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O’Connor was found unresponsive in a home in southeast London last July and pronounced dead at the scene.
WASHINGTON — Sinéad O’Connor, the gifted Irish singer-songwriter who became a superstar in her mid-20s and passed away last July at the age of 56, died from “natural causes,” a coroner has determined.
London’s Metropolitan Police had said the singer’s death was not considered suspicious after she was found unresponsive at a home in southeast London on July 26. O’Connor was 56.
The Southwark Coroner’s Court confirmed that O’Connor died of natural causes. It did not provide details.
The singer, who began her career performing on the streets of Dublin, rose to worldwide fame with her cover of Prince’s ballad “Nothing Compares 2 U,” released in 1990.
She was public about her mental illness and was hospitalized after her teenage son, Shane, died by suicide in 2022.
Thousands of fans lined the streets of the Irish town she had called home during a funeral procession in August. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar attended, along with U2’s Bono.
Recognizable by her shaved head and with a multi-octave mezzo soprano of extraordinary emotional range, O’Connor began her career singing on the streets of Dublin and soon rose to international fame.
A critic of the Roman Catholic Church well before allegations of sexual abuse were widely reported, O’Connor made headlines in October 1992 when she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II while appearing on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” and denounced the church as the enemy.
The next week, Joe Pesci hosted “Saturday Night Live,” held up a repaired photo of the Pope and said if he had been on the show with O’Connor he “would have gave her such a smack.” Days later, she appeared at an all-star tribute for Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden and was immediately booed. She was supposed to sing Dylan’s “I Believe in You,” but switched to an a cappella version of Bob Marley’s “War,” which she had sung on “Saturday Night Live.”
O’Connor announced in 2018 that she had converted to Islam and would be adopting the name Shuhada’ Davitt, later Shuhada Sadaqat — although she continued to use Sinéad O’Connor professionally.
O’Connor was born on Dec. 8, 1966. She had a difficult childhood, with a mother she alleged was abusive and encouraged her to shoplift. As a teenager she spent time in a church-sponsored institution for girls, where she said she washed priests’ clothes for no wages. But a nun gave O’Connor her first guitar, and soon she sang and performed on the streets of Dublin, her influences ranging from Dylan to Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Her performance with a local band caught the eye of a small record label, and, in 1987, O’Connor released, “The Lion and the Cobra,” which sold hundreds of thousands of copies and featured the hit “Mandinka,” driven by a hard-rock guitar riff and O’Connor’s piercing vocals. O’Connor, then 20 and pregnant, co-produced the album.
O’Connor announced she was retiring from music in 2003, but continued to record new material. Her most recent album was “ I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss,” released in 2014 and she sang the theme song for Season 7 of “Outlander.”
The singer married four times; her union to drug counsellor Barry Herridge, in 2011, lasted just 16 days. O’Connor had four children: Jake, with her husband John Reynolds; Roisin, with John Waters; Shane, with Donal Lunny; and Yeshua Bonadio, with Frank Bonadio.
Editor’s note: This story includes discussion of suicide. The U.S. suicide and crisis lifeline is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org
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