BRAY: Thousands gathered outside Sinead O’Connor’s former seaside home on Tuesday to bid farewell to the outspoken Irish rock star, some singing along to hits blasted from a vintage Volkswagen camper van, others showering her hearse with flowers.
O’Connor, best known for the 1990 chart-topping hit “Nothing Compares 2 U” and her controversial but often prescient views on religion, sex and feminism, died on July 26 aged 56 after police found her unresponsive at an address in London.
Crowds gathered along the seafront at Bray, just south of Dublin, clapped and cheered as O’Connor’s coffin passed in a hearse. Driving ahead, the VW van was decked out with a rainbow flag and blared Bob Marley’s “Natural Mystic” from speakers secured to the roof.
“I think she had the courage to say a lot of things that we all felt,” said Gemma Byrne, 47, who took a 90-minute train from the town of Drogheda to pay her respects.
“She represented our transition from a very dark past into a hopeful future and I’m just here to say thanks for being with me along that journey, and for maybe putting words and expression on what I felt but didn’t quite know how to say.”
Two of Byrne’s friends held a large red flag reading “Thank You Sinead.” Others stood with buggies and dogs, some climbed up on walls to get a better view, and locals watched from balconies overlooking the strand.
One fan held a black-and-white photo of O’Connor with the words “Fight The Real Enemy,” the declaration the singer famously made after ripping up of a photo of Pope John Paul II during a 1992 television appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”
— afp
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
