R.I.P. Sinead O’Connor

On the passing of one of the greatest…

Jul 26, 2023

Sinead O’Connor has died. She was 56. You’ll forgive me - this one is a little raw. In some ways, I feel like I’ve been anticipating this news for a decade (and I can’t have been the only one). There was a grim inevitability about it. That doesn’t make it any easier to process this actual news.

I have loved the music Sinead O’Connor made since I first heard it. I have written about her often, specifically that moment. Late night TV, watching a concert - she had two albums out at the time. And was deemed a ‘freak’ in certain pages of the press. Because she had shaved her head. I would learn, later, she did that to mess with the objectification of women - particularly female singers/entertainers. She gained all sorts of attention for doing this.

But what always mattered most was the music.

Maybe there was no singer quite like her.

I wrote in celebration of her 50th birthday - which was basically a form of tribute…you can view that down below…

I wrote in praise of her memoir - which was basically a form of tribute (including a playlist of some of my favourites) and you can read that below (again or for the first time)…

I wrote about the impact of hearing her album of jazz standards - but everything I wrote about Sinead O’Connor felt like a tribute-in-waiting…you can see that again or for the first time below as well…

Reading the news, on my phone, the way we do now, walking into town in the dark, I switched off the audiobook and scrolled straight to Sinead. Had to hear the music straight away. Had to hang on to something. I played This Is To Mother You, and I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. I played The Emperor’s New Clothes, and Black Boys on Mopeds, and I played The Last Day of Our Acquaintance…

I have never heard anyone sound better than the times I’ve heard Sinead O’Connor singing her songs, and selected covers. She could make anything sound pure, and true.

She is a hero for sitting on that SNL stage 30 years ago and tearing up a picture of the pope. She is a hero for singing Bob Marley’s War right beforehand. She is a hero for fronting that audience weeks later at the Bob Dylan tribute and taking the boos. Kris Kristofferson comforting her. I watch the clips of those moments - the Dylan tribute walk-off, the Pope being torn - over and over again. I watch the MTV Unplugged footage of her strumming Black Boys on an acoustic and singing, holding the note as she sings “please” until it delicately breaks. And then singing I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. A capella. These are the greatest things ever. They will always be the greatest things ever.

Her struggle with her mental health was well documented, and in the last two decades it was written about more than her music was. And that’s sad. But instructive. It shows that we aren’t quite ready to celebrate the fact that some people battle through as long as they can in frankly unmanageable, untenable, unliveable conditions; battling with those unmanageable, untenable, unliveable conditions.

The second lines of today’s stories will say she was only 56. We should say in fact that she made it to 56. Every day a struggle. Many days a triumph. She achieved more than many of us will, and while facing various toughnesses that (hopefully) many of us won’t have to.

I’ll write more about the music later today/tonight/tomorrow.

For now, as is almost the best advice and the best way, it’s time to listen…

R.I.P. Sinead O’Connor