Nothing Compares (2022) Movie Script

- All right.
- I gotta tell you,
I'm real proud to introduce
this next artist
whose name's become synonymous
with courage and integrity.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you.
I didn't mean to be strong.
I wasn't thinking to myself,
I must be strong.
I didn't know I was strong.
I did suffer through a lot
because everybody felt
it was okay to kick
the shit out of me.
I regret that I was
so sad because of it.
I regret that I spent
so many years
very lonely and isolated,
really.
Ran down And the lady said it
Got torn down
And the priest just said it
Got burned down, ooh
They give me five years
Ooh, five years
It's my turn
Oh, oh, Jerusalem
Oh, oh, Jerusalem
There was no therapy
when I was growing up.
So the reason I got into
music group was therapy,
which is why it was
such a shock for me
to become a pop star,
it's not what I wanted.
I just wanted to scream.
Everybody in music has a story
in terms of their upbringing
or where they came from
or what they went through.
There's something they need
to get off their chest,
and perhaps we all need
a bit of love and affection
that we didn't get anywhere else
but we get by making music.
Come on over there and sit down.
They're all, they're all
out there in television land.
They're saying "Mother of God,
what did she do with her head?
Isn't that a disgrace?
I hope my daughter
wouldn't turn out like that."
- Isn't that what you're saying?
- Yes, you are.
- Already, you are.
- How are you then?
- I'm fine, thank you. How are you?
- Well done so far.
Now from Glenageary,
you were a difficult child,
you were difficult growing up.
You went through a lot
of schools, did you not?
I think quite a few,
at the expense of my father.
How many schools
did you go through and why?
Um... I think, I don't know
how many, Dad? About five.
Five or six.
How many schools
did she go through?
- I'd say no more than five or six.
- - Five or six.
That's a bit
exaggerated actually.
That's in one year, of course.
And for me
Some scarlet ribbons
Scarlet ribbons
For my hair...
My very first musical memory
is my father singing to me,
"Scarlet Ribbons".
I just remember
being blown away.
Like I remember like yesterday
I was lying on my pillow
and my dad would
sing the song to me
and I was like, "Oh, my God."
The angels came in the window.
...all the streets were dark.
When I'm 11, my brother comes
home with " Slow Train Coming,"
which completely changes my life
and makes me want
to be a musician,
and makes me
want to be an artist,
and makes me know what
kind of artist I want to be
because of the song
"Gotta Serve Somebody."
And I was obsessed
with Bob Dylan from then on.
My mother had this
fantastic record collection
which she would spread out
on the dining room table
every morning
like a deck of cards.
Her musical tastes
ranged from John Lennon
right through awful kind of
HMS Pinafore, Light Opera,
right through to, like,
Porgy and Bess.
And also in those days,
musicals were huge.
That was all that
was ever on telly,
was these just high class
musicals, you know.
My mother always had
the soundtracks to them.
My father was into cello,
which I used to find just too
sad, given our circumstances.
My parents separated
when I was quite young,
and my mother
was a very violent woman,
not a healthy woman
mentally at all.
And she was physically
and verbally
and psychologically,
spiritually and
emotionally abusive.
My mother was a beast,
and I was able to soothe her
with my voice,
I was able to use my voice
to make the devil fall asleep.
My father is the type
of man that didn't want
anyone talking
about what happened,
and that's what
was wrong with me.
It wasn't talked about,
even in the family.
The cause of my own abuse
was the church's effect
on this country,
which had produced my mother.
I spent my entire childhood
being beaten up
because of the social conditions
under which my mother grew up
and under which
her mother grew up
and under which her mother
and her mother grew up.
I would compare Ireland
to an abused child.
I'd a terrible
Broken heart
I'd a terrible
Broken heart...
I began studying scriptures
when I was very small,
because I wanted to see
what was in this book
that they were using
to oppress my people.
Why were my grandparents
so miserable
that they couldn't have a kiss
without feeling like they
were going to burn in hell?
The church
influenced everything.
If it was a sin, then it was
against the law of the state.
So divorce, contraception,
and anything that
didn't agree entirely
with a very narrow view
of the Catholic church,
it was simply not allowed.
It affected
every level of society.
It was a mortal sin,
for example,
to go to a dance
in some diocese,
that didn't end at midnight.
It was a mortal sin
to eat meat on a Friday.
You could go to hell for
eating a sausage on a Friday.
Everything was gathered around
the power of the church
over its people.
I had loved the Catholic church,
and I had grown up so religious,
like stupidly religious.
I made my holy communion
and I took it seriously.
That was a contract
with the holy spirit I made,
and I believed it all,
and I was trying to live it.
I went into care when I was 14,
into care home for want
of a better description.
I was a bit messed up.
And it wasn't acknowledged
what had happened to me
in my mother's house.
I was unmanageable, really,
so they didn't want me at home.
The place was called "An Grianan",
which means "The Sunrise."
An Grianan was
a residential training centre
run by a religious order,
by sisters.
The girls came
from mixed backgrounds.
Some had come from
other children's homes,
have been in care
all their lives.
Others had come from
insecure family settings
and they needed somewhere
where there was structure
and safety for a few years.
They got a guitar teacher in
who was the loveliest
woman alive,
who I still know and
I still talk to now and then.
She's bloody lovely.
If not for her, I wouldn't have
made it through that place.
The first night, I was there
doing music with the girls,
I asked her, would she like
to sing a song for us.
And I won't forget it
as long as I live,
because we were just stunned.
We needed to encourage her
in this wonderful talent.
Ooh, I'm freezing!
When we decided to get married,
to do the solo.
And she sang "Evergreen,"
which was my favourite song.
One love
Ageless and ever
Evergreen
The emotion of the song
almost brought people to tears.
- It was stunning.
- It was absolutely stunning.
In the congregation
was her brother, Paul Byrne,
and then he was forming
this band called In Tua Nua.
We were searching for a singer.
So when I heard this voice,
it stopped me in my tracks.
on the steps of the church,
I'd arranged to go up
and see her at An Grianan.
We gave her a tape
and she phoned the next day.
She had the lyrics
and the melody done.
So we went back up the
next night and she sang it to us,
and it was spectacular.
We had to book a couple of
hours on a Wednesday afternoon
from school on a Wednesday.
Picked her up, did two hours
of vocals with her,
and then had her back before
the nuns noticed she was missing.
So the first song that I wrote,
which became their first single,
was called "Take My Hand."
It was a result
of the punishment
the nun meted out to me one day,
the nun, she could
be terribly kind,
but she could also be
terribly cruel as well.
Where I was, was attached
to a Magdalene Laundry.
She sent me to sleep in the
hospice part of the laundry
as punishment a couple of times,
to remind me that
if I didn't behave myself,
I was going to end up
like these women.
When I went up, there was
no staff there with the ladies.
There was never
any nuns or nurses.
And the poor ancient ladies
who were the Magdalene girls
were lying in their beds
calling out for nurses all night
that never came, it was awful.
I didn't know what to do,
and obviously, I was terrified.
Take my hand
These women,
we're now talking
about the early '80s,
some of them have been
there from the 1920s.
These women, who through
no fault of their own,
had just been put in
by the courts and by men.
Very often the cases were
they had been raped
by maybe the local priest,
the doctor, the father,
or some pillar of society.
They had to pay the price
and were locked away
for their whole lives.
The whole of Ireland
talks about these ladies,
but I met them, I met them
at their most vulnerable.
These people convinced my
father that they could help me
with whatever
behavioural issues I had
as a result of what had
happened to me growing up.
But they didn't, they just
shut the door in his face
when he dropped me there,
they took his money.
The problems were compounded.
We all were walking around
thinking we were terrible people
that didn't deserve to live.
My father, I'm sure
the world would acknowledge,
deserves a refund.
Young woman
With a drink in her hand
She liked to listen
To rock and roll
She moves with the music
'Cause it never gets old
both around 18 years old.
We were very close
for a number of years
until life kind of took us
in different directions.
She really wanted
to be doing her music.
I think she really knew
what she wanted to do,
but I don't quite know
if she knew
what path it would take her on.
I put an ad
in Hot Press magazine
that I was a singer and
I wanted to find a band to join.
And I remember going
into these suburban houses,
doing auditions for these
various different bands.
Eventually I ended up meeting
this dude called Colm Farrelly
who was
putting together this band.
Ton Ton Macoute, so I became
the singer in that band.
I had a job at the Bad Ass Cafe
on Crown Alley,
and we used to rehearse
right across the road from it.
We did nothing
but rehearse live,
which is why I love
live performing.
And every rehearsal
was like a gig.
Nigel Grainge and Chris Hill
came over to Dublin
to see us, Ton Ton Macoute.
About six months later,
my mother unfortunately died,
very selfishly.
Months after that, I get a
phone call from Chris and Nigel.
He said, "Well,
why don't you come to London
and do some demos?"
For five long years
I thought you were my man
But I found out
I'm just a link
In your chain
You got me
Where you want me
I ain't nothin'
But your fool
You treated me mean
Oh, you treated me cruel
from her arrival in London
through to the development
of and the recording
of her first album,
"Lion and the Cobra."
Our job as a sort of group
of musicians from the outset
was to help her
to find her feet.
She'd already found her voice,
but she wanted to find
the sort of musical clothing
that she wanted to wrap
around that amazing voice.
What's it called?
Um, we haven't got
a name for it yet.
So we went into
a rehearsal studio in Putney
and started to routine the songs
and get used to the dynamics
and arrangements.
It makes a big difference
if you can go in
and rehearse for a long time.
Nigel Grange was the head
of Ensign at the time.
He was quite used to putting
people into a position
of being able to work
for long periods.
So he's a kind of nurturer.
I'm just as guilty as you
I'm just as ashamed as you
The first time
it's just unbelievable.
It was jumping octaves
and going from whisper
to scream in half a second.
I mean, it was just amazing,
a young kid from Dublin,
you know.
And
I'm just as guilty as you
You often hear artists saying
that they're
channelling something.
I think actually
you're channelling yourself.
Your subconscious
is talking to you.
I just had these songs inside me
that had to come out.
They were very, very personal
and they were
sort of cathartic, really.
There were kind of songs
to help her, to heal her.
In some respects,
I think the band that we were,
the band of musicians
who were around her,
were something of
a family for her.
We were safe.
Fachtna O'Ceallaigh had been
Boomtown Rats' manager
and had run U2's label.
He came over to London
I had a great time
hanging out with Fachtna,
and Fachtna used to bring me
to Portobello Road on Saturdays,
where he had
his friend Lepkey, and Leroy.
He used to have
the Dread Broadcasting Company
and they had the open mics.
Bearing in mind I'm Irish
and I've come
from the theocracy,
and these guys were coming along
roaring about the Pope
is the devil,
and fucking burn the Vatican
and all this stuff,
so that was like,
"Oh, my God, I'm home."
I couldn't believe it.
I fell in love with
Rasta at that point.
Love to everyone. You're back
in tune to The Rankin' Miss P,
on DBC, the Dread
Broadcasting Corporation,
103.8 every Friday.
We're electric, y'all.
She was really shy
and she was living down
in east London with her auntie.
She didn't know anyone,
and so we just hung out.
We did a lot of driving
around London, you know,
with the stereo on, just having
a great time actually,
just being kids, to be honest.
to be a musical commodity.
They wanted me
to grow the hair long
and wear short skirts
and high heels,
makeup and the whole works,
write songs that wouldn't
challenge anything.
But then I come
from a country where
there used to be riots
in the streets over plays.
That's what art is for.
That led to her deciding
to shave off all her hair.
At the time, I was
her closest female friend.
I think... I went
to see some friends,
and when I got back to her flat,
she wouldn't open the door.
She just said,
"I can't, I can't.
You got to look
through the letter box,
I've done something
and you're going to kill me."
I looked through the letterbox
and there she was
with a completely shaved head.
The label were
with those really obvious
generic female labels.
Obviously she was having
absolutely none of it.
You just looked at
somebody and went,
"We know now what
we're dealing with."
It's a powerful statement
for a woman because she says,
"Don't fuck with me."
Me and John
were friends for a year
before, you know, we ever
went out with each other.
We were both going out with
different people and everything.
And then we just kind
of drifted into it,
and then within a month
I was pregnant.
The record companies in
those days had their own doctors
that they sent you to.
The doctor announces that
the record company have spent
a hundred thousand pounds
making your record,
you owe it to them
not to have this baby.
Ensign tried to dissuade her
from carrying on the pregnancy
and giving birth to Jake,
and thankfully, she
obviously stood her ground,
but they did put pressure on
her to terminate the pregnancy.
That was the final straw for me.
I was sick of the
fuckin' record anyway.
I hated the fuckin' record.
There was a big fallout.
Fachtna O'Ceallaigh
was working very hard
to persuade the label
to just give her scope,
to just change tack.
Basically they said,
"Have a go."
In my part,
it was a response to them
telling me I owe it to them
to not have my baby.
And I was like,
"well, it ain't worth it
for a shit fuckin' record."
I just knew that I didn't
want any man telling me
who I could be or what I could
be or what to sound like.
I came from
a patriarchal country
where I'm being told
everything I can and can't do
because I'm a girl.
I figured, well, if I didn't
take it from the system
and I didn't take
it from my daddy,
I ain't taking it
from anybody else.
Can I do two?
The whole of
"The Lion and the Cobra"
was completely scrapped
and we started again.
That was a really important
turning point in that record.
The second version was fresher,
younger, and spontaneous.
Put your hands on me
Put 'em on, put 'em on
Put 'em on me
Hands, gimme love
Hands, gimme those
I want your
Gimme, yes
Gimme this
When we got
the first album cover,
I was frozen like a rabbit
in the headlights
getting my picture taken.
Put on the album and got me
to scream along with the album.
So that's why
there's the picture of me
looks like I'm screaming,
which they wouldn't
use in America
because it was too
aggressive-looking
as far as they were concerned.
I didn't realize
that they'd have to do
a different one for America.
It was only when it came out
and I thought,
"Yeah, of course
they couldn't have
a picture of her screaming."
You know, that would
scare too many people.
I had to photograph
her for the cover
from the shoulders up
because the record company
didn't want to see her pregnant.
Once we had got the pictures
that we knew
the record company needed,
we just did what we wanted.
It was, you know,
a joy to photograph
this little girl with her
bald head and her big belly,
amazing looking.
I think her image
screamed more than feminism,
beyond feminism at the time.
I think it was just
like non-binary,
incredible intersectional
feminist attitude.
Her fashion sense was like
35 years ahead of the time.
People found it
problematic just because
they read the language of
skinhead into the shaved head.
It suggested some
kind of aggression,
but actually the beauty
of her features,
the quality of her eyes,
it created a fantastic
contradiction.
As a filmmaker, gave me
a very graphic, powerful image
from the get-go.
Anytime I worked
with John Maybury,
it was amazing 'cos he came with
a whole gang of glorious queens.
The set makers, stylists,
the makeup people, you know,
and they like
genuinely adored me.
I felt so safe and looked after.
I felt like I had like
a hundred daddies.
You do
Something to me
She recognized
in us kind of a sense of
some kind of kindred spirit,
but there was no judgement.
There was no critiquing
in any kind of personal terms.
And she was free to be who
she wanted to be within that
because everyone else was free
to be who they wanted to be.
I had never, until I went
to London, seen gay people.
They were so inspiring
and still are to me,
especially the ones that
were dressing like women.
You couldn't do that in Ireland.
You'd have the shit kicked
out of you, you know?
Let me live 'neath your spell
Do do that voodoo
That you do so well
For you do
Something to me
That nobody else
Can do
That nobody else
Can do
Why I like performing
and why I like singing loud
and stuff like that is because
I am quietly spoken
and quite withdrawn...
and into myself, and in
my, sort of, normal life,
so it's quite a release to climb
on the stage and scream for an hour.
At the end of my day
Nothing would
Nothing would
Please me better
Than I find that you're there
When I wake
Just like you
Said it would be
Just like you
Said it would be
Just like you
Said it would be
Just like you
Said it would be
Will you be my lover?
Will you be my mama?
I said will you my my mama?
There are a lot
of songs that I've written
about my mother's death
or in response to her death.
And " Troy," I think
was the first one.
It's also the first song
I've wrote
where I'm telling anybody
about anything that's happened.
I'll remember it
Dublin in a rainstorm
And sitting
In the long grass in summer
Keeping warm...
One of the very traumatic things
that happened to me growing up,
was that my mother
had me living in the garden.
So once when I was
eight-and-a-half,
I lived in the garden
24/7 for a week or two.
I'm talking in that song
about that experience,
the whole thing of sitting
in the long grass in summer
trying to keep warm.
So I'm out in the garden
in the fucking dark
and when it's coming to dusk
and I still hate dusk
to this day, I don't mind
if it's day or night,
but dusk, I don't like.
And I'd be looking up
at the only window
at the side of the house
where she'd have a light on
and I'd be screaming,
begging her to let me in.
And she wouldn't let me in,
the light would go off,
the house go dark.
Every other song I'm writing
is about somebody else
or from the point of view
of somebody else.
"Troy" is the first song
I've written about me.
It's not a song,
it's a fucking testament.
And you should've
Left the light on
You should've
Left the light on
Then I wouldn't have tried
You'd never have known
And I wouldn't have
Pulled you tighter
No, I wouldn't have
Pulled you close
I wouldn't have screamed
No, I can't let you go
If the door wasn't closed
No, I wouldn't have
Pulled you to me
No, I wouldn't have kissed
Your face
You wouldn't have
Begged me to hold you
If we hadn't been there
In the first place
Oh, but I know you
Wanted me to be there
Oh, oh
Every look
That you threw told me so
"Troy" is not safe.
I don't need
to dig that up again.
It's like trauma therapy.
There would've been
no point writing
and/or going around
the world screaming "Troy"
into microphones, if there
wasn't going to come a day,
one day that I didn't
need to do that anymore.
Make no difference
What you say
You're still a liar
You're still a liar
You're still a liar
all through the making
of "The Lion and the Cobra"
And I think in many
ways, actually,
it was quite grounding
to have a baby very young.
In some way, I think it
probably kept us sane.
There's nothing more deep
and real than a baby.
And there's nothing more
fake and unimportant
than fame, really.
Dana Dane making her first
appearance on Top of the Pops.
Here's another lady making
her first appearance.
She's got an excellent
new album out at the moment
called "The Lion and the Cobra",
and a single Mandinka
at 22 in the charts.
I remember watching
It's just seemed quite
surreal to be honest,
because she was just my friend,
but she was this other person
in other people's eyes.
I'm dancing the seven veils
Want you to pick up
My scarf
See how
The black moon fades
Soon I can give you
My heart
I don't know no shame
I feel no pain
I can't see the flame
But I do know Mandinka
I do know Mandinka
I do know Mandinka
I do
When "Mandinka" was released,
it just jumps out of the
radio, it was one of those songs.
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
I do, oh, oh, oh
I said I do
I swear I do...
You know, it was almost
like she had always been there
once she came on the scene
because you really
couldn't imagine your life
without her at that point.
I do Mandinka...
I heard "Mandinka"
at a club in Boulder, Colorado.
I just remember hearing
the voice and it's nothing
other than something
that stops you in your tracks.
Soon I can give
You my heart...
I hear that voice
and I feel comforted.
And that first album, like,
the entire thing
was just stunning.
Telling me he'd be home
Sailed the seas
For a hundred years
Leaving me all alone
"The Lion and the Cobra"
was an amazing album
just because there
was no filler on it.
So as a critic, you know,
that was one of the first things
that drew me to it.
She also has a very
singular voice and perspective
and very strong
personality-wise.
To me, it was like
the whole package.
I remember the day
The young man came
He said, "Your Jackie's gone
We got lost in the rain"
And I ran to the beach
And laid me down...
The thing about
"The Lion and the Cobra" is,
you don't get that as
a debut album every day.
Those things come
like once in a lifetime.
Like the back of his hand
He'll be back sometime
Laughing at you...
And many times
in your performances,
there's an intensity, almost
a rage burning inside of you.
Where does that come from?
You're a small, demure,
quiet sort of person.
I don't know.
Perhaps there's something
twisted about me
that I haven't realized yet.
You've also said that
non-traditional Irish musicians
seem to have to leave
Ireland to make it.
If you're a woman
in particular, and unless
you're very sort of timid
and you want to make
nice Irish music,
which I respect and everything,
life can be very difficult
for you because people
can't actually handle a woman
doing anything different.
When I leave Ireland,
it's virtually unheard of
for a woman to be
making her own living
and independent of men.
The Irish fucking constitution
still contains the wording
that a woman's place
is in the home.
So I was very lucky, from 1985
I was making my own living.
So many people in this country,
women in particular,
had to say no when they wanted
to say yes to themselves,
or be open about their anger.
At that time in Ireland, women
weren't allowed to be angry.
And I think that might've
been hard for some of them
because, you know,
they had spent their whole life
saying no to themselves.
Tonight, the Grammy
awards are presenting
best rock vocal
performance female.
Our first performer
is 21 years old,
comes from Ireland
and with her very first album,
"The Lion and the Cobra",
she has served notice
that this is no ordinary talent.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I'm dancing the seven veils
Want you to pick up
My scarf
See how
The black moon fades
Soon I can
Give you my heart...
I remember talking to
her the next day and she said,
"Oh, my God, I went
on stage and Stevie Wonder
was sitting in the front row."
And we were
Stevie Wonder freaks.
So this was quite a leap,
you know.
I don't know no shame
I feel no pain
I can't see the flame
But I do know Man-din-ka
You know,
you're there and you're looking
at all these people that
you've watched on the television
and there's people like
Quincy Jones and Stevie Wonder
and I was just like...
I do know Mandinka...
As I sang Mandinka,
I had "Jake's baby girl"
on the back of my pants and
I had Public Enemy logo painted
into the side of my head.
They decided they
wouldn't go to the Grammy's
quite rightly because
they were protesting.
I protested the Grammy's in 1989
because they refused
to recognize
rap music and hip-hop
as a legitimate
musical category.
I thought it was like admirable
when she put the Public
Enemy logo on her head.
you didn't get the sense
that she was
just being pretentious,
that she was fake.
It was like, yeah,
she seriously
has issues with this.
This is what's going
to drive her artistry,
she's committed to that.
It was a brilliant performance.
At that point, she was
the darling of everyone.
In one way, I loved it.
Obviously I was
a very young woman
and you kind of fantasize
about being famous.
In another way,
I was frightened by it.
What maybe was difficult
for me was the timing
of the success thing,
it meant that I suddenly had
this identity and I didn't
feel like it was really me.
To be honest, I also had
very little self-esteem.
I couldn't understand why
anyone liked my records.
Let me tell you
how stupid I am. Um...
Okay.
We were sitting here
doing this interview
and I had accepted the fact
that your head was shaved
and didn't even think
about it very much.
Well, that's good, that means
we don't have to talk about it.
I know, but I see,
everybody else in America
is looking at me saying,
"Why doesn't that idiot ask her
why her head is shaved?"
So now I'm doing it.
I just cut my hair because
I wanted to cut my hair, you know?
It's like, you know,
I wear red knickers one day
because I want to wear
red knickers, you know?
And then black another day.
We wouldn't call those
knickers though, we'd call it...
No.
We got married at the
spiritualist centre in Sloane Square
and we'd been going to
the spiritualist centre a lot
because obviously,
I'd lost my dad and a sister.
And we were kind
of trying to make
some kind of spiritual
connections if we could.
It was a sort of
a therapy for us in a way.
We had an amazing time there,
so we got married there.
It was brilliant,
it was a great day.
In 1989, we filmed
Hush-a-Bye Baby in Derry.
And it was in that
film Hush-a-Bye Baby
her acting debut.
She came over with John.
She was fairly newly married,
I think.
She brought
her little son, Jake,
who was just a toddler
at that stage.
Of course, I only have
eyes for Lecce Loves.
Jesus Christ, Nigella.
We'll be barred
and it'll be your fault.
Sloppy tit, going on
about what's his face.
We were trying
to contribute to the debate
that was raging in Ireland at
the time about abortion rights
and women's sexuality and
how women were being treated.
And I think she had
exactly the same feelings
like so many thousands
of other women,
especially young women.
It's about a 15-year-old
school girl who gets pregnant
and about the obvious
trauma and awfulness
that she goes through
because of the fact
that she's pregnant and the
fact that teenage pregnancy
is just the worst thing
that could possibly happen
and people aren't very
supportive about it in general.
And girls are made
to feel as if they're sluts
and they're some sort
of whore, you know,
for sleeping with somebody
and things like that.
And because of things
like the church
and the contraceptive laws
and all that sort of thing
and the abortion laws.
In the 80s and 90s and
obviously the decades before that,
women were treated
abominably in Ireland.
Women's lives were patrolled
and investigated and surveilled
and tampered with
every minute of their lives.
It was appalling.
There was
a sense of being in this
little backward place, you know,
where the light wasn't
really shining brightly
and you couldn't
get contraception,
you couldn't get condoms,
so this was a big issue.
You didn't talk about sex and you
certainly didn't talk about abortion.
It's quite a similar story
to your own, isn't it?
No.
You had a baby
when you were very young.
Last time you told me that there
were certain attitudes in Ireland.
Yeah, except I had
a baby when I was 20
and I was living in London
and I had enough money
to get a nanny and I had a
boyfriend who was living with me
and I wasn't in school.
And I was in a society that
doesn't look down on pregnancy
as much as Ireland does.
So I don't think you can compare
that to a 15-year-old girl
who has no money
and no boyfriend and no support
from anybody,
you know what I mean?
- I think I was in very...
- nice circumstances
compared to those girls.
It seems years
Since you held the baby...
When you put
your first album out,
you don't really expect
anything to happen.
You don't have any expectations
in you when you do that.
You're not aware
of the whole world
of goodies and baddies
to be discovered.
And I remember I was quite
taken aback by the whole thing,
amused at the idea of me
sitting and doing press conferences
and things like that
because it was just
like completely ludicrous.
You know, at the time
that I had my baby
and put my album out I was 20,
which was extremely young.
And now I'm 23 which
is still extremely young
and I'm still developing my
"personality", in inverted commas.
And I'm still discovering
things about myself
and about the world, you know?
So naturally,
I'm not going to be the same
as I was when I was 20.
When the album "I Do Not
Want What I Haven't Got",
was finished, we took it
into Nigel Grange in Ensign
and he said, "This is like
reading somebody's diaries.
I'm not putting it out."
"Well, that's it,"
you know, end of story.
Didn't compromise it in any way.
Well, I am far more
proud of this album
than I was of the last one.
I feel that it's much
more truly reflective
of me than the last one was.
And I've had much
more involvement in it
than I had in the last one.
The way she grew in confidence
was something else.
She's a powerful, sexual being.
I think she was enjoying
playing with the gender roles,
the kind of toughness
of the leather jacket
and the toughness of denim
or the Dr. Martin boots
or whatever it was that she
was bringing at the time.
There's always
still this beautiful woman,
beautiful girl inside of that.
So she was playing
with gender herself.
She came to understand
the nature of what we were doing
with pop videos and also,
obviously, at a certain point
with a certain video, we came
to understand just how much
the videos could change
the perception of the music
and her as a musician.
"The Nothing
Compares To You" video,
she came back with all
the rushes on a VHS
and we've stuck it into the
video machine, I was watching it.
And that's when I thought,
"Wow, this is really,
really special."
The video was shot
both in studio and it was shot
in the Parc Saint-Cloud,
which is this beautiful
18th-century park
just outside of Paris.
The extraordinary close-up
work that John did
with the lighting camerawoman,
Dominique Le Rigoleur,
who we chose particularly
because we wanted a female
to create a relationship
In between takes,
really heavy duty dub reggae
and light up a spliff, and
be bopping around the studio.
We weren't in a kind of
particularly sombre mood.
Looking into my monitor,
looking down that lens,
I saw right there, this
connection coming down the camera...
It was like, "Oh, okay,
this is really something else.
It's not my direction,
it's not the cinematography,
it's entirely her."
If you don't
identify emotionally
with a song, you can't sing it.
I didn't know I was
gonna cry singing it.
I didn't cry in the studio,
it was just because
of the big eye on me
in the form of a camera.
Every time I sing the song,
I think of my mother.
I never stopped crying
for my mother for, Jesus,
I couldn't face being
in Ireland for 13 years.
I never even called home,
I just cut myself off entirely
but it took me, I would say,
25 years to stop crying.
So yeah, I was thinking of her
and I suppose my subconscious
was thinking of that little
girl that sat in the garden.
I think it's funny that
the world fell in love with me
because of crying and a tear.
I went and did a lot of crying
and everybody was like,
"Oh, you crazy bitch,"
but actually, hold on.
You fell in love with
that tear, that was a mirror.
Sit yourself down, well done.
- The hair is growing!
- Just a little bit.
Just a little bit, a wee bit.
How are you then?
I'm grand, I'm a bit tired,
but I'm fine.
- A little bit tired, yeah.
- So we're told.
Good to see you. Will you
be number one on Monday?
I don't know, you know.
You're all very kind.
I don't want to
count my chickens.
You know what I mean?
Half of me sorta says,
oh, well, you know,
it doesn't really
make a difference,
but then the other
half is sort of going,
oh, please, God, please.-
It would be nice, wouldn't it?
We shouldn't even be
thinking about this.
Shouldn't even be
thinking about it, okay.
When will you know?
Ten to three
on Sunday afternoon.
But I've got to try
not to think about it.
The song went number one,
everywhere in the world
pretty much.
Then everything
changed overnight.
- And the winner is...
I don't really know what to say,
except thank you very much.
You know, peace.
"Nothing Compares To You."
The level of when
"Nothing Compares To You"
became a hit was extraordinary.
It really was off the scale.
She was the biggest thing.
I mean you think of artists
like Billie Eilish now
or Amy Winehouse,
you know that level of
intensity that's on you.
And also if you're incredibly
iconic in your look
and your style and your passion,
then there's a lot
of focus on you.
I didn't realize how huge
the single and the album were.
I really didn't.
And I looked in some
magazine the other day
and it said that
the record had been
something like the fourth
biggest record in America,
I nearly dropped dead.
I didn't have
the slightest idea.
The single
went to number one in America.
She was suddenly a major act.
Hello!
The tour got bigger and bigger
instead of theatres,
we got into arenas and stadiums.
It seems like years
Since you held the baby
While I wrecked the bedroom
You said it was
Dangerous after Sunday
And I knew you loved me...
She seemed
to take it all in her stride.
There were some days
when she was sort of like,
"Oh, this is a bit much," most of
the time she seemed to enjoy it.
There was obviously
a feeling of like,
"Oh, well, this is
going to be great."
It was going to be good anyway,
but this is going
to be really good.
I am stretched
On your grave
And will lie there forever
If your hands were in mine
I'd be sure we'd not sever
My apple tree
My brightness
It's time we were together
For I smell of the earth
And am worn
By the weather...
About halfway
through the tour,
we did a place in New Jersey.
It was an open air venue.
For some reason,
they always played the National
Anthem before the main act.
about it, and said
"There's no way.
I'm not going on stage if
you play the National Anthem."
So there was a bit of an
argument between management
and management of the venue,
but in the end, the
venue relented, they said,
- "Alright, alright.
- If you don't want it played,
we won't play it."
And I thought, "Oh, this is
going to be everywhere tomorrow."
Going down to breakfast,
you hear the immortal words.
"Oh, God, have you
seen the papers?"
First, the explosion,
then the fallout.
Hi, 95.5 PLJ, it's Fast Jimmy,
O'Connor on this radio station.
from the airwaves because
of a recent refusal
to perform in concert if the
National Anthem was played.
With American soldiers
on foreign soil
poised for conflict,
patriotism is running
at fever pitch.
We decided Monday morning,
that since we played
the National Anthem
on our station
to support the troops
over in the Middle East,
that she probably
wouldn't welcome
being played on
our station either.
The wrong time, the wrong place
and the wrong way
to throw a tantrum.
Someone should just
have said to her,
within her own management,
You don't like America,
then get the hell out.
My opinion is she
should go back to Ireland
or wherever the
hell she is from.
Don't tell my country, you
can't play the National Anthem.
I didn't put the marine green on to
listen to some bald-headed Irish girl
tell me I can't hear
my National Anthem.
She wants the money,
the fame and the glorification.
But she's going to have to
be sensitive to some issues.
One extreme
patriot is Frank Sinatra,
who said he would
like to kick her ass.
"At his age, he couldn't
lift his leg high enough
to kick her ass", says
As soon as someone highlighted
that it had to be played,
she would say,
- "- Well, you can't censor me.
- This is my show
and why are you
telling me what to do?"
America is the land of free
speech, and they're telling her
she's not allowed
to have her free speech.
- Issue number 3, the bald chick.
- What's with her head?
- Let's start with the chick.
- What gives, Cue ball?
I'm looking at you. I'm thinking
14 in the side pocket.
I can't believe you're talking
about my hair with all
the bloody starvation
and the suffering in
the world right now.
- Come on, swing baby, you're platinum.
- Forget the head.
Put a bag over it
and do your business.
I think that,
certainly, the industry
can be extremely patronizing
towards women.
You're supposed to have
long hair wear push-up bras
and lip gloss, you know,
and shut up and sing.
Maybe if I was a man, there
wouldn't be such a fuss about it
you know what I mean?
It's just not expected
of women, I don't know.
But then nothing about me,
particularly, in people's minds,
conforms to what a woman
should conform to.
But I don't know if it's
so much a conscious problem
that they have
because I'm a woman.
I think it's because I'm not
a conformist on any level.
You know what I mean?
Tell me about this row
about the National Anthem,
were you right to get into that?
I don't think it was a situation
being wrong or right.
It was a situation of,
I acted at the time
in the way that I felt
would be most true to myself.
I didn't mean to offend anybody.
I did it because
I have a huge problem
with the censorship movement
that's happening
in America at the moment.
It has terrible implications.
The idea that artists, you know,
painters, photographers,
musicians, poets,
and people like that
are being told what
they may and may not say
and what they may
or may not write about.
- Where is that happening?
- -In America,
in particular among the
Black community it's happening.
So, I have two problems with it.
First of all, that I don't
think censorship should happen
at all to anybody.
But secondly, I think
that a lot of the time
there's a lot of White artists
who are very offensive as well,
and they don't get censored.
So it leaves me
thinking that it's
a slightly racist
problem as well.
So, you know,
if it happened now,
I might've reacted
in a different way,
I didn't realize that people
would take such offence to it.
- Because I didn't mean offence.
- You know what I mean?
The problem is that
a lot of people would say,
well, you didn't
not take the money.
You know, if they
asked me for the money,
I would gladly
have given it to them.
- You would, you would.
- All the money?
- Absolutely.
Can't go through life
giving back the money.
I don't perform or make
records or do anything
in order to make money.
It's not the thing that I hold
most important in my life.
Well, I heard that she
doesn't like Ireland
and she doesn't like the USA.
So they're going to be
handing out American flags.
So we're going to wave it at her
and see what she does.
Controversy surrounds
her wherever she is.
Why do you think that is?
Just because of who she is.
- I don't think she gets a fair...
- because of the way she looks,
I don't think people
treat her fairly.
It's a very patriotic country.
And a lot of people
have been told
that I have some sort of
anti-American feeling,
which is very irresponsible
on behalf of the media,
because that does
put a person in a situation
where literally
their life could be at risk.
You know what I mean?
When the press
started to attack her
that was really difficult.
They arrived at the door
in London and Jake was with me
and he was only very young
and they started
to fire questions,
you know, while
Jake was next to me.
- And I just, I just was...
- I was absolutely furious.
Margaret Thatcher on TV
Shocked by the deaths
That took place in Beijing...
She's always championed justice.
You know,
if something wasn't right,
she would step in and try
and do something about it.
Listen, this song that I heard,
"Black Boys on Mopeds"
about the treatment
of Black people in England.
Well you can't really
talk about racism
without being political.
Yes. True, true.
England's not
The mythical land
Of Madame George and roses
It's the home of police
Who kill Black boys
On mopeds
And I love my boy
And that's why I'm leaving
I don't want him
To be aware that there's
Any such thing as grieving
Young mother
Down at Smithfield
5:00 a.m., looking for food
For her kids...
We were
living in Stoke Newington
when she wrote that song,
you know, it was around us,
you know, that kind of police
versus the Black community.
It was ugly at that point,
particularly in
that part of London.
The police
are picking on children!
I write songs about things
that I feel strongly about.
It's not consciously
to write a political song
or consciously to make
a statement about anything.
And I think that that's
what every person's duty
to themselves is, is to act
on their feelings and to say,
when they think
something's wrong.
It doesn't matter whether they're, you
know, a singer, or whatever they are.
Yes, and take the consequences.
I imagine so.
I'm an Irish artist,
and there's a tradition
among Irish artists
of being agitators
and activists.
You know, whether
they're playwrights or poets.
An artists job
is sometimes to create
the difficult conversations
that need to be had.
And it's none of my business,
what anyone thinks of me
when I do that.
The right to choose an abortion,
the right to information
on where to obtain one.
In Dublin's O'Connell street,
speaks out against her
country's stringent abortion laws.
Abortion will be legalized
in this country very soon.
Let's have another referendum
when only women
of childbearing age vote
for the right to choose
their own destiny.
What I believe is that
you cannot take away
a person's right to choose.
It is not a pro-abortion
or an anti-abortion issue.
The issue is
the right to choose.
The church deliberately
distract us from that,
by making it into
an either anti or for,
- you know what I mean?
- But it's not that.
It's the right to choose
your own destiny.
And it's none of
anybody else's business,
not your mother or your father
or anybody else.
Or your priest.
I never felt
to any pressure. Ever.
Then she just seemed to become
really controversial about everything.
Two weeks before the Grammys,
O'Connor threw down
the gauntlet to her peers
announcing she would not
attend the ceremonies
because the music industry
was driven by greed
and artists
were not speaking out
against the war in the Gulf.
It is the creative community
that are driven by greed.
That's why none of them
are saying anything
because
they're afraid their careers
are going to be in jeopardy.
It's why nobody has said
anything about the war.
to perform at the Grammys,
I was under a lot of pressure
to change her mind.
As if that were even possible.
It wasn't like
threatening-threatening,
but I felt that my career
could certainly be in jeopardy,
These were powerful people
in the industry.
I didn't think that the
powers that be were ready for her.
Where she's from,
artists had always
stepped forward and said things,
but maybe in different genres,
and not so much
as a pop superstar.
she was becoming a pop superstar.
Okay, so this is my favourite
place in the universe,
which is St. Mark's place.
All the Rastas live there,
and all the Irish people
live here, which is why I like it,
because Rastas and Irish
people should live together,
since they're both the same.
The object of my game coming
into the music business was
I really saw it as something
like a bit of a chess game.
Could I get from one side
of the board to the other
and still be myself
and still be true to my reasons
for being in the music business?
And also, I suppose,
spiritually true to myself,
do you know what I mean?
The music business can be
a bit of a vampiric arena.
That's Charlie.
The first one's Charlie,
and that's Charlton.
- Say hello to Jake.
- Hi, Jake.
Gary.
- Yes?
- Say hello to Jake.
- Him Jake.
- That's Gary.
Maybe we'll get
to see you, Jake.
He's really mad.
Hi, Jake, how're you doing?
- Say hello to Jake.
- Jake. How are you?
You can go around
trying to please everyone
as if you're in
a popularity contest,
and yeah, that might get
you lots and lots of money,
but that's not necessarily
going to be keeping the contract
that you made with yourself.
That was the last one,
wasn't it?
That was the very last one.
Okay, can we go on
from a bit before?
- Yes.
- - I didn't want to fall into that trap then
of you know, the follow up
album to the number one, single.
And so I was kind of buying
myself some time really,
creatively speaking.
Because you've had
that hit record,
all of a sudden
you could go in there
and tell them you want
to make a record of farts,
and they'll say,
"Yeah, sure. Okay."
Let's listen back and make
sure we love this arrangement.
- Okay?
- - I think there's a huge pressure from labels
when an artist has
a worldwide number one.
And I think with the,
"Am I Not Your Girl" album,
this was a great antidote,
really to what happened.
And it had the most amazing
team of arrangers, musicians,
and of course, legendary
Phil Ramone producing.
It was just such
a joy that record.
We used to go out walking
Hand in hand
You told me all
The big things
You had planned...
I did love the record,
and I loved making it.
It was just astonishing
being in a room
with that band every day.
It was just like, "Oh, my God."
I was quite
intimidated actually.
I was quite scared
to open my mouth
because the band were just
so ridiculously brilliant
and I couldn't see myself
as being anyway good.
Am I not your girl?
Am I not your girl?
Am I not your girl?
Am I not.
There were things
going on in my own life.
Things I was discovering
that my mother had done
that I didn't know about.
And then I had come across
an article about families
who had been trying
to lodge complaints
against the church
for sexual abuse
and were being silenced.
Basically fucking everything I
had been raised to believe was a lie.
You know, that everything about
the Catholic church was a lie.
Ave, ave, ave Maria
At the end of the line
of bishops, walked the Pope.
And as the crowd noticed him,
they broke into cheering and clapping.
I took two things
out of my mother's house.
One was her cookery book,
and the next was
a picture of the Pope,
which had been
on her bedroom wall.
Young people of Ireland,
I love you.
He didn't fucking love me.
And I could fuckin' cry
right now saying it.
You know, it was such a lie.
Now we know what a lie that was.
He was so involved
in covering up
what happened to everybody.
And I had a right
to fight that evil
because I loved the church.
I'm going to go on
Saturday Night Live
and I've got fuck all to lose
because no one could
do jack shit to me
that hasn't been done already.
I had booked her
on Saturday Night Live.
Now this was for
her third record,
which was,
"Am I Not Your Girl."
It's a great booking,
the record was just coming out,
and this would really help it.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Until the philosophy
Which holds one
Race superior
And another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited...
The song is also very important.
You know, it's a Rastafari song.
It's a speech that
the Emperor Haile Selassie
had made at the United Nations,
and then Bob Marley
turned it into a song.
First class and second class
Citizens of any nation
Until the colour Of a man's skin
Is of no more significance
Than the colour of his eyes
I've got to say war...
...war
War in the east
War in the west
War up north
War down south
There's war
And rumours of war
Until that day
There is no continent
Which will know peace
Children, children
Fight
We find it necessary
We know we will win
We have confidence
In the victory
Of good
Over evil
Fight the real enemy.
Nobody knows what to do.
My blood has run cold.
She blows a candle out,
she goes off stage,
she goes into her dressing room
and she's so happy.
You know,
she had pulled this off.
And I had gone into
the dressing room after her,
and I said, "You know,
I can't get you out of this."
- And she said, "You know what?
- I don't want you to."
What effect do you think
this is gonna have on
I don't know.
Do you care?
Um, well, it depends on
what you mean by...
- I don't know.
- You'd have to say what you meant.
Do you think what you have done
will make you more popular
with your fans?
Less popular with your fans?
Or will it just be something
in a rash moment?
- Well, I can't really say.
- I don't know.
Are you prepared
to accept the consequences,
which you said don't seem
to be negative, right?
Of what you're doing?
What consequences?
Well, look at the alternative.
is no stranger to controversy.
A master of the shock tactics.
But this time some are
questioning whether she went too far.
No response yet from the Pope,
but church spokesmen say
that he will no doubt
for her bout of Vatican bashing
on NBC's Saturday Night Live.
The controversy for singer
as she strikes a sour
note with Catholics.
NBC has been at pains to stress
it doesn't condone what she did.
The network says O'Connor's
tirade caught them off guard.
NBC logged a thousand
complaint calls...
Her actions Saturday
night were spontaneous,
certainly unauthorized by NBC,
and NBC was offended
by what she did.
The Catholic league
for religious and civil rights
is pressuring record stores
to stop selling recordings
by O'Connor
and her record company.
During the lunch hour,
they passed out leaflets,
urging customers
to join their boycott.
Some didn't need
any encouragement.
I thought it was repulsive.
Anyone that sends
us in their tapes,
we're going to chop
up these tapes.
Actually, we were just
going to send them to her.
Someone said,
don't send the tapes new.
Break them up,
'cause she'll sell them again.
So we're going to break them up
and put them in a trunk,
and have someone
deliver them to her
in Ireland
or wherever she may be.
I would've grabbed her
by her eyebrows.
you know and so on.
Or you just don't like that she
tore up a picture of the Pope.
is completely a robot brain.
- She has messages...
- She's like Victorian,
she has messages where she
slaps onto art like labels.
But I'll tell you one thing,
she was very lucky
it wasn't my show.
'Cause if it was my show,
I would've gave her such a smack.
big theme is child abuse...
- All right?
- It all comes from child abuse.
child abuse was justified.
I got a little bit worried,
you know when things were
going really badly in the press for her.
It was a terrible time for us.
And just created this hatred.
It was unbelievable.
I had fan letters
with death threats to myself,
and one day I took in
a sack load of letters
that were directly
threatening either to her
or to me, or any of our team.
I was watching it with
some friends as it happened.
And we were all applauding
and cheering and were like,
"Feminist performance art,
on TV.
When does that ever happen?"
I can't sit here and tell
you that I was all like,
- She's ahead of her time."
I don't think I was
saying that then.
I think I probably was joining in,
"Oh, God, what's she doing now?"
There was this idea that
she was a bit of a joke.
Fight the real enemy.
When she does
a concert in New York city,
if she has the guts
to ever do a concert
in New York City again,
after one of her songs,
I'm going to jump up on stage
and tear up a photo
of Uncle Fester.
Do you enjoy shocking people?
No, but I enjoy a good debate.
Did you realize
the consequences at the time?
I don't think it's a good idea
to talk about it here, tonight.
So you don't want
to talk about it at all.
Some other time,
I'll talk to you about it.
But obviously
you don't have any regrets.
No, absolutely not.
I'm real proud...
to introduce this next artist
whose name's become
synonymous with courage,
and integrity.
Ladies and gentleman,
Thank you.
I'm on stage and the
audience start making this
mad noise where half
of them are booing
and half of them are cheering.
And it's the fucking
weirdest noise
- I've ever heard in my life.
- And it makes me want to puke.
My song that I was
supposed to sing
at Madison Square Garden
was "I Believe in You."
This song was to be
sung in a whisper,
and I knew that I couldn't
because I wouldn't be heard,
I would have been drowned out
and I couldn't have that.
"Are you going to stand by me"
was almost what I felt
God was saying to me.
"Are you going to
fucking stand by me,
or are you going
to pussy out here
and walk off stage."
Okay, turn this up.
Until the philosophy
Which holds one
Race superior
And another inferior
Is finally
And permanently discredited
And abandoned
Everywhere is war
Until there's no longer
First class or
Second class citizens
Of any nation
Until the colour
Of a man's skin
Is of no more significance
Than the colour of his eyes
I've got to say war
Until, the basic Human rights
Are equally
Guaranteed to all
Without regard to race
I say war
And until
The ignoble
And unhappy regime
Which holds all
Of us through
Child abuse, yeah
Child abuse, yeah
Subhuman bondage
Has been toppled
Utterly destroyed
Everywhere is war
Everything kind of
coalesced into that moment.
Someone who grew up
in a household
of abuse and rejection,
then being rejected,
by what probably felt like
the whole entire world,
re-traumatizing her
in front of the world,
it made me feel demoralized,
as a woman.
People that would boo
what were they doing
at a Bob Dylan concert?
She's taken quite a beating,
in the world,
because, the world
does not take kindly,
to having its
program interrupted.
The smooth flow of entertainment
must not be interrupted.
and I'm learning to love myself.
I am deserving,
I deserve to be
treated with respect,
I deserve not to be
treated like dirt,
I deserve to be listened to.
I am a woman,
I have something to offer,
I am and have always been
carrying a lot of grief,
from my lost childhood,
and for the effects of its
horror and violence on my life.
I find it hard to be myself,
to show my feelings.
To get to the joy,
I need to release the pain,
which is blocking me.
If I do not do this,
I will not survive.
I was angry before,
because I was frightened,
but I know that if you
could really listen,
you'd see that we do not
know what we are doing,
when we mock the expression
of human feeling.
When we scoff at the sound
of our children's keening,
there's a mirror into
which we are not looking.
There's no way
I'm going to shut my mouth,
I am a battered child,
and the whole bloody world
is gonna know about it,
the same as they are gonna know
about every other battered child.
They are not going to
be able to shut us up,
just because they don't
want to hear about it.
We all have,
mental health issues,
you know, on one level,
and it's very important
for us to recognize that,
and I think that's something
did way before anybody else.
I was always being
crazied by the media,
made out to be crazy.
I don't blame anybody,
for thinking I was crazy,
or for hating me for it,
or whatever,
'cause they didn't know,
I mean, it was a crazy idea,
I mean, this bitch
is saying that,
priests are raping children,
I mean, Jesus Christ,
of course it seemed
crazy to them.
She, was still
making great music,
still making great records,
but we didn't hear them
and we didn't see them.
In those days, if the press
weren't talking about you,
if you weren't on the radio,
if you weren't on TV screens,
you might as well
have not existed.
Which is what
she just disappears.
I have about a ten-year period
I don't remember much,
because it suddenly
became a free for all
for everybody around me,
personally and publicly to
treat me like shit basically.
They didn't like what
they saw on the mirror,
I understand that now,
but when I was younger,
I was just hurt.
The
willingness to tell her story,
to share her personal pain,
her struggles,
to share them, with Ireland
and with the world,
I think has given people,
the courage to do the same.
On behalf of this state,
the government and our citizens,
deeply regret,
and apologize unreservedly,
to all those women,
for the hurt
that was done to them,
for the, any stigma
they have suffered,
as a result
of the time they spent,
in the Magdalene Laundries.
Today, we live in
a very different country,
with a very different
consciousness,
and a very different awareness.
An Ireland where we have
more compassion,
more empathy,
more insight, more heart.
We do, because at last, we are
learning those terrible lessons.
We do, because at last
we're giving up our secrets.
In Ireland, it's being
called a quiet revolution,
and a victory for women.
The once
conservative nation, voted yes
to repeal a constitutional
ban on abortion.
Yeah,
I'm proud to be Irish today.
I think Ireland's coming so far,
in the last ten years,
and I think it's really showing
that we're not so influenced
by the church as much anymore.
Wherever there's
that righteous anger
of a woman now,
who is making a difference,
who's changing things,
who's standing up
and being courageous.
That is where the little
We are seeing the rights that
people fought for being pulled back,
being diminished,
and... to look at the power
of speaking out,
and she is the absolute epitome
of what that power is.
We need to keep showing
how effective it is,
and how important it is.
Women's bodies are under attack!
- What do we do?
- Stand up, fight back!
There's a lot
of artists that came afterward,
that were able to say
and speak their mind,
and spill their soul.
She broke the ice
for a whole decade
or two decades
of artists after her.
A government inquiry last year
found some Irish bishops
put their church's reputation
before the interests
of their flock,
actively covering up clerical
child abuse for 30 years.
But the scandals
go far beyond Ireland,
and touch the Vatican directly.
Last week, it was alleged
that Pope Benedict,
then known as
Cardinal Ratzinger,
had prevented the church trial,
of an American paedophile
priest, in the 1990s.
The church in Ireland,
must acknowledge before the Lord
and others,
the serious sins committed
against defenceless children.
forged her own path
in a world that just
was not ready for her.
This young upstart,
with the most beautiful voice
you can imagine,
showed up, and just rocked
the shit out of the horse cart.
I don't want to see
her as a martyr,
because she's a
three-dimensional human being.
She makes mistakes,
she's a weirdo, she's great,
she's a lot of different things.
She did not deserve
what she got.
I regret that people
treated me like shit,
and I regret that I was
so wounded already
that that really,
really killed me and hurt me.
You know?
They all thought that I should
be made a mockery of
for throwing
my career down the drain.
I never set out
to be a pop star,
it didn't suit me
being a pop star.
So I didn't throw away any
fucking career that I wanted.
Didn't change my attitude.
I wasn't sorry,
I didn't regret it,
it was the proudest thing
I've ever done as an artist.
They broke my heart and
they killed me, but I didn't die.
They tried to bury me,
they didn't realize
I was a seed.
Thank you for hearing me
Thank you for hearing me
Thank you for hearing me
Thank you for hearing me
Thank you for loving me
Thank you for loving me
Thank you for loving me
Thank you for loving me
Which means forsaking me
Thank you for seeing me
Thank you for seeing me
Thank you for seeing me
And for not leaving me
And for not leaving me
And for not leaving me
And for not leaving me
Thank you
For staying with me
Thank you
For staying with me
Thank you
For staying with me
Thank you
For staying with me
Thanks for not hurting me
Thanks for not hurting me
Thanks for not hurting me
Thanks for not hurting me
You are gentle with me
You are gentle with me
You are gentle with me
You are gentle with me
Thanks for silence with me
Thanks for silence with me
Thanks for silence with me
Thanks for silence with me
Thank you for holding me
And saying I could be
Thank you
For saying, "Baby"
Thank you for holding me
Thank you for helping me
Thank you for helping me
Thank you for helping me
Thank you
Thank you for helping me
Thank you
For breaking my heart
Thank you
For tearing me apart
Now I've a strong
Strong heart
Thank you
For breaking my heart