisson/goosebumps" thing not called ASMR now?
- chimeracoder 3y ago> honest question: is the "frisson/goosebumps" thing not called ASMR now? No, ASMR is a completely separate phenomenon, although the term has since been adapted to refer to a general aural aesthetic, rather than the physiological phenomenon it induces in some people.
- glandium 3y agoChris Cornell's cover is way up there too.
- FrustratedMonky 3y agoJust looked this up, thank you. Double sad, I didn't know Cornell was also dead.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
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- saekizm 3y agoSuaimhneas síoraí mo chara
- local_issues 3y ago[flagged]
- bbg2401 3y ago[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- fwungy 3y agoA courageous woman. RIP.
- paganel 3y agoOne of the best voices of the last half-century. Tragic life. RIP to a beautiful soul.
- synetic 3y agoI remember being outraged at her tearing up John Paul II’s picture. The media in the U.S. did a great job of hiding why she did it. I was not outraged at her when I found out her justified reasons for doing so. That was the first time I became consciously aware that news is a business and that that business thrives when it generates outrage. I no longer fall victim to this. She’s far more the saint than that bastard John Paul II. EDIT: Ironic this is flagged. I’m proud of this actually. I feel a slight kinship with Sinead now. In honor of her death would that we all, in our own way, tear to shreds the image of John Paul II!
- basisword 3y agoDo you not think your comment would have been better without the final sentence?
- osullish 3y agoI think his last sentence doesn't go far enough - I'm not sure how far I'd need to go to describe someone who covered up systemic child abuse on a global scale
- TedDoesntTalk 3y agoIt always confused me how, at least in Boston, many many priests (but not the most egregious one or two) avoided prosecution for child abuse.
- osullish 3y agoSame in Ireland, some high profile cases were prosecuted- but not the majority, and nothing happened the nuns - especially the evil that ran the mother and baby homes. 300+ babies discarded in a septic tank.
- TedDoesntTalk 3y agoDo you have a link for the 300+ discarded babies? I'd like to read about that.
- blastro 3y agoshoutout for doing it her way.
- toomuchtodo 3y ago[dead]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- cdcarter 3y agoHer cover of "Nothing Compares 2 U" is, without a doubt, the most iconic love song of the modern era.
- legerdemain 3y agoThe irony of being outlived by Shane MacGowan.
- paulette449 3y agoHe has outlived Kirsty MacColl (co-singer on Fairytale of New York) by 23 years and counting. Her death was a tragedy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirsty_MacColl#Death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirsty_MacColl#Death
- dredmorbius 3y agoI'd discovered MacColl hearing a song of hers on a college radio station whilst road-tripping, and promptly failed to correctly remember the lyrics for years. Eventually got them right ("England Two, Columbia Nil"), and found the artist ... only to learn she'd died, likely shortly before I'd heard that song. Then discovered I'd known her all along through the Pogue's "Fairytale of New York", a/k/a The Only Honest Christmas Carol Evar, which I'd first heard well over a decade earlier.
- johnflan 3y agoWho'd have thought
- clivestaples 3y agoHer duets with him are amazing!
- CodeCompost 3y agoSaw her perform live once. Phenomenal.
- MikusR 3y agoon Twitter in November 2018. She wrote: "What I'm about to say is something so racist I never thought my soul could ever feel it. But truly I never wanna spend time with white people again (if that's what non-muslims are called). Not for one moment, for any reason. They are disgusting." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin%C3%A9ad_O%27Connor#Tweets_about_non-Muslims https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin%C3%A9ad_O%27Connor#Tweets_...
- HydianSnake1 3y ago[flagged]
- i_like_apis 3y agoDefinitely lost any respect I had for her here.
- jjulius 3y agoStill[1]? [1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36883262 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36883262
- i_like_apis 3y agoYeah
- rhcom2 3y agoWhy not include the whole text though? > Later that month, O'Connor stated that her remarks were made in an attempt to force Twitter to close down her account.[99] In September 2019, she apologised for the remarks, saying "They were not true at the time and they are not true now. I was triggered as a result of Islamophobia dumped on me. I apologize for hurt caused. That was one of many crazy tweets lord knows."
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deadlocked 3y ago
- jpadkins 3y agoMy favorite Sinead moment was her UFC 189 walkout song for Conor McGregor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKvBV-xVbmI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKvBV-xVbmI still gives me goosebumps
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y agoThis hit me hard. The first of her songs I ever knew, and still my favorite, was "Troy" and I was just thinking of it this morning. Then an hour later someone tweeted that she had died. Probably going to be sad all day.
- mpol 3y agoIn the Netherlands this was her most well know song. I was teenager when Troy was a hit on the radio, the video was intriguing. It hits me too, I feel respect for her, though I sometimes had doubts about some ideas she put forward.
- kabes 3y agoThere's a great live video from troy at Pinkpop. Maybe that helped her popularity. Or maybe it was the other way around
- sixothree 3y agoWhat an incredible album. Jackie and Just Call me Joe are songs I always love to hear.
- surume 3y ago[flagged]
- teleforce 3y ago"We belong to Allah, and to Him we return."[1] [1] Inna Lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inna_Lillahi_wa_inna_ilayhi_raji%27un https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inna_Lillahi_wa_inna_ilayhi_ra...
- midnitewarrior 3y agoWe belong to ourselves, and only the weak-minded allow themselves to become enslaved by another. Free yourself.
- dang 3y agoCan you please stop taking HN threads further into flamewar? You've been doing it repeatedly lately, unfortunately, and we're trying for something different here. I realize that the GP could be interpreted as a provocation in that direction but it doesn't have to be taken that way or responded to in this way. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- hprotagonist 3y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzxTDHMQza8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzxTDHMQza8 To stand in the full blast of a crowd that hates you with that amount of poise, and have a voice that is still capable of song or even coherent speech, just beggars my imagination. i hope you have found peace. you were a voice crying out in the wilderness and we did to you what we always do to that.
- basisword 3y agoWow! The thing that surprised me most about this was it’s a Bob Dylan tribute concert? I’m shocked religion still had such a hold on the kind of people attending that type of concert at that point in time. The volume is insane. Incredible strength to be able to stand and take such abuse and continue to perform.
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoI think it speaks less to people's religious feelings and more towards the rather apolitical and apathetic alternative music culture at the time. If I recall the atmosphere at the time it was less "how dare she say that about the Pope?!" and more "how dare she co-opt the public stage for controversial/'political' speech?!" I also don't recall the outrage at her SNL performance even being particularly or especially by Catholics in particular, though I'm sure it was stronger among them. The rage around her Pope-photo-tearing photo on SNL I think was about: we're trying to sell/watching a entertainment products here, and now you've just gone and made things intense. They just wanted the dancing bear. She was an intense personality, an artist, not an entertainer. Maybe getting a billboard #1 single and becoming a sensation was the worst thing that could have happened for her. People just wanted to be entertained -- they wanted the fantastic voice but without the powerful emotions and convictions behind it -- and she didn't want to be a 'product' I agree it's especially jarring in the context of a Bob Dylan tribute.
- jgwil2 3y ago> Maybe getting a billboard #1 single and becoming a sensation was the worst thing that could have happened for her. She said as much herself in her recent memoir: “I feel that having a No. 1 record derailed my career, and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track.”
- SeenNotHeard 3y agoHer first recorded song was with The Edge on the criminally overlooked soundtrack for "Captive": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvKV4_9nV2M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvKV4_9nV2M
- pan69 3y agoI love this album and especially the Heroine track.
- chaimanmeow 3y agoSo sad. I hope she is at peace with her son in a better world.
- hdlothia 3y agoRIP
- johnohara 3y agoI am deeply saddened by her passing. Her performances always featured powerful vocals driven by equally powerful emotion. But her version of Pink Floyd's "Mother," performed live in Berlin in 1990 with Roger Waters, Rick Danko, Levon Helm, and Garth Hudson, was Sinead at her most vulnerable and in my opinion, a full expression of her soul. Audio with onstage video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRbKXACBaoc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRbKXACBaoc High quality audio only: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSd0Yl5mDuU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSd0Yl5mDuU
- paulette449 3y agoMy favourite song too, heartbreaking knowing the abuse she suffered at the hands of her own mother.
- ja27 3y agoTrivia: Those recordings of her are mostly from the dress rehearsal the night before. They had power issues during her live performance and she refused to come back onstage after the show to record another take. So the concert-goers didn't get to hear this version.
- Taniwha 3y agoI was in Berlin a few days before and attended what was the best concert I ever attended, it was a double header, Sinead and Midnight Oil - it was just her and a tape deck and absolutely brilliant
- bayindirh 3y agoLooks like the high quality audio version has gone.
- aws_ls 3y agoYes, I was thinking it's not available in my region.
- unethical_ban 3y agoThere are a number of flagged comments which don't deserve it. And as long as there is no outlet for objecting to poor flagging decisions, I'll use the comments section to call attention to it. If we are going to have a discussion about a performer unafraid of controversy and who struggled with mental and spiritual concerns publicly, a robust conversation should be allowed.
- dang 3y agoThe flagged comments I'm aware of are either taking the thread into flamewar, and/or on generic tangents. Those are correct uses of flags. If there's something I've missed about this, I'm happy to take a look, but I'd need a specific link. "Robust" can mean a lot of things. HN's intended purpose is curious conversation. If we allow the predictably-outraged type of thread here, it will quickly take over discussion of most stories. If that happens, it will quickly destroy the forum. This is not a small risk—it's the biggest one. It would be foolish not to take it seriously, and we work hard to prevent it. Ironically, that sometimes leads to the perception that the forum is fine, so why not allow a few robust fires to burn here and there? The answer is that the forum is not fine. It's at constant risk of burning to a crisp [1], and our primary responsibility is to stave that off [2], to the extent that we can. That said, if there's truly high-quality conversation going on in any of these flagged subthreads, I'd like to see it. My experience in general is that flamewar doesn't go along with high-quality conversation at all. It's extremely exciting, of course—but from an intellectual-curiosity point of view, inert and boring, as anything predictable is [3]. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20crisp%20burn&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... [2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=stave%20off%20by%3Adang&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... [3] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=curiosity%20repetition%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
- unethical_ban 3y agoAs always, know I understand the work you do and that a healthy online community requires a heavy hand sometimes. I suppose my argument is that there is more room for personal criticisms, negatives comments and unsubstantiated opinion in a thread discussing a public figure's life than a more technical/abstract topic. That is all; I won't push the subject.
- DoreenMichele 3y agoI always had immense respect for her decision to shave her head when told by music execs to "sex it up." She was gorgeous but she was a singer. She wanted to be hired for her singing. Being a pretty young woman shouldn't be such a ridiculous hardship. And I kind of wonder how much that radicalized her and how that factors into her conversion to Islam.
- belfalas 3y agoWow, I always liked Sinead and her music but didn't realize that was the reason for her haircut. Big up to her.
- JohnBooty 3y agoAnd tragically, I don't remember this ever being reported in the US at the time. She was largely portrayed as a vapid attention-seeker and it was as if the head-shaving was just like... one of her "wild and crazy" acts. Now, this was the mid-80s. Media was so much more centralized. I was a kid, and all you really had was the news bites that were served to you. Theoretically some enterprising kid/person could have really researched her, but out of the zillions of things I could have been doing at the time I wasn't aware of any reason to think more deeply about her. As an adult I did so and man, that was a strong woman. The "You're Wrong About" episode about her is a wonderful place to start.
- cbsmith 3y ago> And tragically, I don't remember this ever being reported in the US at the time. It was reported. It's just those facts didn't get in the way of portraying her as a vapid attention-seeker.
- DoreenMichele 3y agoYeah, I'm American and I knew. And, yet, some guy on some talk show said about her something like "It's kind of arrogant. If she didn't look like Audrey Hepburn, she wouldn't have done it (shaved her head). It's a form of bragging: Look how beautiful I am!" I wanted to reach through my TV and smack him.
- parenthesis 3y agoThis Sinead O’Connor performance has stayed with me since watching its original broadcast: Success Has Made a Failure of Our Home (Live at Top of the Pops in 1992) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJWbPBp3QA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJWbPBp3QA (Hadn't seen it again until just now.)
- racl101 3y agoGeez, only 56 years old. Seems like a lot of Gen X artists are passing away much earlier than the generation before them.
- jedberg 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27_Club https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27_Club The 27 Club is an informal list consisting mostly of popular musicians, artists, actors, and other celebrities who died at age 27. Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison all died at the age of 27 between 1969 and 1971. At the time, the coincidence gave rise to some comment, but it was not until Kurt Cobain's 1994 suicide, at age 27, that the idea of a "27 Club" began to catch on in public perception.
- burkesquires 3y ago[flagged]
- dang 3y agoPlease don't take HN threads into religious flamewar. That's a circle of hell we're trying our best to avoid here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- hn_throwaway_99 3y agoWhat a legend. It's hard to overstate how much pushback and shit was thrown at her when she ripped up a picture of the Pope on SNL in 1992 to protest church child abuse. It's also hard to overstate how incredibly prescient and correct she was in her outrage. Catholic church child sex abuse didn't really enter the national debate until a decade later.
- giraffe_lady 3y agoWillingly and knowingly threw away a promising mainstream pop career to make that statement. Eternal respect.
- whycome 3y ago> She refused the playing of US national anthem before her concerts, drawing further public scorn. Was this a thing?! A good episode of "You're Wrong About..." covers the controversy of her: https://open.spotify.com/episode/265qKOV5C7XBqlyXMjp7VF https://open.spotify.com/episode/265qKOV5C7XBqlyXMjp7VF https://podcasts.apple.com/at/podcast/sin%C3%A9ad-oconnor-with-allyson-mccabe/id1380008439?i=1000608274693 https://podcasts.apple.com/at/podcast/sin%C3%A9ad-oconnor-wi...
- bryanrasmussen 3y agoI used to refuse to stand for the pledge of allegiance in high school and get threatened with being beat up, I guess it was a thing at the time.
- jgalt212 3y ago[flagged]
- isykt 3y agoThe second Iraq war started when I was in junior high, that’s when I stopped standing for the pledge and kept it through high school. There was a big discussion about whether students could be reprimanded, but ultimately I think it was decided that refusal was a form of free speech. I was proud of that, and so were my parents.
- bachmeier 3y agoIt was decided long ago: https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/west-virginia-v.-barnette-the-freedom-to-not-pledge-allegiance https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/west-virginia-v.-barnett... There was a Jehovah's Witness in our school. And of course he would not participate, leading some of the other kids to want to beat him up. They only gave up after they were threatened by the school and told by their parents that they have to respect other views. That was long ago, when the US valued civility. These days the parents would probably tell their kids to beat him up. The parents might even show them some moves.
- tasbir49 3y agoNo insight on the cause. My condolences to her family, and hopefully her passing was peaceful and painless.
- myoldohiohome 3y agoI always liked the way she sang "I'll Tell Me Ma." Most versions I've heard are upbeat. Hers sounded like she was an onlooker, not a participant - the kid no one would play with.
- oklopre 3y agoRIP. She was an incredible women, with an astounding musical talent. Always bold and outspoken, her live shredding of the Pope's photo to protest the immorality of the Catholic church was both beautiful and iconic. It's a shame she turned to Islam in her later years, but she was clearly a troubled soul. I hope her passing was peaceful.
- ogab 3y agoSaw her live in NYC back in 2005 when she was doing roots reggae. Sly & Robbie was the rhythm section, with Burning Spear on vocals and percussion. Maybe Mikey Chung on guitar? I was totally surprised at the combination — this Crazy Baldhead amongst Dreads — but one of the best live shows I've been to. Surrounded by reggae icons, she was a boss on that stage. Big up Sinéad! An incredible musician.
- cushychicken 3y agoThat's a whole shitload of moxie for an Irish lady. Very cool.
- bluepod4 3y agoExcuse me? Isn’t the stereotype (and possibly reality) that Irish women are full of moxie and maybe or maybe not respected for it depending on who cares? Like she experienced IRA bombings and you’re saying she’s supposed to be intimidated by reggae artists who smoke weed and practice non-violence and/or intimidated by their fans who do so?
- deadlocked 3y agoWith the what now? She experienced IRA bombings? Are you sure about that?
- bluepod4 3y agoBy “experienced”, I meant deeply affected by. So yes. Look it up yourself.
- cushychicken 3y agoI meant it takes a lot of moxie to front a roots reggae band as a white woman. I'm super impressed by it. It's a crossing of several huge cultural chasms. Not anyone could do that. Sinead did. That's impressive.
- TYPE_FASTER 3y ago
- pvaldes 3y agoOne of the most wild, raw and talented woman that graced the music world. Also astonishing beautiful in her prime. Many women singers popular today would look really dull near her. She was right also when criticized the pope for not doing enough about the abuses of minors in the catholic church (except basically hiding the abusers). My choice would be Jump in the River, Fire on Babylon, or the fantastic duet Haunted.
- tooriel 3y agoHer performance on SNL was a sign-act (prophetic gesture) in the purest sense of the word.
- linksnapzz 3y agoAs was Joe Pesci’s response to her a week later.
- tooriel 3y agoUnremarkable and forgotten.
- linksnapzz 3y agoWere that the case, I’m sure I would’ve gotten fewer downvotes. ;) Just the same though; JP2 would’ve certainly not held the poor woman’s fit of pique against her.
- clipsy 3y ago"the poor woman's fit of pique" -- are you defending the Catholic church's history of rampant child abuse, or do you think there is perhaps a less dismissive and condescending way to phrase this?
- linksnapzz 3y agoShe wasn't complaining about child abuse (by anyone) onstage at SNL. She ripped up a photo of a pope, who...hadn't abused any children. It was a cheap and safe provocation, and she got the response she wanted. The existence of valid and necessary criticisms of Church conduct doesn't oblige me or anyone to match each of them to some dinky justification for (in this case) performative juvenile attention-seeking. I could be less condescending and dismissive, but that would require me to pretend that a pretty basic taunt was some kind of deep commmentary. IOW, taking the piss.
- darkclouds 3y agoI thought it a bit odd the link below[1] appeared on the front page of Reddit a fortnight ago. The news today reported she had also lost her son a short while ago. Perhaps someone knew something was up. I liked her song, nothing compares to you, fantastic voice. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/14wx8cu/1992_two_weeks_after_tearing_up_a_photo_of_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/14wx8cu/1992...
- adnanc 3y agoAnnouncing her conversion, she said, "This is to announce that I am proud to have become a Muslim. This is the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian's journey. All scripture study leads to Islam. Which makes all other scriptures redundant."
- tetrep 3y agoThat sort of phrasing is almost to be expected, no? This might just be a cynical atheist's interpretation of Abrahamic religions, but Islam seems to be loosely doing the same thing to Christianity that Christianity did to Judaism, i.e. it purports to be the next theological evolution and therefore all practioniers of {current_religion} should rationally convert and download the latest religious firmware. I was going to make a joke about how it's a shame they stopped inventing Abrahamic religions, but then I remembered the Mormons! I would like to suggest that Mormonism is the true natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian's journey. At least until someone creates a new Abrahamic religion to succeed it.
- goodbyesf 3y ago> This might just be a cynical atheist's interpretation of Abrahamic religions There is only one abrahamic religion - judaism. Judaism confers eternal salvation and israel to the descendants of abraham. People forget that judaism is an ethnicity first and religion second. Hence why you can be an atheist jew. The convenant between god and abraham and his descendant is what makes a religion abrahamic. 'On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates...' Genesis 15. Christianity is a non-abrahamic religion as the covenant is between christ and all of humanity. Hence why anyone can become a christian. Similarly with islam as anyone can become a muslim.
- lost_tourist 3y agoTheologians will not agree with you.
- mcluck 3y ago
- NoboruWataya 3y agoReally sad. I think in may ways Ireland didn't deserve her. A true legend and icon. Obviously she has no end of incredible songs but her version of Raglan Road sticks out as one of my favourites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6zqb3gf5aA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6zqb3gf5aA
- throwawaaarrgh 3y agoThe perfect embodiment of that pithy phrase "true rebels walk alone". What a hard life, but what an amazing example of not compromising on your principles. Few people have that kind of strength.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- browningstreet 3y agoDownpressor Man
- helpingyou 3y ago[dead]
- mongol 3y agoI have known about her since Nothing Compares 2 U, but not known that much else about her career since then. I thought she was kind of a one hit wonder, as talented as she were she never got another hit close to as successful as that one. Do you think this is an unfair description?
- mixmastamyk 3y agoHer goal was not to collect hits, and the one was a fluke that surprised everyone involved. Up to each person to decide how important that is to them, I suppose.
- PM_me_your_math 3y ago[flagged]
- paulmd 3y agoNunya
- PM_me_your_math 3y agoI mean they expect the world to fall over her grave, but can't tell us how she chose to quit? I have no sympathy for the rich and emotionally weak.
- dhucerbin 3y agoI was growing up in Poland in the height of John Paul II cult. I was raised in atheist family and I was getting some tidbits about my grandfathers brother who was sexually assaulted by a priest. Today it sounds a little bit silly but that SNL performance was the validation I needed to navigate my environment outside my home. Now I learned a lot about issues in Catholic Church and I understand this stuff better but I’ll be forever grateful for this small gesture of solidarity. Even if it wasn’t directed at me.
- closewith 3y agoIt doesn't sound silly at all to me. I was also raised atheistically, but in a fiercely Catholic family in Ireland. I never saw this at the time, but I knew it happened. To my shame, I thought she was uncool for years after. I think I picked it up from others at the time (I was in a Catholic primary school). Ironically, even though it was apparently common knowledge amongst my Catholic country- and family-members, it took years for for me to believe that that kind of systematic abuse could have happened.I have dedicated a part of my resources and efforts to eradicate the Catholic church and other radical religions from my country
- paulmd 3y agoAs slow as it is, society has been making progress. A lot of things that were unthinkable or unsayable in the 90s are in the open now. The arc of history is long but it bends towards justice. It’s sad we’re still fighting on the LGBTQ front but in general it’s notable largely because justice is winning and these are the dying spasms of a hate movement that is losing state favor and is having to fight for its survival. They’re fighting because if they don’t then LGBTQ people are generally getting their rights protected and normalized. Scouts is another example of how much the zeitgeist has turned on overt religiousity and bigotry. Even in the 2000s you couldn’t be an openly gay scoutmaster because what if you fucked a kid? And of course the deep religious pagentry/teaching that’s buried in a lot of the scout materials and routines. Just 15 years later that’s a really bad look. Anyway there are a few rare people who are ahead of the curve on these issues and usually take a punishment for it, but time often proves them right. She was right, and the Catholic Church and organized religion in general continue to be a plague on humanity. All the good they’ve done in the past few decades is more than undone by the Mexico City policy alone and the immensely negative impact it’s had on half of our population, along with continued assaults on women’s health, LGBTQ rights, etc. It’s just still tremendously impolite to say it but she’s right, this institution is a negative force on society. As mentioned elsewhere, not standing/reciting the pledge of allegiance is another thing that was a bit controversial in the 90s but I think has just faded away nowadays. Even at sporting events today it feels a bit over the top and the connection to the hyper-militarized US culture and the pipeline to military recruiting is obvious - not a coincidence that flyovers and uniformed personnel are another common sight at sporting events.
- checkyoursudo 3y agoRest in peace, Sinéad. Nothing compared to you.
- Anthony-G 3y agoDave Fanning presented Ireland’s only (non-pirate radio) nightly alternative music show championed her early work and introduced me to songs like Troy and Mandinka back in the late 80s. Even though I was a teenage metal-head at the time, I could recognise the raw power and emotion of her music. If anyone hasn’t seen it, I’d recommend watching Nothing Compares¹, an Irish documentary about her early life up until the early 90s that only came out last year. I was delighted to see it come out and provide some counter-balance to the mainstream narrative. It was also good to see her musical legacy be recognised by being awarded the first ever Choice Music Prize for Irish Classic Album² earlier this year. RIP ¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_Compares_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_Compares_(film) ² http://www.choicemusicprize.ie/classic-irish-album/ http://www.choicemusicprize.ie/classic-irish-album/
- zionchild 3y ago[flagged]
- zeruch 3y agoI still remember the first time I saw her, which was in the video for World Party's "Private Revolution" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLgt934yXUY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLgt934yXUY When her debut record came out, "Mandinka" was a staple on college radio, but that album barely got into the radio overall. I never really liked "Nothing Compares 2 U" but really loved quite a lot of that sophomore record otherwise. Besides her debut, her album "Faith and Courage" is still a major highlight. She was a tortured soul that could transcend herself through amazing talent, but she suffered throughout her life; this was compounded by being a public figure with very little fear and no compunction of speaking her mind. She is finally at peace, however sad it may be to hear.
- lsllc 3y agoIf you're a Simple Minds fan, Sinead sang a very moving verse or two with Jim Kerr in a rendition of Belfast Child at the Night of the Proms (Antwerp, Belgium, 2008): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAe0HCHJTDA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAe0HCHJTDA Interestingly, Belfast Child was based on She Moved Through the Fair which Sinead sang here 11 years prior [to the aforementioned Night of the Proms]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWIaP0NnEOQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWIaP0NnEOQ
- 8bitsrule 3y agoSorry to hear this. Recently watched a video interview with her, wearing a hijab, she'd moved into Islam, said she was wearing it though she didn't have to (age), and then that she was mostly into Sufism. (2:05 of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je8Mh7Bc2hI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je8Mh7Bc2hI She never shyed from a difficult path.
- desertjedi 3y agoInna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raijoon
- TastyAmphibian 3y agoSo sad, I have been following his stories since I was a young. RIP Sinead
- lakomen 3y agoI hate those empty articles. TELL ME WHAT SHE DIED OF