Sinéad O’Connor died from natural causes, coroner rules
The singer was found dead at her London home last year.
By Nick Reilly
Sinéad O’Connor died of natural causes, a coroner has determined.
A brief statement from Southwark Coroner’s Court said: “This is to confirm that Ms O’Connor died of natural causes. The coroner has therefore ceased their involvement in her death.”
O’Connor died in July last year at the age of 56, prompting an outpouring of tributes from famous faces and fans across the globe. At the time, police said she was found “unresponsive” at her home in Herne Hill, south London, where she had recently moved from Ireland. The death was not being treated as suspicious.
Among the tributes at the time was that of Irish taioseach Leo Varadkar, who said O’Connor’s music was “loved around the world and her talent was unmatched and beyond compare”.
In an exclusive tribute for Rolling Stone, the singer Phoebe Bridgers also paid tribute to O’Connor and recalled how she had influenced her formative music taste.
“I probably first heard her thanks to my mom, who had — and still has — the coolest music tastes. Even before I heard Sinéad’s music, I knew she was a revolutionary. I was obsessed with her and the “Nothing Compares 2 U” video. I even had a very, very short-shaved head in high school,” said Bridgers.
“I definitely shaved it for her. I have the worst-shaped head, so there weren’t many people I would have shaved my head for. When I was a kid I pretended to know what she was talking about, but then I started digging into her and what she stood for. I learned more so that I wouldn’t be embarrassed. She has a rap on a later album [“Famine“] about the famine in Ireland that was forced upon them by the British government. When I first heard it, I thought, ‘This is funny — Sinéad O’Connor rapping.’ But it’s very informative and I thought, “Whoa, I actually learned a bunch of things I didn’t know.”
O’Connor was laid to rest in her hometown of Bray, Co Wicklow, in August last year.