“Our Wild Untamed Saint”

Writes author Perdita Finn:

Sinéad

She died on the feast day of the lost Irish mother goddess Anu . . . goddess of the oceans and the howling winds and the windswept earth. Anu, who the Catholic Church tried to turn into St. Anne the grandmother . . . but who could not really be tamed.

So many of us, as young women, who first heard her howls knew she spoke for us, expressed what was in our souls for generations. She was so damn brave. So wild. So utterly untamed.

I listened to her songs over and over again and I howled with her and afterwards I would feel better.

The deaths of people with whom I am not personally intimate does not usually matter too much to me.

But this one feels very painful indeed.

Let her be our wild untamed saint. Let her help us take the tape off our mouths and our hearts. Let us always be too loud, too much, too loving, too fierce, too all of it . . . in her honor.

– Perdita Finn
via Facebook
July 26, 2023

Related Off-site Links:
Irish Singer Sinéad O’Connor Has Died at 56 – Neda Ulaby and Anastasia Tsioulcas (NPR News, July 26, 2023)
Sinéad O’Connor Obituary – Caroline Sullivan (The Guardian, July 26, 2023)
“Rest in Power”: Celebrities React to the Death of Sinéad O’Connor – Simrin Singh (CBS News, July 26, 2023).
Sinéad O’Connor Dead at 56: Inside Her Public Struggles and Private Tragedies – Meredith B. Kile (ET Online, July 26, 2023)
From Ripping-Up a Photo of the Pope on TV to Fighting With Madonna, Sinéad O’Connor Had Many Controversies – ABC News, July 26, 2023)
Sinéad O’Connor Remembered by Kate Bush, Massive Attack, ANOHNI, Tegan & Sara, Perfume Genius, Tori Amos, Tracey Thorn, Tim Burgess, Flea, Chuck D, and Many More – Madison Bloom and Evan Minsker (Pitchfork, July 26, 2023)

UPDATES: The Gospel According to Sinéad O’Connor: She Was Right All Along – Amanda Marcotte (Salon, July 27, 2023)
Kate Bush and Hozier Share Emotional Tributes to Sinéad O’Connor: “A Light Has Gone Out” – Marcus Wratten (Pink News, July 27, 2023)
Singer Sinéad O’Connor, Shunned for Standing Up for the Rights of the Most Vulnerable, Dies at 56 – Democracy Now!, July 27, 2023)
“I Only Want to Be My Own Woman”: The Glorious Rage of Sinéad O’Connor – Rebecca Sheehan (ABC News, July 27, 2023)
Why Sinéad O'Connor Refused to Be Silenced – Allyson McCabe (BBC News, July 27, 2023)
Morrissey Writes Scathing Criticism of Sinéad O’Connor Tributes: “You Hadn’t the Guts to Support Her When She Was Alive” – Jem Aswad (Variety, July 27, 2023)

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Australian Sojourn – March 2015: Sydney and the Blue Mountains
Mark Beaumont: Quote of the Day – July 30, 2018

Image: Wiki Commons Images / Bryan Ledgard.