Sinead O’Connor: Kathy McCabe reveals the person she was

Sinead O’Connor has been remembered as woman who wanted to help heal the world’s wounded, as Kathy McCabe reveals her memories of the late singer.

Sinead O’Connor captured our hearts with the tracks of her tears in the iconic Nothing Compare 2 U video.

And now they are broken as we mourn the loss of her singular voice and a supreme, otherworldly talent which was never given the respect she rightfully deserved.

O’Connor cared deeply about the world and the pain of its people even as she suffered so horribly from her own physical and mental trauma.

Sinead O'Connor fans are mourning her loss.

When we last spoke in 2020, O’Connor contemplated what it was about her voice and her songs which was provoking audible sobs from her audience which rang out in venues as her pure, soaring voice filled the room.

“I love especially when you hear the men crying,” she said.

“There’s a song that I have called Thank You For Hearing Me and that comes toward the end of the set. Up until that point, it’s the women that are crying.

“But when we get to that song, the men start crying. You can hear them. And that I find very moving. I’m always very pleased at the end of the shows when the men tell me they were crying as well, because you know you’ve done your job right.

“And it’s a very happy song, so they’re not crying from sadness. There’s something else that gets released. I think that I’m a catalyst for blocked emotions.”

O’Connor felt a strong purpose to put music out into the world which not only spoke out against injustice but could help heal people.

She recorded an emotionally charged version of the revered Mahalia Jackson gospel song Trouble of the World as the Black Lives Matter protests swept the world in the wake of George Floyd’s horrific murder by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020.

You could hear her voice catch as she sang the lyrics “I want to see my motha!” echoing Floyd calling out for his as he drew his final breaths.

Singer Sinead O'Connor performs in New York in 2012. Picture: Getty Images

As a mother of four children, she viscerally felt the anguish of a parent losing a child. And then 18 months ago, that unimaginable pain consumed her when she lost her 17-year-old son Shane to suicide.

O’Connor imbued the song with her hope the world was heading towards peace.

“I was very moved by when George Floyd was dying, he called for his mother. And up sprang these groups of women in the street, with big street signs saying that when he called for his mother, he called all mothers,” she said.

“And to me, Mahalia is the mother of the civil rights movement. Mahalia embodies the certainty that there is a journey which we are on as a human race towards love and peace. And that is the destination and that we will get there.”

Irish singer Sinead O'Connor has died, aged 56. Picture: AFP

O’Connor also believed in the power of the music of ancient cultures to soothe the savage beasts which dwelled in her mind – and in the back seat of her car when her youngest sons were at war.

Even as she worked on a new album of contemporary music, one which has yet to surface, her own playlists were filled with Hindu mantras and Islamic dua.

“I find that music grounding,” she said.

“I’m just frightened all the time of stupid stuff like going to the post office. I’m one of these people with chronic anxiety issues and I find the dua and the mantras take away all that fear. They centre me and take away my anxiety better than any drug would.

“And they have mantras and duas for every situation that the human person could possibly be in. They even have one for when you are being taken to court.

“When my two youngest guys were young and we would be driving in the car and the two boys are killing and fighting each other and nothing would shut them up, I would play one of the mantras and suddenly there would be silence in the car.”

O’Connor could be as funny as she was moving. Ahead of touring here for the Byron Bay Bluesfest in 2008, she spoke about reintroducing Nothing Compares 2 U into her setlist.

“It’s a great song that I have so much association with,’’ she said.

“I love doing it live, but not on TV – that makes you feel pathetic. I have to go into my world when I sing and people can get bothered that I look at the floor and close my eyes.

“Best to warn people about that . . . oh, and that I have a terrible sense of dress.’’