Awful news. Truly one of Ireland’s most legendary artists and an absolutely incredible performer.
Truly sad news. She was a complicated character, a spirit of protest, rejected and crushed by the society when she openly criticized the Catholic Church for the hush-hushed problem of child abuse.
Absolutely. Her treatment after that protest was really disgusting and definitely damaged her career long term, but I’m glad she was at least able to make music work on her own terms, mostly. I was lucky enough to see her live several times and was blown away after every performance. This is a loss that’s hit hard.
Have you seen the documentary Nothing Compares? She said that she didn’t throw away any career, because she never wanted to be a pop star.
I have seen it. I didn’t say she threw anything away, just that it had an impact on what her trajectory may have looked like, which is undeniable.
Right, makes sense. I suppose I was reading a bit too much into your “damaged” there. You’re right, it definitely changed her career path a lot. I think the really bad consequence was that a lot of people had this impression that it was okay to attack her in some pretty nasty ways. Like when Joe Pesci said he’d physically attack her, it was obviously deemed acceptable by public.
