Maggie Davey
The artist formerly known as Sinead O’Connor has made a startling metamorphosis. Not content with having acted the role of the Virgin Mary in The Butcher Boy, a recent film by Neil Jordan, O’Connor has now been ordained (twice) in the Tridentine Catholic faith.
In addition to paying 150 000 to finance an operation on a Tridentine bishop’s hernia, Mother Bernadette Mary O’Connor has taken to wearing a priest’s collar and saying masses.
Her second ordination was in an effort to put to rest allegations of simony – the buying of a religious title. The 150 000 was returned to O’Connor, but the fate of her spiritual adviser’s hernia is not known.
Her new role, she says, is to draw the disillusioned youth back to the church. This is a far cry from her rebellious days some years ago when O’Connor, now a resident of Lourdes, tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on stage, an act which she now says she regrets.
This has happened soon after O’Connor lost a custody battle for her daughter Roisin. Still, things could get worse, she could record an album with the rock’n’rolling Filipino priests or do a drum’n’bass version of the Gregorian chants.