Editing Sinéad O'Connor (section)

====''Saturday Night Live'' protest====
{{main|Sinéad O'Connor on Saturday Night Live{{!}}Sinéad O'Connor on ''Saturday Night Live''}}
[[File:Sinead rips into the Pope.jpg|thumb|right|O'Connor tearing up a picture of [[Pope John Paul II]] on live television in 1992]]
On 3 October 1992, O'Connor appeared on the American television programme ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' (''SNL'') and staged a protest against the [[Roman Catholic Church]]. After performing an [[a cappella]] rendition of [[Bob Marley]]'s 1976 song "[[War (Bob Marley song)|War]]" with new lyrics related to child abuse,<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Night Sinead O'Connor Took on the Pope on 'S.N.L.' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/arts/music/sinead-oconnor-snl-pope.html |date=26 July 2023 |first=Jon |last=Caramanica |newspaper=New York Times |url-status=live |archive-date=2 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230802025127/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/arts/music/sinead-oconnor-snl-pope.html}}</ref> she tore up a photograph of [[Pope John Paul II]] taken from her mother's bedroom wall eight years earlier,<ref name="Hess-2021" /> said "fight the real enemy", and threw the pieces to the floor.<ref name="Kaur-2023">{{Cite news |last=Kaur |first=Anumita |date=27 July 2023 |title=Sinéad O'Connor called the pope an 'enemy' on SNL. Chaos ensued. |language=en-US |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/07/26/sinead-oconnor-death-pope-snl/ |access-date=28 July 2023 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> A month later, O'Connor said she felt the Catholic Church bore some responsibility for the physical, sexual and emotional abuse she had suffered as a child. In describing her actions, she said the church had destroyed "entire races of people", and that [[Catholic priests]] had been abusing children for years. Her protest took place nine years before John Paul II publicly acknowledged [[child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |last1=Simpson |first1=Janice C. |last2=O'Connor |first2=Sinead |date=1992-11-09 |title=People Need a Short, Sharp Shock: SINEAD O'CONNOR |language=en-US |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,976937,00.html |access-date=2023-07-30 |issn=0040-781X}}</ref>

The protest triggered hundreds of complaints from viewers. It attracted criticism from institutions including the [[Anti-Defamation League]] and the [[National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations]], and [[celebrities]] including [[Roman Catholic]] [[Mezzogiorno]] [[Italian Americans]] [[Joe Pesci]], [[Frank Sinatra]] and [[Madonna]], who mocked the performance on ''SNL'' later that season.<ref name="Hess-2021" /><ref name="CBC.ca-20232">{{Cite web |date=26 July 2023 |title=Sinéad O'Connor, Irish singer and political activist, dead at 56 |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/sin%C3%A9ad-oconnor-obit-1.6918614 |access-date=27 July 2023 |website=[[CBC.ca]]}}</ref> Two weeks after her ''SNL'' appearance, O'Connor was booed at the 30th-anniversary tribute concert for [[Bob Dylan]] at [[Madison Square Garden]] in New York City before [[Kris Kristofferson]] came on stage, put his arm around her and offered words of encouragement.<ref name="CBC.ca-20232"/><ref>Ian Inglis. ''Performance and Popular Music: History Place and Time''. ch. 15: ''The Booing of Sinéad O'Connor: Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert, Madison Square Garden, New York, 16 October 1992'' by Emma Mayhew</ref> In her 2021 memoir, ''[[Rememberings]]'', O'Connor wrote that she did not regret the protest and that it was more important for her to be a [[protest singer]] than a successful [[pop star]].<ref name="Kaur-20232">{{Cite news |last=Kaur |first=Anumita |date=27 July 2023 |title=Sinéad O'Connor called the pope an 'enemy' on SNL. Chaos ensued. |language=en-US |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/07/26/sinead-oconnor-death-pope-snl/ |access-date=28 July 2023 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' later named O'Connor the most [[Influencer|influential woman]] of 1992 for her protest.<ref name="Wilde-2020">{{Cite magazine |last=Wilde |first=Olivia |date=2020-03-05 |title=Sinead O'Connor: 100 Women of the Year |url=https://time.com/5793721/sinead-o-connor-100-women-of-the-year/ |access-date=2023-07-29 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |language=en}}</ref>