Sinead O’Connor

Sinead O’Connor at Sin-é,New York, June 1992 – Photograph by Allen Ginsberg – courtesy the Allen Ginsberg Collection of Photographs at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, Canada

Yesterday, we featured a couple of the more unusual (more unlikely) subjects from the Allen Ginsberg photo collection housed at The University of Toronto‘s Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library – Madonna and Warren Beatty. Today, we feature another – images of Sinead O’Connor. The occasion was her June 20, 1992 set at the legendary (New York) East Village club, Sin-é (famous also as the spawning ground for the young Jeff Buckley)

On October 3, just three months later, she appeared in the notorious segment on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, singing an a cappella version of Bob Marley‘s “War” and ripping up a photo of the Pope (John Paul II)

Never a stranger to controversy

and always an extraordinary voice.

See for example here

and here

and here (to just give three instances):

Recent tragedy (the sickness of her son) has caused her to currently (temporarily, we hope) retire from the public stage
(mindful too of promoters and their rip-offs (see here)

and her own deeply-personal challenges – here  [2018 update, following a series of profound struggles with mental health issues and sporting a new name Magda Davitt, Sinead/Magda returns to the stage – see here]

Here’s a recent interview (from April, 2015) promoting her tenth studio album, I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss

Keep up-to-date with Sinead – keep her in your thoughts

update July 26, 2023 – the sad announcement of her untimely death 

One comment

  1. I was there that night. Our band was set to perform the following night and the owner, Shane, invited us to see this. We were stunned to see Mr. Ginsburg sitting next to Lou Reed near the door (it’s an incredibly tiny room, just around 10m x 10m). Also present was Joey Ramone, who spent most of the time out on the sidewalk watching to the large window. I don’t know if he ever made it inside. I’m a Chicagoan, but if I were from NY I might have recognized other artists there. I’m sure there was a lot more talent squeezed into this place. Sinead sang before or after (memory fails me) another singer from Ireland and they sang some songs together, which was just glorious. After the performances, Sinead was busing tables and bartending, which she would resume doing the next night
    while we performed.

    Sinead was remarkably comfortable in this scene. There was a Hungarian white wine that everyone was ordering (and Sinead had been busy popping open bottles all night for them), and at one point she sat down at our table during a break and asked if it was any good, then she bummed a roll-up ciggy. When we left she was hanging out on the sidewalk with some rasta guys.

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