A final goodbye to a legend. Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor, found dead at the end of July at her London home, was buried on Tuesday in south Dublin. Her native country chose to celebrate her with a funeral procession along the seafront in Bray, a small town near the Irish capital. This is where the singer lived for 15 years.
“Sinead, thank you for hearing us and responding. Sorry for breaking your heart,” read a tribute left on the doorstep of the house. “Sinead loved living in Bray,” wrote his relatives. With this procession, his family would like to recognize “the surge of love of the inhabitants” of the region and elsewhere since the announcement of his death.
A gigantic inscription “ÉIRE LOVES SINÉAD” (“Ireland loves Sinéad”) appeared on Sunday in white letters nine meters high on a hill near Bray.
A procession in front of his old house
Prior to the citywide march, a private funeral ceremony first took place, attended by Irish President Michael D. Higgins and his wife, Sabina, as well as Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. “The wave of grief and appreciation for the life and work of Sinéad O’Connor testifies to the profound impact she had on the people of Ireland”, reacted Michael D. Higgins, quoted by television irish public RTÉ.
Umar Al-Qadri, chief imam of the Islamic Center of Ireland, was in charge of leading a prayer service during the ceremony, since the singer had converted to Islam in 2018, and went by the name of Shuhada Sadaqat .
At the end of the ceremony, the procession of fans notably passed in front of the former house of the singer, where wreaths of flowers had been laid since the announcement of her death on July 26. A hundred admirers were already on the waterfront this morning. The route stretched from the Harbor Bar at the end of Strand Road in the north of the city and joined the other end of the seafront for just over a mile. The burial then took place in private.
A group of people awaiting Sinéad O’Connor’s funeral cortège outside her former home beautifully sing her hit, Nothing Compares 2 U. pic.twitter.com/Pm9zLQr7AU
— Eleanor Mannion (@eleanormmannion) August 8, 2023
The disappearance at the age of 56 of Sinéad O’Connor, who became a world star in 1990 with the hit “Nothing Compares 2 U”, written by Prince, had sparked an avalanche of tributes in Ireland and around the world. The singer was finishing a new album, preparing for a tour and even had plans to bring to the screen her autobiography published in 2021 and entitled “Rememberings”, according to her agents.
“The Courage to Speak”
But she was also known for her fight against sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, which she accused of not having sufficiently protected children. In 1992, she tore up an image of Pope John Paul II on television in the United States. “She had the courage to speak up when everyone else remained cautiously silent,” Morrissey, the Smiths’ singer, wrote on his website.
The causes of his death have not been disclosed. Police said his “death is not being considered suspicious”. But in recent years, the singer has poured out her moods on social media: she threatened her former associates with legal action, poured out her physical and mental health problems, shared her suicidal thoughts and her complicated relationship with her family. . By 2022, his 17-year-old son Shane had taken his own life. Sinéad O’Connor was then hospitalized after indicating that she was also thinking of suicide.
2023-08-08 11:25:56
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