Sinéad O'Connor had 10 studio albums to her name and was famous for her rendition of Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U, but the singer was known as much for her controversial life and activism as her music.
Here is a look back at the many moments of controversy, and the public mental health struggles, the late Irish singer endured throughout her career.
War on Saturday Night Live
Following the worldwide success of O'Connor's two previous albums, The Lion and The Cobra and I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, the Irishwoman appeared on US late night sketch show Saturday Night Live (SNL) to promote her third album Am I Not Your Girl?
Scheduled to sing Scarlet Ribbons from the new album, a day prior to the taping O'Connor instead decided to sing an a capella rendition of Bob Marley's War, changing the sixth and seventh verses to criticise child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church rather than racism.
"Until the ignoble and unhappy regime which holds all of us through child abuse has been toppled, utterly destroyed.
"Until that day there is no continent that will know peace. Children, children. Fight.
"We find it necessary. We know we will win. We have confidence in the victory of good over evil."
During the rehearsal, O'Connor had held up a picture of a refugee child.
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But during the live recording she held up a picture of Pope John Paul II as she sang the final word "evil", then ripped up the image and threw it at the camera, saying: "Fight the real enemy."
The studio audience remained silent, as producer Lorne Michaels had ordered the applause sign to the live crowd not be used.
The fallout was immediate, with NBC receiving hundreds of complaints and eventually banning O'Connor from the network for life.
US tabloid the New York Daily News slammed the performance as a "holy terror". Madonna criticised her stance and the following week's SNL guest, actor Joe Pesci, threatened her, saying he would have given her "such a smack" for the act.
War redux
Two weeks later, O'Connor was among the line-up of music stars performing at Bob Dylan's 30th anniversary concert at New York's Madison Square Garden.
Taking the stage to a smattering of applause and boos, she stood silently as the crowd noise continued for several minutes.
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Kris Kristofferson, who had just introduced her as "an artist whose name has become synonymous with courage and integrity", walked over to O'Connor as she stood, telling her not to "let the bastards get you down".
She replied: "I'm not down."
As her band attempted to start the song, she cut them off with a wave of her hand and again launched into her a capella cover of War.
Finishing and staring down the audience, O'Connor walked into the arms of Kristofferson, breaking down in tears as she exited the stage.
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Criticising the Catholic Church and embracing Islam
A critic of the Roman Catholic Church well before allegations of sexual abuse were widely reported, O'Connor caused uproar in Ireland in 1999 when she became a priestess of the breakaway Latin Tridentine Church — a position that was not recognised by the mainstream Catholic Church.
For many years, she called for a full investigation into the extent of the church's role in concealing child abuse by clergy.
In 1995, O'Connor turned up unannounced at the recording of a UK television program discussing sexual abuse in the church in Ireland to argue the church refused to accept the accounts of women and children.
In 2010, when Pope Benedict XVI apologised to Ireland for decades of abuse at the hands of the church, O'Connor condemned the apology for not going far enough and called for Catholics to boycott services until there was a full investigation into the Vatican's role.
"People assumed I didn't believe in God. That's not the case at all," she wrote in the Washington Post in 2010.
"I'm Catholic by birth and culture, and would be the first at the church door if the Vatican offered sincere reconciliation."
Her religious life took another turn in 2018 when she announced she had converted to Islam and would adopt the name Shuhada Davitt (later Shuhada Sadaqat).
The singer, who continued to use the name Sinéad O'Connor professionally, attracted controversy when she told her Twitter followers she never wanted to spend time with non-Muslims again, calling them "disgusting".
She later apologised for the comments, saying she was "triggered as a result of Islamophobia dumped" on her.
"I apologize for hurt caused. That was one of many crazy tweets lord knows," she wrote.
Comments about other artists
In the wake of the SNL incident, Madonna mocked O'Connor while performing on a later episode of the season by ripping up a photo of notorious statutory rapist Joey Buttafuoco.
Madonna and O'Connor had engaged in a minor public slanging match in the years prior, with O'Connor claiming the pop star had been abusive towards her by making jokes about her short hair.
"Now there's the woman that America looks up to as being a campaigner for women, slagging off another woman for not being sexy," O'Connor told Spin magazine in 1991.
O'Connor's comments about Prince — the writer of her biggest hit, Nothing Compares 2 U — ranged from accusatory to complimentary. At times, she claimed they had physically fought each other, and at other times she said the story was exaggerated by the press, and he was "a sweet guy".
In her memoir, Rememberings, O'Connor claimed Prince had hit her with a hard object inside a pillow case during a pillow fight and stalked her.
In 2013, O'Connor wrote an open letter to pop star Miley Cyrus, warning her of being "prostituted" and objectified by the music industry in response to Cyrus's sexualised performance in the music video for her song Wrecking Ball.
Support for the IRA
O'Connor publicly expressed support for the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the 1980s, in comments made after she co-wrote and sang the song Heroine with U2 guitarist Edge for a film soundtrack in 1986.
Years later, O'Connor retracted her statements about the paramilitary organisation, calling her support "really shit, really awful" and saying she was too young to understand the situation in Northern Ireland.
"I was very, very young and I didn't know what I was talking about. Obviously one has compassion and understanding of the circumstances that drive people to violence. But y'know, especially for someone like me who'd come from violence, to talk like that was bollocks," the Irish Examiner reported her as saying.
Her comments about Irish politics became increasingly convoluted as she grew older.
She flirted with joining Sinn Féin before calling on them to be braver.
She then followed statements that Ireland would have been better off if England never left the country (as she said it let the Catholic Church take control), by celebrating Irish "freedom" from England following the 2016 Brexit vote.
Mental health struggles
O'Connor spoke openly about her mental health struggles in the later part of the career, at various time taking to social media to express thoughts of suicide.
On a 2007 episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show, O'Connor revealed she had attempted suicide in 1999 on her thirty-third birthday.
She also revealed she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2003 and in 2012 she cancelled a tour of North America due to feeling "very unwell" from the condition.
On Twitter and Facebook in the years after O'Connor spoke openly about her mental health struggles, at one point begging her followers for advice on a psychiatrist to see in Dublin as she "desperately" needed to get back on her medication and was in "serious danger", and at other points asking followers how she could kill herself without her kids finding out.
In 2015, she posted a note to her Facebook page saying she had taken an overdose, and in 2017, she posted a video about her suicidal thoughts and feeling abandoned by her family due to her mental illness.
In 2022, she was hospitalised after posting a series of suicidal statements on Twitter following the death of her 17-year-old son Shane.
In her 2021 memoir Rememberings, O'Connor spoke about the dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) developed from suffering abuse from her mother during childhood.
She said a hysterectomy she underwent to manage endometriosis and subsequent menopause triggered her PTSD, leading to further visits to psychiatric facilities.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiWWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIzLTA3LTI3L2NvbnRyb3ZlcnNpZXMtb2Ytc2luZWFkLW8tY29ubm9ycy1jYXJlZXIvMTAyNjU0Mjg20gEoaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEwMjY1NDI4Ng?oc=5
2023-07-27 05:33:49Z
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