‘Daughter of Ireland’: Thousands mourn Sinead O’Connor

The funeral procession of Sinead O’Connor was swarmed by thousands of grieving fans and a host of famous faces.

Crowds throw flowers as they swarmed the hearse carrying O'Connor's coffin. Picture: Getty Images

Draped in blue, white and pink flowers, the coffin of Sinead O’Connor was swarmed by thousands of mourners as “the daughter of Ireland” was laid to rest.

The funeral procession rolled through the streets of her hometown Bray after a private memorial service attended by family, friends, and her contemporaries like U2’s Bono and The Edge and Bob Geldof, who was seen riding behind the cortege.

“Many, many times Sinead was full of a terrible loneliness and a terrible despair,” Geldof said ahead of the procession, which passed along the seafront 20 kilometres south of Dublin, where O’Connor lived for 15 years.

“We were talking right up to a couple of weeks ago. Some of her texts were laden with desperation and despair and some were ecstatically happy. She was like that.”

The village of Bray came to a standstill as the ‘daughter of Ireland’ was farewelled in her hometown. Picture: AFP

Thousands lined the streets to watch the funeral procession take O’Connor from a memorial service, attended by Bono and Bob Geldof, to a private burial. Picture: AFP

Bob Geldof rides in a taxi as part of the funeral cortege for Sinead O'Connor. Picture: PA/Getty Images

The outpouring of grief came after the singer-songwriter died last month at the age of 56. Picture: Getty Images

The coastal hilltop overlooking Bray was decorated with a heart and “Sinead” tribute, placed over a World War II navigational sign for “Eire”.

Ireland’s President Michael Higgins and Prime Minister Leo Varadkar were among those attending the service, which was led by an Imam delivering a Muslim funeral prayer that was an honour “for the daughter of Ireland”.

“The outpouring of grief and appreciation of the life and work of Sinead O’Connor demonstrates the profound impact which she had on the Irish people,” Higgins said in a statement.

“The unique contribution of Sinead involved the experience of a great vulnerability combined with a superb, exceptional level of creativity that she chose to deliver through her voice, her music and her songs.”

“However, achieving this came from the one heart and the one body and the one life, which extracted an incredible pain, perhaps one too much to bear.”

Crowds throw flowers as they swarmed the hearse carrying O'Connor's coffin. Picture: Getty Images

The outspoken singer rose to international fame in the 1990s with her powerful voice, which she used to criticise the Catholic Church. Picture: AFP

The procession passed O’Connor’s former home in Bray, eastern Ireland. Picture: AFP

The route along Strand Road was lined with locals and Irish who had made the pilgrimage to County Wicklow to pay their last respects to the singer-songwriter, who died last month at the age of 56. Police are not treating the death as suspicious.

The outpouring of grief was broken by cheers and clapping as the throngs of people spontaneously threw flowers on the front of the hearse. A camper van followed behind playing her music.

“I came up here today to pay my respects to Sinead, the legend she was,” Liam O’Neill, 56, from nearby Dun Laoghaire, said from the procession route.

“She had a voice like a rock. She was extremely talented and brilliant,” he added, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with O’Connor’s face in her 20s.

The Grammy award-winning singer, best known for her 1990 cover of “Nothing Compares 2 U”, rose to international fame in the nineties.

O’Connor was working on a new album and a movie before her death, which police are not treating as suspicious.

She had spoken openly about her struggle with mental health, and had shunned the limelight following the death of her son Shane, 17, last year. Picture: Supplied

While the memorial service and burial were private, her family offered a chance for a “last goodbye” with the funeral procession through the town O’Connor loved.

People left tributes outside the singer’s former home, named “Montebello”, which the convoy passed by.

“Sinead, thank you for hearing us and responding … sorry for breaking your heart,” said one message, surrounded by Irish flags and pictures of the singer.

O’Connor’s death prompted a surge of public sympathy around the world and in Ireland, where her willingness to criticise the Catholic Church, in particular, saw her vilified by some and praised as a trailblazer by others.

During her career O’Connor revealed she had been abused by her mother as a child. In 1992 she protested the abuse of children by the church, tearing up a picture of Pope John Paul II while performing on US television program “Saturday Night Live”.

She converted to Islam and changed her name to Shuhada’ Sadaqat in 2018.

“Besides being a fantastic musician, singer, she kind of instilled in people the need to speak out for injustice, for the different factions in society,” June Byrne, 73, told AFP, as she watched the cortege pass.

At the time of her death, O’Connor was completing a new album and planning a tour, according to her agents, who said she was also working on a movie based on the autobiography, “Rememberings”.

An autopsy has reportedly been carried out to determine the cause of the singer’s death, which London police have said they were not treating as suspicious.

She had spoken publicly about her mental health struggles, telling Oprah Winfrey in 2007 that she struggled with thoughts of suicide and had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

More recently she had shunned the limelight, in particular following the death of her son Shane from suicide last year aged 17.

- with AFP

Originally published as ‘Daughter of Ireland’: Thousands mourn Sinead O’Connor