Like the vast majority of people in Ireland, certainly people her age, which means people of my age, O'Connor, born in Dublin, was raised Catholic in a heavily Catholic culture. The Church in Ireland, for far too long, was infected with the ecclesial/theological virus of Jansenism. Jansenism, for those who do not know, is a kind of Catholic Calvinism. As such, it is hung up on things pre-destination. Its most devastating symptom is that it reduces faith moralism and, therefore, creates the oxymoron of "Christian Pharisees." There's a lot of talk about God's wrath and hell, etc.
What I wrote above, of course, is no doubt quite oversimplified. One effect of that approach to Christian faith is that it resolves into a joyless keeping of rules. And so, in 2018, O'Connor, quite publicly converted to Islam. Predictably, her relationship to Islam was interesting and fairly idiosyncratic: "In the same way I would have embraced Christianity, there’s things I like and there’s things I don’t like and things I identify with and things I don’t identify with. But I really felt, oh my god, I’m home."
For O'Connor, the fundamental issue was to worship God and God alone. Initially, she took on the Muslim name Shuhada' Davitt and, in a move quite characteristic of her (I mean that positively- she thought and rethought things), she later changed it to Shuhada Sadaqat. There have been a few complaints that, post-mortem, she is not referred to as Shuhada Sadaqat. But, even while she was alive, she publicly went by her given name, the name by which she is lovingly known by millions of fans the world over. She was quite comfortable with this bifurcation. We should be too. Because she fought so hard for it nearly all her life, she is the guardian of her own identity.
Islam, for her, seemed to serve as something of a spiritual decluttering. From what I can tell, while she did not shy away from identifying herself as a Muslim and was willing to talk about her conversion and her faith, being Muslim had something of a very personal feel for her. In fact, she spoke about her spiritual life at some length during her 2020 appearance on Tommy Tiernan's show (watch here). Given her experience with Christianity, I find this, sadly, very understandable. She was utterly correct about growing up in an Ireland where nobody got any joy out of God through religion. The Church in Ireland is only now, institutionally, moving past Jansenism, but the loss has been staggering.
Morrissey's remembrance of her is also notable. If nothing else, Stephen Patrick, a bit like Sinéad, likes to stand out. I don't really care what you think about Morrissey. He's always been, quite intentionally, a rather polarizing figure. He is right in insistence about the stupidity of the media. This is verified by the attempt of some in the media to turn his repugnance toward the people who treated O'Connor like crap and who are now lionizing her into an attack on her. Anyone who can read with comprehension can clearly see that is not the case.
Rememberings is her memoirs. It was published to great acclaim in 2021. It is very much worth reading. She even read it for the audio version.
She was a tremendous talent, not just an amazing singer but an extraordinary songwriter. Of her songwriting, Tommy says in the interview I link to above- "it must've been like being possessed by fire."
Our traditio for this Friday is a live performance of her very autobiographical song "The Emperor's New Clothes." The video is alright, but this performance is wonderful. As you can see, this was during the time she was affiliated with the Irish Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church. A breakaway Catholic-ish denomination in which she was even ordained a priest at one point.
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