Honesty. The sin of telling the truth when no one wants to listen. When the brilliant and incomparable Sinéad O’Connor died on July 26, rapper and actor Ice-T summed it up perfectly: “Respect to Sinead. She stood for something. Unlike most people.”

On Oct. 3, 1992, O’Connor was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. She famously tore a photo of Pope John Paul II as she said, “Fight the real enemy” to protest the Catholic Church’s perennial and willful failure to protect children who were sexually abused by priests and bishops. She had just sung Bob Marley’s “War” a cappella and she tore the photo at the end of the song imploring people to choose good over evil.

The result? She was banned from NBC and she received numerous death threats and calls for boycotts. She also had taken a stand against misogyny when she refused to perform on SNL in 1991 since the woman-hating Andrew Dice Clay was the host. Nora Dunn, an SNL regular, famously declined to be on the show that week and she was fired by Lorne Michaels.

After SNL, O’Connor felt forced to apologize for her brave act as death threats mounted. Decades later, she set the record straight. In her memoir she wrote, “A lot of people say or think that tearing up the pope’s photo derailed my career. That’s not how I feel about it. I feel that having a number-one record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track. I had to make my living performing live again. And that’s what I was born for. I wasn’t born to be a pop star. You have to be a good girl for that. Not be too troubled.”

O’Connor’s first two albums, “The Lion and the Cobra” and “I Do not Want What I Haven’t Got” are the most well known, yet she produced seven additional albums that show her continued depth and skill as an artist, as well as several compilation albums. In 1994, she released “Universal Mother.” The song “Famine” includes several genres and is primarily a rap song. O’Connor admired Public Enemy, and “Fight the Power” described her own anti-racist, anti-oppression belief system.

Both O’Connor and Public Enemy boycotted the 1991 Grammy awards ceremony to protest the United States’ Gulf War. She sported a Public Enemy tattoo.

Listen to “Famine” for a lesson on historical honesty and collective trauma. The song describes the fabricated famine as the English sought to destroy much of the Irish spirit and cultural norms as they starved the Irish into submission. O’Connor states that knowledge and understanding are necessary for healing and forgiving, and that the Irish people are like battered children who require honesty and acknowledgment for abusive and self-destructive patterns to end.

The courage to be publicly vulnerable — over and over again. Another sin. Sinéad O’Connor consistently said that she would always be her authentic self —in all of its complexities — despite being labeled a crazy b-word for most of her life. She came out about mental illness and being an abuse survivor. She once came out as a lesbian only to declare later that she settled on being 75% heterosexual and 25% gay.

A female artist refusing to play the game. Such a sin. O’Connor told Rolling Stone in 1991 that record label Ensign wanted her to wear tight jeans and high-heel boots and grow out her hair. “I decided that they were so pathetic,” she said, “that I shaved my head.” Years later, she stated that the only careers ruined after her SNL gig were the ones that the record executives envisioned for their second homes in Antigua.

People from around the world and especially in Ireland are in mourning. Michael Stipe (REM) wrote, “No words.” Singer-songwriter Tori Amos posted, “Sinead was a force of nature. A brilliant songwriter & performer whose talent we will not see the likes of again.” Actor Toni Collette posted, “I adored this woman from afar as a teenager. I will always admire her. I was lucky enough to hang out with her a few times in my twenties. On one occasion we all sang in the hills of Wicklow in Eire. I sang a Jane Siberry song and Sinead then asked/encouraged me to sing one of my own. Can you imagine the terror? The intimidation? The thrill?! She was so talented, so generous, humble, resilient, courageous and true. What a voice. What a force. My heart breaks. Rest in real peace Sinead.”

Una Mullally wrote in The New York Times, “The 2022 documentary ‘Nothing Compares,’ directed by Kathryn Ferguson, correctly positioned her as an alternative moral compass in Ireland, driven by integrity and authenticity, not shame.” An alternative rock star and an alternative voice for truth and reconciliation.

Sinéad O’Connor died too young at age 56. She leaves behind an unparalleled legacy, and she lives on in the hearts of all of us who do not conform to groupthink despite the cost. Nothing compares.

J.M. Sorrell is a feminist at her core. She greatly admires women who dare to be themselves with dignity and strength in a world that teaches them to acquiesce. According to Ancestry, JM’s ancestral roots are heavily in Donegal and Belfast. Her last name at birth was McLaughlin.

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