So farewell then, Sinead

We had resisted blogging about Sinead O'Connnor's apparent retirement, because, as the New York Times says today, everyone has heard this before. She does sound serious this time, but then again she also sounded serious about being Mother Bernadette in the breakaway pre-Vatican II church. Then we were going to blog critically about this line in the NYT story:

In the late 1980's she followed U2 to become one of Ireland's first rock stars since Van Morrison.

Perhaps a suggestion that someone send the journalist a musical selection with rockers like Thin Lizzy, the Undertones, Stiff Little Fingers (or even more random Irish stars like that woman who was in Bananarama). But upon reflection, we realised that the NYT comment is probably fair in that many Americans would have trouble naming Irish rock stars besides U2, Sinead, and maybe Thin Lizzy. And Sinead did burst upon the scene when Ireland was a pretty demoralised place, the pre-Celtic Tiger days of 20 percent unemployment and chronic emigration. For that reason, her rise to stardom would have seemed more pronounced than some of her predecessors. And she also worked wonders for the world's ability to pronounce that Irish "S." Where would Sinn Fein be without her?