Sinead O’Connor died of natural causes, London coroner says
Officials announce they will end involvement in death of award-winning Irish artist who was found dead in UK capital last year
Irish singer Sinead O’Connor, who was found unresponsive at an address in London in July last year, died of natural causes, the coroner said on Tuesday.
O’Connor, known for her stirring voice, outspoken views and 1990 chart-topping hit “Nothing Compares 2 U,” was pronounced dead at the scene. Police had said her death, at the age of 56, was not being treated as suspicious.
The coroner’s court said at the time that an autopsy would be conducted before a decision was made on whether to hold an inquest.
“This is to confirm that Ms O’Connor died of natural causes. The coroner has therefore ceased their involvement in her death,” London Inner South Coroner’s Court said in a statement.
Artists around the world reacted to the news of her death last year, with REM frontman Michael Stipe and US musician Tori Amos among those who paid tribute to O’Connor’s fierce honesty, intense presence and uncompromising spirit.
Thousands gathered outside O’Connor’s former seaside home to bid farewell to her when her funeral was held in August, some singing along to hits blasted from a vintage Volkswagen camper van and others showering her hearse with flowers.
In 1997, the Grammy-award winner was scheduled to perform in Jerusalem as part of a festival titled “Sharing Jerusalem: Two Capitals for Two States” that aimed to promote peace in the city, but canceled her performance after receiving death threats.
In a radio interview following the cancellation, Itamar Ben Gvir, then 21 and a member of a group calling itself “The Zionist Ideological Front,” said that his organization was responsible for the cancellation. Far-right Ben Gvir currently serves as national security minister, who among other things is in charge of the police.
O’Connor responded with a letter, published publicly in The Associated Press, Reuters and The Jerusalem Post, in which she asked Ben Gvir, “How can there be peace anywhere on Earth if there is not peace in Jerusalem?”
She ended the letter by warning Ben Gvir that “God does not reward those who bring terror to the children of the world. So you have succeeded in nothing but your soul’s failure.”
Former prime minister Ehud Olmert, the then-mayor of Jerusalem, also opposed the performance, saying that it was intended as a “provocation” to “spread anti-Israel propaganda.”
The Irish singer-songwriter became a superstar in her mid-20s and was known as much for her private struggles and provocative actions as for her fierce and expressive music.
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.
In 1995, she reportedly attacked two photographers by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
She 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.
The Times of Israel Community.