Sinead O’Connor applies to join Sinn Féin and says leader Gerry Adams should resign

Singer writes she wants to 'help bring about changes'

Sinead O’Connor has applied to join Sinn Féin and called for the party’s leader, Gerry Adams, to resign.

In her latest blog post entitled ‘Strange Week’, the Irish singer wrote that she wanted to join the political party “just as a regular punter” because she wanted to see a “proper socialist Ireland”.

“I’m joining Sinn Féin now. If they’ll have me,” O’Connor wrote. “Just as a regular punter who wants to learn and contribute with whatever strengths I might have or learn. I’d like to see a proper socialist Ireland. I’d like to be educated as to how ordinary people like me can help bring about the changes which would make every child equally cherished and make everyone have equal rights.”

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In a Facebook post on Monday night, the ‘Nothing Compares To You’ singer also called for the party’s “elders” to make “the supreme sacrifice and step down shortly in the same way the last Pope did.”

“It was the smart thing for [the Pope] to do because his association in people’s minds with frightful things meant the church were losing bums on seats, if I may use a showbiz term. And now they have barely a seat to spare,” she wrote on the social networking site. “There’d be a zillion per cent increase in membership of Sinn Féin if the leadership were handed over to those born from 1983/1985 onward and no one associated in people’s minds with frightful things. Frightful things belong where they are now, in the past.”

O’Connor has sparked controversy over her outspoken views in the past. Her recent blog posts have focused on the introduction of domestic water charges in Ireland and the legacy of the 1916 Easter Rising. She wrote that she had never voted before but will do so in the next election because “the best way to revolt is vote”, adding that despite there being “issues” with Sinn Féin, a party which has in the past been linked with the IRA, she was going to vote for them “because I want 1916 brought to fruition so the fallout and rubble can be cleaned up and Ireland can move on.”

A Sinn Féin spokesperson told an Irish news website that O’Connor’s membership application was currently being processed. “We look forward to working with Sinead as part of Sinn Féin delivering change in communities across Ireland,” she said.

O’Connor hit out last month at critics of the Band Aid 30 charity single, on which she features. The singer said critics of the track, including Damon Albarn, Lily Allen, and Emile Sandé should “shut the fuck up”.

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