How a young Sinead O’Connor toiled at notorious Catholic ‘training centre’ for troubled girls who scrubbed the floors and ‘cried every day’ – inspiring the singer to rip up a photo of the Pope live on TV
- From the age of 15, O’Conner lived at Dublin’s An Grianan Training Centre
- It had once part of one of Ireland’s notorious Magdalene laundries
Sinead O’Connor’s hatred of the Catholic Church famously led her to tear up a picture of the Pope on TV.
The astonishing act in 1992 stemmed from the fact that, long before allegations of sexual abuse by priests were widely reported, the singer was a fierce critic of the organised religion that helped to shape her.
From the age of 15, her shoplifting and truancy led to her being placed for 18 months in a ‘training centre’ that had once been part of one of Ireland’s notorious Magdalene laundries.
O’Connor later told how she had to wash priests’ clothes for no wages at Dublin’s An Grianan Training Centre, although a nun at the institution did give the musician her first guitar.
She called the home a ‘prison’, where she was ‘deprived of a normal childhood’ and girls ‘cried every day’. The experience left her so angry that it directly contributed to her symbolic attack on the Pope.
For 18 months of her childhood, Sinead O’Conner was sent to a Catholic ‘training centre’ that had once been part of one of Ireland’s notorious Magdalene laundries. Above: O’Connor as a young girl and, aged 23 at the Grammy Awards in 1989
Sinead O’Connor generated huge controversy in 1992 when she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II during a performance on US show Saturday Night Live
A contemporary of O’Connor’s told in a post online how many of the girls who attended the home had been ‘abused either sexually or physically’.
They spent their lives scrubbing floors and washing their own clothes as rats ran along pipes above them.
‘Prayer was a big part of life there, grace before meals and Mass every Sunday,’ she added.
Magdalene laundries, or asylums, had been set up to house ‘fallen women’, a term that referenced young mothers who had children out of wedlock.
Operating from the 18th to the late 20th centuries, an estimated 30,000 women were confined in them.
In the 1990s, the discovery of the graves of 155 women in the grounds of one of the laundries signalled the extent of abuse that took place in some of the institutions.
In 2017, a further 800 skeletons of babies were found in County Galway, Ireland.
The dead babies are thought to have been secretly buried beside a home for single mothers and their children over a period of 36 years, ending in the 1960s.
The home attended by O’Connor had been part of High Park Magdalen laundry, where for more than a century young women had lived and worked without pay.
After its closure, the site was sold to a property developer in 1993 for £1.5million.
The home attended by O’Connor had been part of High Park Magdalen laundry, where for more than a century young women had lived and worked without pay. Above: The building is now the home of a housing association’s offices
After its closure, the site was sold to a property developer in 1993 for £1.5million. Above: An old photograph of the convent
The Chapel at High Park, where Sinead O’Connor spent 18 months of her life
Magdalene laundries, or asylums, had been set up to house ‘fallen women’, a term that referenced young mothers who had children out of wedlock. Above: Girls in one of the laundries
A short time later, 133 bodies were exhumed from the graveyard, with a further 22 bodies discovered afterwards.
But only 75 death certificates existed for the initial 133 women, according to the Irish Times.
O’Connor previously talked about how the girls at An Grianan ‘cried every day’.
She was sent there by her father, who believed he was doing the ‘right thing’ by forcing her to go.
CLICK TO READ MORE: Sinead O’Connor’s life of controversy: From backing the IRA to tearing up a picture of the Pope and banning the US national anthem at her concert (and the resulting feud with Frank Sinatra)
‘It was a prison. We didn’t see our families, we were locked in, cut off from life, deprived of a normal childhood,’ she told the Irish Times.
‘We were told we were there because we were bad people. Some of the girls had been raped at home and not believed.
‘One girl was in because she had a bad hip and her family didn’t know what to do with her. It was a great grief to us.’
She recounted how as punishment for wrongdoing, she would be sent to sleep with the older ‘Magdalene ladies’, who she said were ‘dying’.
She said that the anger she felt as a result of her time at the home led in part to her decision to tear up the Pope’s picture.
She added that the Church’s ‘flaccid’ apology left her feeling ‘disgusted’.
O’Conner was allowed to leave An Grianan when she agreed to go to a boarding school for her final two years of formal education.
Her contemporary at An Grianan – who was there from 1979 to 1984 – echoed the singer’s account with her own recollections.
Writing on a website detailing the history of children’s homes across the UK, she said: ‘Our lives were restrictive and we scrubbed floors and washed our own clothes in big sinks with carbolic soap and rats running along the pipes above us.’
The unnamed woman added that they were in the school for most of the year and got very little holidays.
‘Prayer was a very big part of life there, grace before meals and after and Mass every Sunday,’ she added.
‘We did not have rooms but cubicles with curtains – a bed and a sink and mirror where we washed.’
She then clearly referred to O’Connor by adding that a ‘now-famous lady singer’ had lived with them.
The singer (pictured performing in Amsterdam in 1988) was placed in corrective school aged 15 after bouts of stealing
In 1990, O’Connor was first propelled to international super-stardom with her version of Nothing Compares 2 U, a song written and composed by Prince
Telling of the women who had been sent there for having children out of wedlock, she said most had been ‘forgotten by their families’.
However, whilst she said it was ‘not easy’, the woman said she had a ‘good education’ there.
Born Sinead Marie Bernadette O’Connor in Glenageary, County Dublin, in December 1966, O’Conner previously spoke out about being subjected to physical abuse at the hands of her mother, who died in a car crash in 1985.
Having been given a guitar by a nun at An Grianan and set up with a music teacher, O’Connor’s relationship with music flourished.
She released her first critically acclaimed album, The Lion And The Cobra, in 1987.
Her recording of Nothing Compares 2 U earned O’Connor multiple Grammy Award nominations and, in 1991, she was named artist of the year by Rolling Stone magazine.
Throughout her career, she recorded 10 solo albums, wrote songs for films and collaborated with other artists, but was also well-known for her controversial outbursts.
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