Friends, collaborators, and admirers on the life and legacy of a machete-cutting truth teller.
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Her devout mother was mentally and physically abusive, an experience immortalized in her 1987 single Troy.
The fallout was swift and fierce, with her albums publicly destroyed in protest.
OConnor stood her ground, but the pain and rejection from that moment cut deep.
But she remained busy.
In 2012, mental illness began to affect her work, resulting in a canceled tour.
Then Ali got a call about working with a 17-year-old Sinead.
Sinead was hugely talented with little musical training, so her raw expression was totally unhindered.
She was into religion and theology and very vocal about human rights.
My dad was a megafan and boughtThe Lion and the Cobrawhen it came out.
He literally played it on repeat as we were driving around Belfast, often with rain pelting the windows.
It became the visceral soundtrack to my early childhood.
She was somebody that my friends and I really looked up to.
Peaches (musician and producer):The first time I heard her, she blew my mind.
Her vocals could be so vulnerable, and then punky, loud, brash, and angry.
The emotional range was incredible.
One minute itd be quiet poetry, and the next a rock song into dance music.
Its such a specific pain to her that I dont think many people knew about.
Its the first song on her first album, and it immediately hits you with this sensation of anxiousness.
He really liked me, and said I had to do press for her.
Troy was something like Id never heard before, and she was, what, 18 years old?
It was such a strong song, andI didnt realize at that point that it was about her mother.
She had complete conviction and her belief system stayed solid throughout her life.
She also could be a prankster.
So, the pressure was on.
I finished the scores late Friday and left to get some sleep.
It had all dried as one and was unusable.
I was completely enthralled, borrowed it and loved it.
I even Scotch taped the actual handwritten tracks so that I could tape them straight onto the cassette.
I still have it.
We lived in that album together, which is so soft and sad as fuck.
I might have burned that whole town down.
She was so strong.
And look at the way she dealt with the record labels.
They found out she was pregnant and tried to get her to have an abortion.
She wasnt going to be told by anyone how to run her life.
Also,this sounds very superficial, but it was so important that she was bald.
Super beautiful, but like, I dont give a shit.
She went on the Grammys in a black bra and jeans.
She wore big T-shirts with combat boots, which made her an incredible androgynous icon.
She said she would accompany me as she wanted to get a flat-top hairstyle.
We then wandered along looking for a place, eventually finding a womens hairdresser.
To describe it I would say it sort of resembled a thick paint brush.
Glen Hansard (musician):I first met Sinead in London when I was 17, around 87.
She was like this punk-rock girl,a bit older than me.
I was busking and she came and watched us.
And within two or three minutes of her stopping, literally the whole street shut down.
She was a walking icon, and people adored her.
She wasnt ever painfully shy with me.
We came from different backgrounds, but we had a lot in common.
We would laugh and take walks.
I wasnt just a publicist.
We were friends, and I was always there for her.
Those were heady days.
I said softly, I dont think I can get you out of this.
She said, Oh no, I dont want you to.
She didnt say, Fight the real enemy, like she ended up saying live.
For showtime, the camera knew to hold on that picture of the baby.
After she ripped the photo, there was just … nothing.
There was no panic.
It was sort of like, Wow.
I dont remember Lorne being freaked out.
I was raised Catholic and wasnt hugely offended by it.
We didnt re-edit for the West Coast, which we could have done, and used the dress-rehearsal version.
No one was tearing their hair out or anything.
I didnt understand her message, which I think was the main issue.
It was something that unfolded over decades.
So, from our end, it was mostly just confusion.
Im stuffing my face when all of a sudden she has a picture of the pope.
I didnt know what to think, but I stopped eating, obviously.
The camera only knows to go on the picture, and she rips it up.
Sinead didnt really know what to do.
There was no applause and just dead silence.
Her manager was super pissed.
She replied, Oh no, I dont want you to.
Peaches (musician and producer):I love the ripping of the pope.
She saw the Boomtown Rats rip a picture of another musician on TV and thought it was cool.
It was a way to break free from her mom and the church.
They painted her as this unhinged mad woman who questioned society.
I realized that everything Sinead said was completely right.
Theres a mentality in Ireland of trying to keep a delicate kind of peace.
Everyone wants to toe the line and not say something that would rock the boat.
Youre gonna open us up to being really hurt, and Sinead paid the price for that.
Hers was a story that I just couldnt shake off.
As I got into my late teens, I was always that person at every party blasting Sinead.
I first got to meet and work with her in 2012.
It brought up so many emotions.
It was then that I decided to take on the nearly decade-long pursuit of making the documentary.
We wanted her to speak as an older woman with hindsight to what had happened.
She was unapologetic, unwavering, fierce, and authentic.
All said through her soft-spoken angel of a voice.
That did not go over well with the powers that be.
They made her suffer for it.
They tried to bury her like a pop-star Joan of Arc.
They did their best to burn her at the stake.
It was before the internet and in some ways censorship was easier.
Her voice all but disappeared, while their skewed version of Sinead was blasted on repeat.
I didnt watch a lot of TV, but I remember how prevalent mainstream medias judgment of herSNLappearance was.
Any woman whos gone through shit and survives is always put up in the echelon of the queer community.
Sineads up there with Judy Garland and Liza Minelli.
Put her up there with poor Tammy Wynette too, who got smacked around by that shithead George Jones.
Theres a cosmos inside of those women that really lights fire in a lot of queers.
Sinead was really outspoken about those issues, and speaking truths that were accepted in other countries.
I think its really tragic that she wasnt recognized as a forerunner for all that.
Musically, she was our Bob Dylan.
I wish I could thank her for speaking up when no one else had the courage.
People tended to write her off as attention-seeking or crazy.
Im fucking devastated to have lost her.
We didnt mind her well enough, and she needed minding like anyone else.
She could be dark and shadowy, and then she could be the brightest light youve ever met.
Everybody, including the president of Ireland, came out.
Its a strange thing to admit, but nobody wants to touch that song.
Sinead and I met, and she said, stammering, Im not coming to the show.
I cant do it.
I didnt want do it either, even though its a fucking great song.
Shane suggested I do it with Lisa ONeill, whos one of our extraordinarily great talents.
Then she went out and did an old song from Shanes first punk band, the Nips.
She did an a cappella version, and thats very Sinead.
She wanted to go deep, you know?
She didnt wanna do the hit.
I think thats a nice summation of how she lived her life.
I know she knew she mattered.
Sinead, I have enough airline miles right now to fly anywhere you are.
The shows were great.
The reviews were great.
We had fun together and we still laughed.
We still talked about kids and men.
But there was an edge when we talked that wasnt there before.
She could just turn, and at that point she had been diagnosed as bipolar.
After she died, I was angry when all of a sudden people loved her so much.
When we needed them to speak up for her after she tore up the pope, nobody was there.
She was extremely supportive and really happy with the response.
We werent asking very much of her at all.
We needed one interview and one interview only.
We werent gonna follow her around with a camera.
She had a real irreverence actually, and was very funny.
I think thats something that got greatly missed by the medias perception of her.
She was crude in a fun way, and always very much herself.
Nobody could tell her what to do.
Well do our best to carry on your legacy.
Amanda Palmer (singer-songwriter, the Dresden Dolls):I look at Sinead as a machete-cutting truth teller.
She cut this path with her way of being because she was an unafraid person.
I was sexually assaulted when I was 14 and could never write enough songs about it.
Im just going to tell you the truth.
Kathryn Ferguson (director of Sinead OConnor documentaryNothing Compares):Thank you, Sinead.
From myself and the women of Ireland.
Youve been a guiding torch through many dark decades for us.
Isnt that what art is for?
To challenge us, to disturb us, and to break open our hearts?
My heart was broken at the news of her passing.
I wish Id met her.
I know her voice changed things.
And I know she will continue to inspire people and create change through her memory.
I wish we were nicer to her when she was here.
I hope we can make peace with her untimely death by centering kindness with each other.
Long live the memory of Sinead OConnor.
