30 years ago, Sinéad O’Connor was cancelled for a stunt on SNL. The world owes her an apology.

In 1992, after going off-script in a segment on NBC weekly staple Saturday Night Live, Sinéad O'Connor was banned from the show – and the network – for life.

After performing a rendition of Bob Marley's 'War' on the SNL stage, O'Connor ripped up a photograph of the Pope as she declared, "Fight the real enemy".

The outrage was swift, all-encompassing and unforgiving: the singer was exiled and her career would never recover.

Watch the moment Sinead O'Connor ripped up Pope John Paul II's photo on Saturday Night Live. Post continues after video.

Almost two weeks after the controversial moment, as O'Connor appeared at a Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden, she was booed off stage when she attempted to sing 'War' once more. 

After the stunt, while O'Connor continued to release music, she never had another chart-topper like her breakout album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got which featured the Prince cover, 'Nothing Compares 2 U'. 

Madonna spoke out against the Irish singer at the time. 

"I think there is a better way to present her ideas rather than ripping up an image that means a lot to other people," she told The Irish Times. 

"If she is against the Roman Catholic Church and she has a problem with them, I think she should talk about it."

Is that not what she was doing? 

After the SNL stunt, the singer released an open letter detailing what her protest was fuelled by. 

"The Catholic church has controlled us by controlling education, through their teachings on sexuality, marriage, birth control and abortion, and most spectacularly through the lies they taught us with their history books."

Sinead O'Connor is hardly the first person to criticise the Roman Catholic church. 

In the last two decades, the church has been hit with countless accusations of sexual abuse and pedophilia from all corners of the globe, in many cases leading to priests being charged and convicted. 

Regarding Pope John Paul II in particular, after his death in 2005, reports surfaced that cast a sinister shadow over his time with the church. An investigation, commissioned by Pope Francis in 2020, revealed that John Paul chose not to believe longstanding accusations of sexual abuse, including pedophilia, made against church leaders. 

A documentary aired in Poland (John Paul's home country) in 2023 also echoed these claims. 

"It’s obvious from the documents that he knew about the abuse. He reacted to it by allowing the priests to continue their ministry. He was very forgiving towards the priests, whereas no evidence shows that he ever gave attention to the victims," claimed Dutch journalist Ekke Overbeek. 

Reflecting on her frame of mind at the time in her 2021 memoir Rememberings, O'Connor said she had been carrying around her mother's photograph of Pope John Paul II waiting to rip it up "when the right moment came". 

Listen to this episode Cancelled all about 7th Heaven. Post continues after podcast.

That moment came on October 3rd 1992 when the Irish singer appeared on SNL. 

"I’ve been pissed off for a few weeks because I’ve been reading The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (a contrarian, blasphemous history of the early church) but also finding brief articles buried in the back pages of Irish newspapers about children who have been ravaged by priests but whose stories are not believed by the police or bishops their parents report it to. So I’ve been thinking even more of destroying my mother’s photo of JP2. And I decide tonight is the night."

O'Connor detailed that in the SNL rehearsal, she showed a photo of a Brazilian street kid who was killed by cops, instead of the Pope. 

"I ask the cameraman to zoom in on the photo during the actual show. I don’t tell him what I have in mind for later on. Everyone’s happy. A dead child far away is no one’s problem," she wrote. 

It's impossible to exclude O'Connor's gender from her swift cancellation in 1992. In a New York Times article circulated at the time, the male writer described the double standard while reinforcing it.

"If a heavy-metal band took a picture of the Pope, hung it on an upside-down cross and burned it, the act would likely be greeted with yawns – that oldbit again? But waifish female 25-year-olds like O'Connor don't have the same prerogative," Jon Pareles wrote.

"O'Connor draws real outrage because she doesn't know her place."

In fact, O'Connor was aware that male performers get away with these stunts all the time. 

"In 1978, Bob Geldof ripped up a photo of Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta on Top of the Pops because their shit record 'Summer Nights' had been number one for seven weeks," she wrote in her memoir. 

Protesting a cheesy song? All good. Protesting a church's alleged years of atrocities? How dare she!

This was far from O'Connor's first act of protest. 

Back in 1991, the singer boycotted the Grammy Awards. She wrote in a letter to the Academy that despite being nominated for four awards, she would not accept any awards she might win.

"They have created a great respect among artists for material gain — by honouring us and exalting us when we achieve it, ignoring, for the most part, those of us who have not," she addressed the Awards. 

After having years to process what happened, in her memoir O'Connor said she has no regrets. 

"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," she wrote.

"Everyone wants a pop star, see? But I am a protest singer. I just had stuff to get off my chest. I had no desire for fame... And I understand I’ve torn up the dreams of those around me. But those aren’t my dreams. No one ever asked me what my dreams were; they just got mad at me for not being who they wanted me to be."

Feature image: NBC + Getty + Mamamia.