The Last Day of Their Acquaintance: Sinead O' Connor's 18-Day Marriage is Over

Congratulations and consolations to fiery Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, who ended her fourth marriage this week after a mere 18 days. The dumpee is a fella named Barry Herridge, whose career as a drug counselor did not gel with O'Connor's penchant for marijuana, which she tried to score on her wedding night by driving into a shaky part of town.

I hadn't really listened to Sinead's music in years, but hearing this story brought back memories of "The Last Day of Our Acquaintance," a whisper-to-a-scream breakup ballad that was a high point of her 1990 masterpiece I Do Not Want What I Haven't  Got, an album which is basically Blood on the Tracks for women.

O' Connor's career never really recovered from the tumult of the fall of 1992 when she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live and her confrontational appearance at the "Bob-fest" Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden a few weeks later.

She was planning to sing "I Believe in You" from Dylan's born-again Slow Train Coming LP but was taken aback by the loud boos in the audience. (I was at the Dylan tribute show and remember there were just as many people applauding her as booing her.) So instead of singing, she launched into an angrily shouted version of Bob Marley's "War."



While I respect Ms. O'Connor's right to free speech (and the audience's right to boo her) I've always thought the right thing to do as an entertainer would have been to launch into her song and win the crowd over that way. It could have been an incredibly powerful moment, but she blew it by throwing a hissy fit. It's a shame, because her version of "I Believe in You" (which she recorded for the charity record A Very Special Christmas 2) is beautiful, as shown in this clip from a 1999 Linda McCartney tribute at the Royal Albert Hall demonstrates.



Anyway, best of luck in the future to Ms. O' Connor in her future romantic and musical endeavors.

Buy Sinead O'Connor's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got on iTunes here.
Buy "I Believe in You" here.