from www.eonline.com

Sinead's Privacy Plea

by Sarah Hall
Sep 24, 2004, 10:45 AM PT



Sinéad O'Connor does not want what she has got--namely, media scrutiny.

The maybe-retired Irish pop-singing former priest and sometime lesbian took out a full-page ad in the Irish Examiner newspaper Friday, begging to be left alone.

"I have been the whipping post of Ireland's media for 20 years," wrote O'Connor in her 2,000 word entreaty. "And what have I done to deserve these lashings?"

(Er, we're guessing it has something to do with ripping up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live in 1992, getting ordained as a priest in 1999, coming out as a lesbian less than a year later and marrying a man a year after that, among other examples of, shall we say, unusual behavior...but again, we're just guessing.)

"If ye all think I am such a crazy person why do ye use me to sell your papers?" O'Connor demanded.

O'Connor's manifesto comes on the heels of her latest maligned campaign to stamp out head lice in Ireland by creating a national "delousing day." An article published Wednesday in Ireland's Evening Herald bore the headline "Sinéad's Latest Wacky Crusade."

The singer also objected to another article published in the Herald Wednesday that called into question her relationship with her brother, author Joseph O'Connor.

The article claimed that the singer and her brother had a falling out after Sinéad spoke publicly about abuse they suffered at the hands of their mother. Her three siblings have insisted she exaggerated, but O'Connor stressed that she was telling the truth.

"Before God let me swear to you that if I or any of us were to tell you what we went through this country would cry for a month," the singer professed.

"To know what I and my brothers and sister survived, makes me proud of us all. And we will never any of us tell ye. For it is only between us four. And let me state that while my hero, my brother Joseph, may have been upset that I spoke, he never said I was not telling truth."

O'Connor claimed that the personal attacks had "taken a severe toll on my health."

"I have three children to mind. I am a fulltime mother. Not what ye imagine I am," the singer, who gave birth to her third child in March, wrote. "My kids need me to be happy and strong. Not afraid to live."

"Please, I just want to be a little old lady now, and not be all controversial and not be bashed and called crazy and laughed at when I open my mouth to sing or speak," the 38-year-old O'Connor added.

The singer, who shot to fame on the strength of her 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got and her cover of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U," has said her singing and songwriting was an outlet to express the pain she suffered as a child.

Last year, she claimed to be quitting the pop music business for good, in favor of singing about and teaching religion.

(Of course, whether the chameleon-like O'Connor's retirement will stick is up for debate.)

The singer, who claims she is "guilty of being real," made a comparison between herself and U2's Bono, positing they are both trying to do good, but only she is crucified for her humanitarian efforts.

"Ye know if ye wrote about Bono like you do about me he'd kick your asses," she wrote.

"Mind you, I know he, not knowing me, thinks I'm just a crazy bitch too."

It seems that in O'Connor's mind, nothing compares 2 controversy.

I don't know much about Sinead O'Connor, and only recently started reading up on her. I know she was called out on her hypocrisy for making a boycot of Andrew Dice Clay for his misogynistic humour, and yet in the same breath supporting N.W.A. and the 2 Live Crew. But I think she always has a justifying answer for her double standards- whether standing up for the racial underdog even if they violently offend her feminist beliefs, or defaming the Pope even as she proclaims herself a Catholic, because of the corruption rather than the religion itself (i.e.: The Magdalene Sisters), and you can perhaps read her becoming a priest as a 'change the system from within' move, which is quite noble actually.

Call me naive, but I admire her.

Oh, please, Sinead. Taking a full-page ad in a major newspaper begging people to stop paying attention to you is akin to running around naked in the streets and screaming at people for looking at you funny! Me thinks that Sinead is a bit barmy in ye head... :rolleyes:

Sounds like she actually wants the attention. :rolleyes:

http://www.digitalend.com/pics/attention_whore4.jpg

http://www.digitalend.com/pics/attention_whore4.jpg


LMAO

EWWWWWWWW

http://www.digitalend.com/pics/attention_whore4.jpg
Tha scareded me! :yikes: :scared:

Yikes, BlackOyster! That's one scary... person??? :eek:

EEEEEEWWWWW :barf: What a loser......

http://www.digitalend.com/pics/attention_whore4.jpg

I hope that's not what Sinead looks like these days :lol:

She's more to be pitied than admired. Frank Sinatra wanted to "punch her lights out" after she burned an American Flag

She's more to be pitied than admired. Frank Sinatra wanted to "punch her lights out" after she burned an American Flag

I agree, she's a sad case. She's had how many nervous breakdowns now? I think the media goes after her because she's so odd, they know that even her going out to get the mail is going to be some kind of freakish human interest story. She's done only one song that anyone's ever heard of, and that was 15 years ago. Yet, they're still writing about her? On the other hand, maybe she acts odd TO get all this attention. Maybe she's so narcissistic and self-important that people NOT sticking a camera in her face for more than five minutes drives her to these breakdowns.

OK...so I'll just read this, remember who she was, and now I can forget her....AGAIN. Please. If people were only as important to the rest of the world as they thought they were...:rolleyes:

She's a great artist, but a lousy individual!

It takes real work to get out and actually dig for a story, do interviews, whatever. BUT, if you can get some self-centered, self-important person who has done something in their life that at one point made them famous, to say or do something stupid in public, then you don't have to put forth a lot of effort. And since such people generally crave ANY attention, you have a symbiotic relationship.

defaming the Pope even as she proclaims herself a Catholic, because of the corruption rather than the religion itself (i.e.: The Magdalene Sisters), and you can perhaps read her becoming a priest as a 'change the system from within' move, which is quite noble actually.

Call me naive, but I admire her.

one of the greatest heroes of my lifetime. i wouldn't use the word 'defame', but for her to do what she did, and realizing now just what courage/conviction, and ultimately the sacrifice that it entailed... i view her in the same light as an MLK or Mandela. i had no idea or awareness of what she was trying to say then, but, after having read the Boston newspapers throughout the 90's and up to the present, i now realize.

that a female rocker, at the peak of her popularity, and upon just coming to have a widespread audience, would self-immolate and commit professional suicide, to call attention to injustice...... just.......blows......my.......mind. in an instant, she gave herself away. at such a young age (she was born in 1967, same as me), she condemned herself to never have the same life again, in order to try to help/save others. i wouldn't use the word 'admire'... but, i will never forget what she did.

No one will ever forget what she's done. I remember very well sitting back and laughing my ass off, saying aloud..."Way to f*ck your career up, Shinehead!"

No pity at all for her....she buried herself. And taking out a full page add asking people to leave her alone is only going to make them ratchet things up another notch. So again, I can sit back and laugh, saying aloud once more...."Way to f*ck your 'career' up, Shinehead!"

No one will ever forget what she's done. I remember very well sitting back and laughing my ass off, saying aloud..."Way to f*ck your career up, Shinehead!"

No pity at all for her....she buried herself. And taking out a full page add asking people to leave her alone is only going to make them ratchet things up another notch. So again, I can sit back and laugh, saying aloud once more...."Way to f*ck your 'career' up, Shinehead!"

I agree, bro. BUT, I also think in her self-important little world, bad attention is better than no attention. That's why she does the stupid things she does. I believe it was Malcolm McLearen who said, "There's no such thing as bad publicity." And, as I said before, from the press's side, it's easier than actually going out and having to do research and legwork to produce a story people will read.

I believe it was Malcolm McLearen who said, "There's no such thing as bad publicity."
In some instances this may be true.....but I have three words to show the opposite side of that:

Andrew Dice Clay. ;)

In some instances this may be true.....but I have three words to show the opposite side of that:

Andrew Dice Clay. ;)

Can't argue with that. LOL Love the Shinehead moniker. We used to call her Skinhead O'Connor, but I like Shinehead better.