I have a different opinion of Sinead O'Connor these days

by Brendan , The Chemical and Oil Refinery State, Thursday, December 05, 2013, 21:45 (4504 days ago) @ MattG

And a story like your family's is exactly why. I remember hear tearing up the picture of the pope on SNL and the ubiquitous condemnation that followed. I think very few people outside Ireland truly understood the depths that the Church had sunk to in abusing their flock at that time, though, and we couldn't possibly understand what led her to do that. I saw a fascinating documentary about the last 30 years or so in Ireland that talked about the O'Connor thing, with her now talking about it in more detail. She said she was just so disgusted at what the Church was doing to the Irish people - between the Magdalene laundries, and pedophile priests, and money scams, etc. - and yet it was still so impregnable as an institution in Ireland and nobody outside the country was willing to listen. She liked the pope himself, but had zero respect for the institution of the Church and felt she had to make a dramatic gesture to get someone, anyone to pay attention to what was happening in Ireland.

In hindsight, obviously, I wish we all had listened a little closer and examined the Church in America and elsewhere as well. Appalling. Sort of removes the mystery around how Ireland, a country that once was one of the Church's most reliable sources of missionaries, is now one of its most disaffected and disillusioned groups. I'll definitely have to see the movie now. All the best to you and your family.

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"Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." - Yeats