Mourners in Ireland pay their respects to singer Sinéad O’Connor at funeral procession
LONDON — Sinéad O’Connor was remembered Tuesday for bringing “joy to countless people the world over” and then honored by emotional fans who thronged the streets of the Irish coastal town she had called home. They sang “Nothing Compares 2 U” as a hearse passed by carrying the singer’s casket to its final resting place.
The funeral held for loved ones and friends reflected her spirituality and the impact she had on her homeland and the music world. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and President Michael Higgins attended along with musical luminaries such as Bono of U2 and Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats.
But the procession to a cemetery for a private burial reflected the broader impact of her life on devotees moved by her pure voice and emotional depth and touched by her sometimes troubled life.
Hundreds of people made the pilgrimage to her former home in Bray, the seaside village south of Dublin where O’Connor lived for 15 years before she recently moved to London, where she was found dead in her home last month.
They sang, they cried, they tossed flowers on the hearse and laid their hands on the vehicle when it came to a stop outside the white house with its distinctive pink entrance and a corner painted in the alternating green, yellow and red of the Rastafarian flag. Bouquets of flowers and written tributes were laid against the stone wall outside.
“She was adored by everyone in all her talent and beauty, and the voice she gave to us when we weren’t able to say the things that were happening to us,” said Simone George, who had listened to O’Connor since she was a girl. “She was able to be brave and I think that’s why this is really painful for people in a way.”
A vintage VW camper van with rooftop speakers blasting some of the singer’s best-known songs led the hearse at walking pace through the thick crowd of admirers in the town. It was playing “Natural Mystic,” by Bob Marley, her hero, as the procession stopped outside her former home and was greeted with lengthy applause.
O’Connor, who was raised Catholic and became a controversial figure after she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live in 1992, later converted to Islam. An imam delivered a eulogy that bridged both worlds.
