Tuesday, August 08, 2023

Fans line streets for Sinead O'Connor's funeral in Ireland

The singer, best known for her 1990 single Nothing Compares 2 U, died at her London home in July

Sinead O'Connor at Dublin Castle. PA Wire

Gillian Duncan
Aug 08, 2023

Fans have lined the streets of Sinead O'Connor's hometown in Ireland as her funeral takes place on Tuesday.

The cortege was expected to pass through Bray, Co Wicklow, before a private burial service is held later in the day..

The acclaimed singer, best known for her 1990 single Nothing Compares 2 U, died at her home in London last month, aged 56.
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Shaykh Dr Umar Al Qadri, chief imam at the Islamic Centre of Ireland, who met O’Connor in 2018, said he was “incredibly grateful for the opportunity to lead the Muslim funeral prayer for the daughter of Ireland, Sinead O’Connor aka Shuhada Sadaqat”. The singer had changed her name to Shuhada' Sadaqat in October 2018.

In Strand Road in Bray, a vehicle equipped with loudspeakers played music from her long career. There was a murmur of appreciation as Nothing Compares 2 U was played, with many singing along.

A statement from the Gardai (Irish police) on Tuesday said: "In keeping with her family's wishes, following a private service, members of the public will be able to pay their respects and are asked to gather at the Strand Road/Promenade area between 11.30am and 12.30pm.

"It is expected the funeral procession will stop briefly in this area at some stage between these times."

A London coroner did not find a medical cause of death and suggested that the postmortem results may take several weeks. The singer's death is not being treated as suspicious.

Handwritten notes were left outside O'Connor's home in Bray thanking her for sharing her voice and her music, with one saying: “You are forever in my heart.”

A pink chair was placed outside the pink-framed conservatory of the seafront house, with pink flowers, candles and a photo of the singer in front of it.

Flowers and candles are left outside singer Sinead O'Connor's former home in Bray, Co Wicklow. Reuters

One sign left by the wall of the property listed causes the singer had championed, including welcoming refugees, saying: “Where words fail, music speaks.”

A neighbour was also seen putting candles on the wall between the two properties.

O'Connor's family have asked people who wish to say a “last goodbye” to stand along the Bray seafront as the cortege passes.

The midmorning procession was due to start at the Harbour Bar end of the Strand Road and continue past her former home, Montebello, where she lived for 15 years.

Since her death on July 26, people have been leaving flowers and paying their respects at the house, which the singer sold in 2021 and which now lies empty.

“Sinead loved living in Bray and the people in it,” a statement from her family said.

People gather outside Sinead O'Connor's former home in Bray, before a private burial later on Tuesday. Reuters

“With this procession, her family would like to acknowledge the outpouring of love for her from the people of Co Wicklow and beyond, since she left last week to go to another place.”

The Irish Grammy-winning singer was found unresponsive by police at her south-east London home.

A host of tributes have flooded in from fans and famous artists across the world, including Russell Crowe, Annie Lennox, Cyndi Lauper and Bob Geldof.

A councillor for Bray East said fans are “grateful” to the family for allowing them the opportunity to “say goodbye” to O'Connor.

Erika Doyle told BBC Breakfast: “I was a lifelong fan of Sinead. We met quite by chance when she moved to Bray … Sinead, although she was attached to Bray and very Irish, she was a global superstar. That is easy for us to forget here in Bray – she touched lives across the world.”
Sinead O'Connor dies at 56 – in pictures

She added: “Sinead's legacy is still being written and I think it will for some time … we are very grateful to Sinead's family for allowing the opportunity to say goodbye …

“People are taking the opportunity to connect with her in some way.

“I always said about Sinead she was actually quite quiet, but she was never silent.

“We need to mourn the Sinead of Nothing Compares, but [also] the Sinead who shone a light on difficult areas.

“She was controversial, but in the way when people say things that people aren't ready for … speaking truth to power.”

Several gatherings were held in the days after O'Connor's death in Dublin, Belfast and London, where members of the public paid tribute to her legacy as a musician and activist.

O'Connor, who was born in Dublin in December 1966, released her first album The Lion And The Cobra in 1987.

Her second studio album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, followed in 1990 and contained the hit single Nothing Compares 2 U, which saw O'Connor top the charts around the world.

The track earned her multiple Grammy Award nominations including for the prestigious record of the year category, best female pop vocal performance and best music video.

In 1991, she was named artist of the year by Rolling Stone magazine and took home the Brit Award for international female solo artist.

She released a further eight studio albums, the latest being 2014's I'm Not Bossy, I'm The Boss.

Following her death, her music management company 67 Management said she had been finishing a new album, reviewing tour dates for next year and was also considering “opportunities” around a movie of her book.

Updated: August 08, 2023, 4:22 AM

Sinead O’Connor ‘gave us strength’, says Magdalene laundry survivor

A floral wreath designed by Karen Kehoe, on behalf of victims of abuse in Ireland, placed outside Sinead O’Connor’s former home in Bray, Co Wicklow (Liam McBurney/PA)

By Claudia Savage, PA

Today at 08:05

A woman who suffered abuse in one of the same institutions as Sinead O’Connor said the singer “made Ireland a different place” by speaking out on church and state exploitation.

O’Connor spoke openly about abuse she faced in a Magdalene laundry as a teenager, where she spent more than a year.

A guard of honour was made for the late singer by survivors as her funeral procession passed by her former Irish home.

Magdalene laundries were institutions established by the Catholic Church in Ireland to house “fallen women”.

An estimated 30,000 women were confined in Magdalene laundries and revelations about the widespread abuse of women and girls in the laundries eventually led to a formal state apology in 2013.

Maureen Sullivan, who came to see the funeral procession of O’Connor pass through Bray, Co Wicklow, said she was one of the thousands of women incarcerated in the secretive institutions.

She said she was put into the laundry at age 12 after being abused by a family member.

“I’m a survivor of the Magdalene laundry … and I done four years in these places, trafficked from one to the other,” she said.

“My name changed, my education was taken from me and I wasn’t allowed to play with other children in case I told them what happened to me.”

In 2022, a Journey Stone was unveiled by survivors of the Magdalene Laundries at St Stephen’s Green in Dublin.

Maureen Sullivan was one of the thousands of women incarcerated in Magdalene laundries (Claudia Savage/PA).

The Journey Stone memorial was designed to commemorate the suffering of the women who were incarcerated in Magdalene laundries and similar institutions.

Ms Sullivan said O’Connor was integral to bringing the memorial to fruition.

She said: “Sinead came along, she done a charity single for us so we could get a monument. So, the monument was just thrown on the side, so I decided that I’d turn it into a Journey Stone, and it’s in the little museum in St Stephen’s Green.

“Sinead’s name never comes up much on that, but only for Sinead that Journey Stone wouldn’t be there today.

“It was for all survivors and she was very happy about that.”

It gave us all courage, it gave us all strength. She gave strength to so many women

Maureen Sullivan

Some of those gathered at the funeral held signs highlighting the exploitation that many children faced in church and state institutions in Ireland.

O’Connor ignited vitriol when she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live in 1992, in protest against sexual and physical abuse in the Catholic Church.

Years following the performance, Pope John Paul II would acknowledge that abuse had been happening in Catholic institutions across the world.

Ms Sullivan said O’Connor highlighting the problem so publicly in the face of such intense backlash gave survivors strength.

“It gave us all courage, it gave us all strength. She gave strength to so many women,” she said.

“And the only thing I feel so sad about was the way she was treated in Ireland, I think that people should have supported her more.”

Mourners lined the streets to see the funeral procession of Sinead O’Connor in Bray, Co Wicklow (Claudia Savage/PA).

She added: “They’re supporting her now when she’s dead, but what support did she get when she was living? That’s the sad side of it.

“So my hope for her is that she has gone into the light, and I hope she’s in a better place because she deserves it.

“She made Ireland a different place. She spoke out when nobody else would. She was before her time.”

Ms Sullivan said O’Connor was a once-in-a-generation performer and activist.

“One in a million, I don’t think we’ll ever meet anything like her again,” she said.

She added: “I’ll miss her terribly, I wish somebody would have reached out to her and helped her.”

Mother and Baby home advocate Laura Murphy said she estimated about 100 people who had been affected by the Catholic Church had travelled to honour O’Connor on Tuesday in Bray.

Ms Murphy, 43, from Laois, talked about how the late singer was “not afraid” to speak of her own trauma and had to endure a “horrendous” time after ripping up the picture of the pope.

She said: “So we, in Ireland, the activist movement in Ireland, in general, looks up to Sinead O’Connor as our queen.

“We will honour her from this moment forth in every, every piece of activism we do, every word of truth that we speak, we will be honouring her and we will be emboldened by her, and we will be very cognizant to ensure that her legacy continues.”

Nothing Compares to Sinéad O’Connor

BY SUSAN BLOCK

AUGUST 4, 2023
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Photograph Source: Steve Terrell – CC BY 2.0

I first became aware of the incomparable Sinéad O’Connor in 1990 when I heard her sing “Nothing Compares 2 U,” a song by Prince that Sinéad made her own—without Prince’s blessing—but with eyes that saw right through you and a voice of silvery gold.

That voice reminded me of Joan Baez singing like an angel crying out against the wars, but more tormented because Sinéad was tortured, abused, probably by a priest or a nun or her mother. Most definitely by our world.

Her delivery was so intense, haunting, accusatory and yet so vulnerable, that as soon as I heard it, like millions around the world, I fell in love with her.

So did my husband Max. And as we fell in love with Sinéad, we fell in love with each other. We were already bonding through our opposition to war in general and Desert Storm (when it was still Desert Shield) in particular, and together we made a cassette tape (remember those?), Desert Susan, in the spirit of Tokyo Rose with a pinch of Scheherazade. We sent a few hundred cassettes to the troops and officers of Desert Shield and Storm to persuade them to “make love not war.” I talk about the wisdom of the much-maligned “Vietnam Syndrome,” the folly of war and the beauty of love in between musical interludes, and the first song on the tape is Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

To whom was she singing in that song? Her lover who left her? Maybe they broke up, or he died, or perhaps he went off to war, and she yearns for him to return in peace.

We yearned for all of them to return in peace, but they didn’t, though when they thought they “won,” they held a big parade. Then one Gulf War led to another, with terrible sanctions in between, and the Perma Warscontinued and continue. At least, over the years, Max and I have heard how those Desert Susan tapes featuring Sinéad turned some of those troops and officers to turn their swords into plowshares—or maybe floggers—and make love, not war. We’ve even met a few of them.

Then in 1992, the year Max and I got married, Sinéad O’Connor went on Saturday Night Live, sang out like a seer in that precious metal voice, and then she ripped up the Pope—actually her mother’s photo of Pope John Paul II—telling us to “Fight the Real Enemy.” In that moment, she was incandescent, a Joan of Arc for our times, and I fell even harder in love with her, as the fires burned around her.

Some claim now that nobody knew then that Catholic priests were molesting altar boys and girls en masse, but a lot of us knew, though many didn’t want to know, and poor Sinéad, like Joan, burned and suffered on the stake of society’s willful sexual ignorance.

The pope-ripping caused Sinéad to get canceled before cancelling was a thing. A few days later, she was booed at a concert by seemingly everyone but Kris Kristofferson, and it seemed that her brilliant career had been flushed down the Vicar’s drain.

But Sinéad was never sorry for what she did. She admitted she struggled with bipolar disorder and PTSD all her life, but in that moment, she was the sanest person on the planet. It was what she was destined for, to tell that truth about Catholic priests abusing the most vulnerable members of their flock when it was unpopular to say so, and I loved her for that. Now everyone loves her for that (well, almost everyone).

Then, almost two decades later, in 2013, I felt the pain of seeing someone I love do something I despise—as dramatically as she did the things I loved. Sinéad O’Connor wrote a scolding, slut-shaming open letter to Miley Cyrus about being too sexual and too “naked” in her Wrecking Ball video. She wrote that Hollywood was making a “prostitute” out of Miley, and not in a good way—whether Miley’s outfits and dance moves were Miley’s idea or not. When Sinéad slut-shamed Miley so fiercely and publicly, she slut-shamed me, and all of us who choose to wear erotic outfits or nothing at all—and I hated her for that… perhaps especially because I had loved her so much before.

Another Counterpunch writer, Ruth Fowler, wrote an article at the time that expressed my feelings about that awful letter much more eloquently and humorously than I ever could. Apparently, Sinéad read Ruth’s article and freaked out, called CP editor Jeffrey St. Clair and “unloaded” on him for 40 minutes, demanding that he fire Ruth. He didn’t fire Ruth, but he did suggest Sinéad write a piece for CounterPunch, which she did—and I loved her for that.

She took a few other important and unpopular positions, like supporting the Palestinians, turning down a Grammy as too “commercial,” and opposing all the wars. Though I’m still repelled by her slut-shaming, there was a lot to love about Sinéad O’Connor.

Her youngest son died by suicide a year ago, and I can’t even conceive of the immense pain and harrowing loneliness she went through over that, though I sometimes imagine her singing Prince’s song to her lost boy. Through all of her suffering, she gave us so many gifts of love, until she couldn’t anymore, and now at the young age of 56, she’s gone.

Thank you for everything, Sinéad O’Connor. Nothing compares to you.

Susan Block, Ph.D., a.k.a. “Dr. Suzy,” is a world renowned LA sex therapist, author of The Bonobo Way: The Evolution of Peace through Pleasure and horny housewife, occasionally seen on HBO and other channels. For information and speaking engagements, call 626-461-5950. Email her at drsusanblock@gmail.com