Sinead was right.

You know, it occurred to me recently, Sinead O’Connor was right.

When she went on TV 20 years ago, sang a song about child abuse then tore up a picture of the head of the Catholic church—which we now know was engaged at the time in the organized practice, promulgation and concealment of child predation on a worldwide scale—and said, “Fight the real enemy” and flushed her career down the toilet.

Turns out she wasn’t a madwoman after all, she was a prophet.

It called to mind lyrics from a recent Kristofferson composition, “Sister Sinead.” Check it out:

And maybe she’s crazy and maybe she ain’t
But so was Picasso and so were the saints
Some candles flicker and some candles fade
And some burn as true as my sister Sinead

Considering everything that’s come to light in the past years about the Catholic church, I think the world press, not to mention the unruly Madison Square Garden audience that booed her offstage a couple weeks after the Pope-shredding incident, above, owe her an apology.

(I’ve been a little focused on Sinead since the move. One of my boxes of CDs was dropped in transit then “re-packed” by the movers, who must have taken the CDs they couldn’t fit and tossed them in the garbage. I probably wouldn’t even have noticed it if they hadn’t left a few CDs to remind me of the impressive collection of her work I used to own. So through trips to used CD stores, amazon.com and ebay I’ve been rebuilding…)

On the bright side, at least they didn’t drop one of the boxes containing Cash recordings. Oh my God, would there have been hell to pay. It would have made Sinead’s wrath at the Catholic church look like a walk in the park on a spring day in May.

Addenda! Lest I forget, both Kristofferson and Sinead have new-ish albums out and both are excellent. You should buy them right away.