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Fires Don't Start Themselves

"A Voice That Cracked Stone" - Tributes Paid To Late Sinead O'Connor

Thursday, 27 July 2023 06:38

Photo Credit: Facebook @Sinead O'Connor

The 56-year-old passed away yesterday.

Tributes are being paid to Sinead O'Connor following her death yesterday at the age of 56.

President Michael D Higgins said Ireland has lost one of it's greatest and most gifted composers, songwriters and performers of recent decades. 

The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said  her "music was loved around the world and her talent was unmatched and beyond compare".

Whiel the Tánaiste Micheál Martin described her as one of Ireland's greatest musical icons.

Nothing Compares 2 U, Mandinka and No Man's Woman.

Three of Sinead O'Connor's most well known songs from what was a remarkable career.

She was signed by Ensign Records after a brief spell with a band in the 1980s.

Her breakthrough on the international stage came with a recording of the Prince song, "Nothing Compares 2 U".

As well as being a voice on stage, off stage, she made her voice heard too.

She was open about her spiritual journey, activism, political views, as well as her mental health struggles.

In 1999 she was ordained as a priest by the Latin Tridentine Church, while in 2018 she converted to Islam.

She had been touring regularly before the pandemic, but the death of her son Shane, who she had with Tullamore's Donal Lunny, last year led to the cancellation of her live shows.

The Nothing Compares to you singer is survived by three children.

Singer Alison Moyet tweeted,  A voice that cracked stone with force & by increment. 

Hot Press editor Niall Stokes said this is desperately sad news that will have a devastating impact on Sinead’s huge number of fans all over the world he said her family's world has been shattered in a way that is impossible to measure or describe. Her loss is immense and tragic.

Showbiz editor with the Sunday World Eddie Rowley says she was a tortured soul:

Throughout a career that started when she was 15, O'Connor was open about her spiritual journey, activism, political views, as well as her mental health struggles.

Midlands 103's Head of Programming, Roy Jennings says her talent and passion burned early, and brightly:

Former Owner of Heartbeat City in Tullamore, Ray Quinn, says he's devastated by her death and that her career was never about the money or the fame, it was just about music.

He has been speaking with Will Faulkner on Midlands Today and says she could have been the biggest star in the world:

Meanwhile, Offaly singer Mundy has been describing her as a trailblazer for women, with a unique ability to make an audience sit in the palm of her hand.

The Birr man met the pop icon on several occasions, and performed a rendition of Bob Marley's "Waiting in Vain" with her.

Mundy has been speaking with Midlands 103's Kamron Clarke and says Sinead was willing to say what a lot of men were not:

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