Sinéad O’Connor: Authorities announce details of the singer’s death

2023-07-27 14:02:00

London music

Authorities release details of Sinéad O’Connor’s death

As of: 4:12 p.m. | Reading time: 4 minutes

Irish singer Sinead O’Connor dies

The singer became world famous with the song “Nothing Compares 2 U”. She has now passed away at the age of 56. Last year, her then 17-year-old son took his own life. She herself struggled with mental health issues, writing openly about her bipolar disorder and suicidal thoughts.

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Irish singer Sinead O’Connor has died aged 56. She was found dead in her London flat. Police are treating the death as non-suspicious.

Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor (“Nothing Compares 2 U”) has been found dead at her home in London, according to British media. This was reported, among other things, by the Sky News broadcaster on Thursday, citing a police report. On Wednesday evening, her family made the death public in a statement. How O’Connor died was initially unclear.

Scotland Yard has confirmed that a 56-year-old woman was found unresponsive at a residence in south-east London on Wednesday morning and was pronounced dead by police. The death will not be treated as suspicious, it said. The British police are not allowed to explicitly confirm the identity for legal reasons. But there is no doubt that it is O’Connor.

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According to Sky News, O’Connor had just informed her fans about her return to London after 23 years two weeks ago. She was “happy to be home again,” she said at the time. She also announced a new album and a worldwide tour.

Irish broadcaster RTE reported O’Connor’s death on Wednesday evening. “We are very sad to announce the death of our beloved Sinead,” the broadcaster quoted a statement from the family as saying. The statement went on to say that her family and friends were “devastated” and asked for “privacy at this difficult time.”

In 1992 she tore up a picture of the Pope

O’Connor began her recording career on the streets of Dublin. With her cropped hair, elfin features and her unmistakable voice, she became a star in her mid-20s. Their debut album “The Lion and the Cobra” was already extremely successful in 1987. With the Prince cover “Nothing Compares 2 U” in 1990, she finally stormed the charts around the world.

O’Connor swam against the tide all her life. According to her own statements, she shaved her hair because music managers wanted to give her the image of a conventional, glamorous singer. Later she made a name for herself through scandals and disturbing actions.

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In early 1992, during a television appearance in the USA, she tore up a picture of the then Pope John Paul II. In 1999 she was ordained a priestess by a secessionist church. In 2011, O’Connor spilled her heart out to the public on her website and was looking for a partner: she desperately needs a sweet, sex-hungry man, she wrote. She is at the height of her sexual prime and far too lovely to live like a nun. Apparently, at least with short-term success – because a few days later she married again. In total, she was married four times, one of the marriages to drug counselor Barry Herridge in 2011 lasted only 16 days.

In 2017 she renamed herself Magda Davitt. In 2018, O’Connor converted to Islam and changed her name to Shuhada Sadaqat.

O’Connor performing in San Francisco in 2020

Quelle: Getty Images/Tim Mosenfelder

“I took an overdose of pills”

The singer had a difficult childhood herself. Among other things, she claims to have been sexually abused by her own mother. At the age of 14, after her parents divorced, she was placed in a reformatory. The mother later died in a car accident.

The singer says she suffers from a mental illness and was addicted to drugs and alcohol for years. She openly admitted that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She also wrote on social media about taking her own life. “I overdosed on pills,” she told The Sun newspaper in 2012. She also confessed that it was apparently not the first suicide attempt she had survived. A week earlier, she had swallowed pills, “but God doesn’t want me yet,” read her blog.

A year and a half ago, O’Connor suffered a severe blow: her 17-year-old son Shane took his own life in January 2022. He has been missing for several days. The 56-year-old had tried several times to send messages to her child via Twitter, with which she wanted to dissuade her child from his plan: “Shane, your life is precious. God didn’t put that beautiful smile on your beautiful face for nothing. My world would collapse without you. You are my heart. Please don’t stop it from hitting. Please don’t hurt yourself.” His body was eventually discovered by Dublin police.

The singer is survived by her three children Jake, Roisin and Yeshua Bonadio.

Do you have suicidal thoughts, or have you noticed them in a relative/acquaintance? Help is available from the telephone counseling service: anonymous advice is available around the clock on the free numbers 0800 / 111 0 111 and 0800 / 111 0 222. Advice is also available online at http://www.telefonseelsorge.de. A list of nationwide help centers can be found at Website of the German Society for Suicide Prevention.