3 OCTOBER 1992
It all started so innocently. Two years on from her biggest hit, Nothing Compares 2 U, the woman born Sinéad Marie Bernadette O’Connor appeared on NBC behemoth, Saturday Night Live, to sing a soul-stirring version of Bob Marley’s War. Then, completely unrehearsed and to the shock of the show’s producers, she pulled out a picture of Pope John Paul II and, in protest at the abuse of children in the Catholic Church, ripped it up, saying, “Fight the real enemy”. According to executive producer Lorne Michaels: “The air went out of the studio”, and the applause sign was abruptly turned off, leaving O’Connor to walk off the stage in agonising silence. Condemnation was swift and wide, with that week’s host, Tim Robbins, refusing to namecheck her at the end of the episode and, the week after, actor Joe Pesci telling the audience that if it had been his show, “I would have gave her such a smack”. Madonna, too, waded in, telling the Irish Times: “I think there is a better way to present her ideas rather than ripping up an image that means a lot to other people. If she is against the Roman Catholic Church and she has a problem with them, I think she should talk about it.” Two weeks later, O’Connor was booked to perform I Believe In You at the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary tribute concert in Madison Square Garden, arriving on stage to a cacophony of cheers and jeers. Instead of launching into the scheduled song, she began ferociously bellowing out her version of War once more, before walking off to a tidal wave of boos. Asked in 2002 whether she ever regretted the Saturday Night Live incident, an unrepentant O’Connor simply replied, “Hell, no!”
Steve O’Brien