Sinéad O’Connor
We know it’s a terrible sin
To have problems in the place in
Between your two ears
But forget all your fears
They found her. Let judgement begin.
John Moynes
Rollingnews
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Everything. As It Happens.
Is Moynes actually getting outraged before anyone has even said anything?
Is this pre-emptive outrage now?
Everyone knows she wasn’t well and has her own problems, I haven’t heard any cynical or snide remarks.
This is the first mention of any “Judgement” I’ve heard.
Twitter was awash with snide last night.
And there was a bit on here yesterday evening too
I kinda take that as given.
Why fuel it? Leave her be.
Because, the more comments that are made on this page – the more money BS gets in advertising.
Yay!
And that’s more important than someone’s mental health.
The fact that she has problems is actually of no consequence. She now only receives attention in this country for having a bad day. She’s irrelevant.
She’s irrelevant; so why did read the article and leave a comment?
Oh now this, this is the level :-)
You don’t ‘hear’ snide or cynical remarks – you read them…..on social media. That’s the joy of social media; you can anonymously write the most abusive stuff you want to strangers, that you would never in a million years say to their face. Have a look at the comments on the article in her.ie, for one example. I know…..freedom of speech etc etc…..but I really think the social media thing is getting out of hand, in terms of abusive comments that are deeply hurtful to the targeted person…..we saw the same with GAA players last week……it needs to be controlled…..
You better turn off your computer so (and all other devices that feeds your hatred of social media and acts as your stirrup on that moral high horse of yours)
Well that’s exactly their my problem with social media – I don’t have a hatred of social media. I never said I had a hatred of social media. But here we have someone I’ve never met; jeering me about my supposed ‘hatred of social media’ and sneering about me being on a moral high horse….. I don’t know who you are Punches Pilot, never will know. You don’t know me….. but here you are happy to lash out at me in a public setting and accuse me in the wrong. And whats more…..you are very comfortable doing that. You don’t see a problem with it. Ergo, its my problem.
It is your problem. This (the internet) for all its badness is the sphere in which this stuff exists. Its not a personal attack on you per sae, it’s simply pointing out the naivety of thinking the internet should be nicer.
The internet is horrible. For what its worth (and I’ve pointed this out in another post) I certainly have to utmost sympathy for anybody suffering mental illness, even more so for those around a person who have to endure it. Any perceived nastiness you took from my comment was a swipe at Irish people having another SOC moment, not at SOC. Who really gives a s***? Is such honesty wrong because this society doesn’t really seem to give a single one. Oh yeah there’s loads of outraged people on the web ‘feeling her pain’ and loving to chin wag but not many people actually give two hoots.
Well said, WT
@WT_Thomas
You are happy to lash out at Punches Pilot in a public setting and accuse him/her of accusing you in the wrong.
Punches, she has a lot more talent than you will ever have.
Very true but who gives a s*** either way.
I do. I have massive respect for Sinead O’Connor, actually – as a person and as an artist. And I know I’m not the only one. So you could maybe fupp off.
Well get over to her quickly and give her a dig out.
Nah, I’d be more inclined to show her some respect. And that includes respecting her privacy.
@Brother Barnabas
You cant have it every which way. She may well be ill but being a celeb and posting everything you hear, say, do, think etc is hardly going to keep your life private, hence we’re having this conversation.
PS: my opinion of SOC is with reference to her music and social status, not her illness. Ireland is obsessed with her and I really cant understand it. She’s just another sick person. Grief merchants must feed on this stuff or something!
I don’t think the tangled mess of public and private life in the modern age is any excuse for people to respond to another human being’s plight with utter heedless self-important dickishness.
@Nigel
But there was nothing wrong with her. Instead everybody got their knickers in a twist because she went for a bike ride. Has everyone lost it in here today. This is the fish looking at the poor eejits outside the bowl today :-)
Hopefully nothing is wrong with her. And yet still the dickishness. I think going out of your way to dismiss her as irrelevant and her problems as of no consequence undermined your critique of online responses to her perceived plight.
@Nigel
Now now Nigel, you’re taking from this what you want to and not what I actually said. There is nothing irrelevant about mental illness. Hopefully she didn’t get run over either. Hopefully she didn’t get sunburned, hopefully hopefully hopefully …. Non story about somebody who has no relevance to me and many being made into a story for people like yourself to get all bothered about. Well done. You’re a winner. Keep it going.
Okay. You’ll have to take from me you mucked up on the delivery, though.
Nigel; “self-important dickishness.”
Punches/Tony/etc; “Non story about somebody who has no relevance to *me*”
@Nigel
That’s I can take. I do kinda shoot from the hip.
She can’t do anything without everyone having an opinion on it, everyone knows her business and everyone thinks they know best – it’s like life in Ireland magnified on to a world stage
Would you not be happier over at the Journal?
Unfortunately it’s her Facebook posts that are ensuring everyone knows her business. I can’t understand how an artist of her profile doesn’t have an agent or management team that can give her the support she needs as she does infer in her posts she has no one around. Thankfully the majority of people who comment on her posts are fans with messages of support but there’s always the few trolls and keyboard warriors who can undo their kindness.
Im more annoyed at how this gains traction and everyone loses their reason but the mental health budget gets cut and no one bats an eyelid
I was taken to task over this on social media. Not many other people with mental health issues would get this amount of media coverage.
That’s true, but she is getting coverage because she is click bait, not because she has mental health issues. It would clearly be for the best if newspapers didn’t write articles about her, leaving her open to abuse, such as some of the comments above……but that’s not how broadsheet works……
You are right that people who are not celebrities do not get the same amount of coverage when they have breakdowns. Of course not. However, be absolutely clear that social media is a major contributor to negative mental health in this country and elsewhere; whether its 14 years being taunted by other kids in their school or Sinead O’Connor being ripped to pieces in the comment sections on Broadsheet and elsewhere.
Its the same type of people making the same type of abusive comments.
Apologies…..I shouldn’t have said “that’s not how broadsheet works”; I meant to say “that’s not how the media works”…..
Good point Fluffy, there are many people out there suffering in silence and not getting the help they need
Given the negativity and hostility which this sort of thing generates I think it’s potentially damaging to public understanding of mental health problems and works against good mental health policies. The messy, loud, random, contradictory, apparently selfish behaviour of someone like Sinead O’Connor is at odds with the dignified, thoughtful, sensitive behaviour of, eg, Bressie. The latter image of mental health issues is much more palatable to the public than the former, which tries the patience and the sympathy and the energy of loved ones, while outsiders, treated to yet another episode of ‘acting out’ begins to dismiss it as merely bad behavour and looking for attention under the pretense of illness. And yet THIS IS WHAT LIFE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS CAN ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE. I wish people would have the simple humanity to understand that. if it tries your patience to watch yet another spectacle like this unfold, imagine what it’s like for her loved ones, or for her.
But she wasn’t ‘acting out’ anything. She went for a bike ride. Everyone else has the problem is my point. The response of everyone to the irrelevance of a previously popular star, with a past history of metal illness, going for a bike ride is tantamount to psychological deviance! I don’t know, I really don’t.
A simple harmless bike ride being elevated to a traumatic episode through worry based on past behaviour is entirely consistent with living with people with mental illness. And again the emphasis on unequivocal negative attributes with respect to O’Connor. If you were truly concerned with the online public responses rather than the individual you wouldn’t feel obliged to make trenchant value-judgments about her status at all.
Plenty of response to my initial comment, it’s a blessing that I don’t use Facebook or Twitter,
I did once upon a time, but it’s devolved into noise. Impossible to decipher the relevant information from the chaos.
I don’t really see the big problem with people being worried about her.
She’s had a really rough time lately.