Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor, who died aged 56 this week, left behind a lifelong legacy of outspoken commitment to progressive issues – including a 1990s stand in support of the Kurdish people.
O’Connor’s stellar musical career, which saw the artist reach international chart-topping success throughout the 1990s, was marked by regular and outspoken activism on issues such as child abuse in the Catholic Church, reproductive rights and racism. In 1991, this led O’Connor to lend her support to Kurds facing genocide at the hands of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The singer played a high-profile role in a ‘Concert for Kurdish Refugees’ at London’s Wembley Stadium and donated royalties to the Kurdish cause, as shown in archival footage initially shared by Kurdish creative Raz Xaldan, founder of the Jiyan Archives.
The benefit event raised funds for the International Red Cross, which was working to support Kurdish refugees who had fled northern Iraq following quashed Kurdish uprisings in the wake of the Iran-Iraq and Gulf wars. Tens of thousands of people were killed, and almost 1.5 million Kurds were displaced. These events brought unprecedented global attention on the plight of the Kurds, ultimately resulting in the US-backed establishment of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, protected by a no-fly zone.
Among those who were moved by the images of streams of Kurdish refugees was O’Connor, who played a leading role in the benefit concert by making a special appearance alongside musicians Peter Gabriel and Sting. The concert occurred simultaneously across London, Amsterdam, Philadelphia and Sydney, raising millions in donations. Then-Prime Minister John Major and Princess Diana attended the London event.
Moreover, O’Connor donated all the royalties from her record ‘My Special Child’ to support the Kurds. In an interview, O’Connor explained: “The song itself is about my experience with having had an abortion last year and how I dealt with that and how it made me feel… Then the Kurdish thing came up and seemed really urgent, so I thought I’d do that.”
The violence in northern Iraq followed just two years after the ‘Anfal’ campaign, an event characterised as genocide by Human Rights Watch, among other observers. Between 50,000 and 100,000 Kurds were killed by government forces in a nominal counterinsurgency campaign aimed at eliminating Kurdish rebel groups and eradicating the Kurdish presence from regions of northern Iraq, including the notorious chemical weapons attack in Halabja which claimed aroundd 5000 lives.
Along with her efforts in support of the Kurds, O’Connor offered vocal support to a number of other causes. Notably, she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II during a televised act of protest against the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, prompting global controversy. Later in life, O’Connor converted to Islam and changed her name to reflect that decision. In 2022, her son Shane committed suicide after leaving a hospital where he had been on ‘suicide watch’. The artist’s death on 26 July was not treated as suspicious by the local police, while her family issued a statement confirming the news.
