Revisiting Sinéad O'Connor's Infamous Pope Protest On SNL — Watch

The death of Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor is renewing interest in what will arguably go down as her most controversial moment.

During a now-infamous appearance as Saturday Night Live's musical guest in October 1992, O'Connor left viewers stunned when she held up a photo of Pope John Paul II and ripped it into pieces. She was performing an a cappella version of Bob Marley's song "War," then showed the photo during the song's final line: "We know we will win / We have confidence in the victory / Of good over evil."

"Fight the real enemy," O'Connor said as she tore the photo, a choice that was met with complete silence from the studio audience (and quite a bit of backlash in the months that followed).

As O'Connor detailed in her 2021 memoir Rememberings, the photo in question came from her mother's house, and she removed it from the wall after her mother passed away.

"My intention had always been to destroy my mother's photo of the pope," she wrote. "It represented lies and liars and abuse. The type of people who kept these things were devils like my mother. I never knew when or where or how I would destroy it, but destroy it I would when the right moment came. And with that in mind, I carefully brought it everywhere I lived from that day forward. Because nobody ever gave a [s—t] about the children of Ireland."

During O'Connor's SNL dress rehearsal, she did not show that photo, but instead held up "a photo of a Brazilian street kid who was killed by cops," she continued, adding that no one at SNL protested her plan to hold up the child's photo during her actual performance.

"No one suspects a thing. But at the end, I don't hold up the child's picture," she said. "I hold up JP2's photo and then rip it into pieces... Total stunned silence in the audience. And when I walk backstage, literally not a human being is in sight. All doors have closed. Everyone has vanished. Including my own manager, who locks himself in his room for three days and unplugs his phone."

While reflecting on the controversy, O'Connor disagreed that the SNL moment ruined her career. Rather, "I feel that having a No. 1 record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track," she countered. "I wasn't born to be a pop star. You have to be a good girl for that... After SNL, I could just be me."

O'Connor's death at age 56 was first reported Wednesday by the Irish Times. A cause of death has not yet been revealed.

Revisit O'Connor's SNL appearance above, then drop a comment with your own remembrances.