Ireland to bid farewell to singer Sinead O’Connor

A funeral service for Sinead O’Connor, the outspoken singer who rose to international fame in the 1990s, is to be held on Tuesday in the Irish seaside town of Bray.

The popstar’s family have said the public will be able to pay final respects to O’Connor as her cortege passes along the seafront in the town 20 kilometres (13 miles) south of Dublin.

The Grammy award-winning singer, best known for her cover of “Nothing Compares 2 U”, was found unresponsive at her London home last month. She was 56.

“Sinead loved living in Bray and the people in it,” her family said in a statement.

“With this procession her family would like to acknowledge the outpouring of love for her from the people of (County) Wicklow and beyond since she left last week to go to another place.”

O’Connor’s family added the public procession, which will pass her former home on the seafront, will be followed by a private burial.

Well-wishers can gather on the Bray seafront from 10:30 am (0930 GMT), the family said.

O’Connor’s death prompted a surge of public sympathy around the world and in Ireland, where her willingness to criticise the Catholic Church, in particular, saw her vilified by some and praised as a trailblazer by others.

On a coastal hilltop overlooking Bray, where O’Connor lived for 15 years, a Second World War navigational sign for pilots spelling Ireland in Irish — “Eire” — was briefly decorated with a heart and “Sinead” in tribute to the singer.

Bob Geldof, Alison Moyet, Annie Lennox and Russell Crowe are among the musicians, celebrities and fans offering their condolences

Her agents have said at the time of her death, O’Connor was completing a new album and planning a tour as well as a movie based on her autobiography “Rememberings”.

Gatherings in Dublin, Belfast and elsewhere in Ireland have been held in remembrance of the singer, often featuring spontaneous renditions of “Nothing Compares 2 U”, which she released in 1990.

The Irish Times reported last week that an autopsy had been carried out to determine the cause of the singer’s death, which London police have said they were not treating as suspicious.

In a statement, the clerk of the London coroner’s court said the post-mortem report would not be available for “some weeks”. (BSS/AFP)