Jennifer Horgan: We've replaced Church oppression with the canon of the car

From a distance we now see the grip the Catholic Church one had on our lives, few people can see we are part of a similarly oppressive system today — the  car culture we protect that is taking and destroying lives

We protect car culture in our towns and cities even when lives are being taken or destroyed because of it. Picture: Chani Anderson

Nothing Compares 2 U played on RTÉ Radio One at the weekend. Author Colum McCann was on Brendan O'Connor's show, choosing some of his favourite tracks — an inspired choice of segment given the state of our world. McCann is a wise man; I could listen to him for days.

But it was Sinéad O’Connor’s voice that took my breath away. I hear her voice now as that of a prophet, though it was not heard that way back in the day. Her appearance on Saturday Night Live in 1992, when she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II to protest child sex abuse in the Church, was met with disgust — both here and in America.