Sinéad O'Connor: her life story, between heaven and hell

At the young age of 56, Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor's turbulent life came to an end in July 2023. The cause of her death was not made public, but it has been known that the artist was troubled, especially after her son died in 2022.

As the Daily Mail has mentioned, the singer had a difficult and long battle with mental health problems. She has also been known to go against the grain and speak out about injustices, which was not always taken in good spirit by the music industry.

Sinéad O'Connor had a life studded with successes, but also with great tragedies. The most serious of all occurred a year before her death. Her son Shane took his own life in 2022.

This tragedy was on the singer's mind in one of the last messages she shared with the world before she died. On July 17, she wrote on Twitter: "Been living as undead night creature since. He was the love of my life, the lamp of my soul. We were one soul in two halves. He was the only person who ever loved me unconditionally. I am lost in the bardo without him."

Photo: 786OmShahid / X

Sinéad O'Connor's last year may have been the toughest but it was not the only difficult period in her life she coped with. Let's look at the highs and many lows that have defined her career and life.

The singer was raised in Dublin, and she was named after Sinéad de Valera, the wife of Irish President Éamon de Valera. She had a troubled childhood, and her misdemeanours meant she lived in a religious institution for a period. She also had a very strained relationship with her mother.

After dropping out of school and putting an ad in Hot Press magazine, she joined her first band, which got her noticed. She had a spat, however, with U2, and she generated criticism for voicing support for the IRA. She later retracted her comments about the paramilitary group, but to this day, she remains a firm believer in a united Ireland.

Her first album 'The Lion and the Cobra' was highly-praised, and it took its influences from people like Bob Marley to Bob Dylan.

Off the back of the release of her first album, O'Connor performed on David Letterman, and her single 'Troy' reached number 5 on the Dutch Top 40.

Her second album was released in 1990, and it featured her iconic song 'Nothing Compares 2 U'. The song was written by Prince, and it achieved both worldwide attention and critical praise. O'Connor channelled the emotion she felt for her mother, who died in a car accident when the singer was still a teenager, into the performance.

Her version of what happened when she went to Prince's house after the release of 'Nothing Compares 2 U' has changed over the years. The story first came to light in 2014, but in her recent memoir from 2021, she alleges that he was quite angry and physical with her. In her memoir, she describes having to escape the house.

The 1990s was the high point of O'Connor's career. She collaborated with artists such as Roger Waters and she contributed to the soundtrack of 'In the Name of the Father'.

She drew criticism from Frank Sinatra when she declared that she would not perform if the US national anthem was played before one of her gigs. The legendary crooner said he would "kick in her in the a". As a result of the furore, she withdrew her name from consideration for the Grammys.

She won best international singer at the Brit Awards, but she did not attend. She did, however, make an appearance at another ceremony to collect the Irish IRMA. Sinéad O'Connor also appeared as the Virgin Mary in Neil Jordan's 'The Butcher Boy'.

While singing a Bob Marley cover to protest child abuse on SNL, she stared into the camera and infamously tore a picture of Pope John Paul II.

She had not done this in the dress rehearsal, so this moment on live television stunned people inside and outside the studio. Soon, angry calls came in, but O'Connor justified the stunt by saying she was a protest singer and not a pop star. To this day, this incendiary moment is still cut from SNL reruns.

Joe Pesci hosted SNL the week after, and he made it very clear that he was unhappy with the stunt. Madonna also voiced her misgivings, though many felt she was trying to regain the headlines at a time when she was promoting her own book.

(Image: still from Saturday Night Live, October 10, 1992, uploaded by SNL on YouTube)

In the 90s and 00s, Sinéad O'Connor had a career of stops and starts. She lent her vocals to the 'Michael Collins' movie in 1996, and over the course of the 2000s, she collaborated with newcomers like Damian Dempsey.

In the 1990s, Sinéad O'Connor was ordained as a priest by an order not affiliated with the Catholic Church. She expressed that she wanted to be called Mother Bernadette Mary. Nevertheless, in recent years, she has asked three Popes to excommunicate her.

In 2018, she converted to Islam and changed her name to Shuhada Sadaqat. Then, she sparked controversy when she sent a Tweet that attacked non-Muslims. Not for the first time, she hastily retracted her comments.

Sinéad O'Connor retired on more than one occasion, only to retract her declarations later. This most recently happened in 2021.

Then, in 2022, a terrible tragedy. Sinéad O'Connor announced on social media that her son had taken his life at age 17.

"My beautiful son, Nevi’im Nesta Ali Shane O’Connor, the very light of my life, decided to end his earthly struggle today and is now with God," she wrote on social media. "May he rest in peace and may no one follow his example. My baby. I love you so much. Please be at peace."

Prior to the discovery of his body in Wicklow, he had been missing for two days. Sinéad O'Connor criticized Irish authorities because her son, she alleged, had been on watch in hospital but somehow he had been able to leave.

She later tweeted the lyrics of a Bob Marley song, and she dedicated it to her late son by writing: "This is for my Shaney. The light of my life. The lamp of my soul. My blue-eye baby. You will always be my light. We will always be together. No boundary can separate us."

Shane was survived by his mother, his father Donal Lunny, and his three half-siblings. Sinéad O'Connor lived in mourning for another year, and then she passed away herself on July 26, 2023.

The Irish star has 10 albums under her discography, the last of which, 'I'm Not Bossy, I'm the Boss,' dates back to 2014.

In early July 2023, however, she announced that he was on the verge of finishing her latest album, which was scheduled for release in early 2024. Sadly, she didn't live to see the release of that new album.

Looking back at her life, one thing is clear: Sinéad O'Connor was an icon and, undoubtedly, one of the best voices that pop has given us. But she was also a human being who, on many occasions, did not hesitate to show her fragility and bewilderment to the public.

In our minds, we will always be able to travel back to the 90s to remember that intense and powerful video, in which a young Irish girl with shaved hair cries while singing 'Nothing Compares 2U' and the world seems to stop. That was Sinéad O'Connor.