Sinéad O’Connor Was Blacklisted From Hollywood After Her SNL Performance

The Grammy Award-winning singer Sinéad O’Connor was an Irish singer, songwriter, and activist who wasn’t afraid to buck against the norms and challenge the public’s ideas. While O’Connor’s performances were always a form of protest, her 1992 appearance on “Saturday Night Live” made her infamous in the best way.

The now-iconic late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show has been running each week since launching in 1975. Every episode, the show’s celebrity host welcomes a musical guest who takes center stage to belt out two or three electrifying tracks.

While most musicians thrive on this big moment in their career, some take the time to make headlines, be it political or personal. Elvis Costello did it when he changed songs midway through his set. Rage Against The Machine did it when they hung the U.S. flag upside down.

During her performance of an acapella rendition of Bob Marley’s song “War,” which condemns the racism experienced by Black people globally, the Irish singer lifted a photo of Pope John Paul II while singing the word “evil.”

From the picture to the song choice, which O’Connor picked to condemn the rampant abuse in the Catholic Church according to her memoir, the infamous performance was a form of protest. At the end of her performance, O’Connor looked into the camera and said, “Fight the real enemy.”

Unplanned moments like this do not fly with “SNL” showrunner Lorne Michaels and NBC Vice-President of Late Night Rick Ludwin. Far Out Magazine reports that Ludwin “Literally jumped out of [his] chair” as soon as he witnessed the religious protest from the singer.

However, the repercussions of O’Connor’s stunt didn’t stop with a ban. Outraged by her performance, Joe Pesci, Madonna, and a chorus of other celebrities launched into ridicule of O’Connor. As she exited 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, O’Connor and her assistant faced a barrage of eggs from angry onlookers.

The Irish protest singer often discussed the reason why she pulled the stunt over the years. “When the Boomtown Rats went to number one in England with Rat Trap, [Bob] Geldof went on “Top of the Pops“ and ripped up a photo of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, who had been No. 1 for weeks and weeks before,” she told Hot Press (via Far Out Magazine).

“In Ireland, we see our people are manifesting the highest incidence in Europe of child abuse,” O’Connor told Time Magazine (via The Atlantic). “This is a direct result of the fact that they’re not in contact with their history as Irish people and the fact that in the schools, the priests have been beating the shit out of the children for years and sexually abusing them.”

Eventually, the U.S. did find out about the abuse from the Catholic Church after The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team uncovered the cases of widespread and systemic abuse in the Boston area by numerous Catholic priests.

In 2021, O’Connor told the New York Times that her stunt on “SNL” was both “brilliant” and “traumatizing.”

In 2001, a decade after O’Connor’s appearance, Pope John Paul II apologized for the rampant abuse by the Catholic clergy. However, both Pope John Paul II and his successor, Pope Benedict XVI knew about the abuse but refused to take the accusations seriously.

Sinéad O’Connor was always an activist, using her music and stardom to fight for the rights and beliefs she held onto. Singing for O’Connor was a platform for social commentary and activism, influenced by artists like Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, and other great Irish singers.