to say what you feel is to dig your own grave

We lost Sinead O’Connor today and I’m absolutely gutted over it, in part because it is not the first time or the last time a woman has been mercilessly punished for standing up, for speaking out, for being unapologetically themselves.

She was mocked, she was shunned, she was degraded. But most of all, she was absolutely right. She called out systemic patriarchal abuse in a direct way that most people didn’t have the guts for - and continue not to have the guts for. She paid dearly for it.

I know what it’s like to feel that darkness. To want to give into it. Anyone who has struggled with mental illness knows it all too well. I wish there was a better path for her. I wish she had received the respect and admiration in life that she may finally receive now that she is gone.

Rest easy, Sinead.