The crowd started gathering before sunrise, some coming to grieve Sinéad O’Connor’s death, others to celebrate her life, and all wanting to say goodbye to Sinead O'Connor funeral
By midday on Tuesday thousands were lining the seafront in Bray, the County Wicklow town the Irish singer had called home, to greet Sinead O'Connor funeral cortege.
Police motorcycles cleared a path for a van with speakers which played Bob Marley & The Wailers’ song Natural Mystic. The hearse appeared, bedecked in flowers tossed by the crowd. Vehicles with O’Connor’s relatives followed.
As the procession approached O’Connor’s former home people applauded. Others sang Nothing Compares 2 U and held up banners: “Thanks Sinéad. Rest in power.” “When words fail, music speaks.”
Candles, poems, tears and smiles completed an elegy in sunshine for a singular, ethereal voice that had sung and spoken about love and darkness.
Ireland's president Michael Higgins and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar were in attendance alongside Bono and Geldof at the private ceremony.
Muslim prayers at the service were led by Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri, an Islamic scholar and Chief Imam at the Islamic Centre of Ireland; he first met the star in 2018, the year she announced she had converted to Islam.
She continued to perform and record as Sinead O'Connor, but had changed her name to Shuhada' Sadaqat.
O’Connor was known for her political activism and many of the crowd at the funeral procession followed suit. One man carried a sign protesting Ireland’s treatment of children in care homes and orphanages, while another woman wore a Free Palestine T-shirt. Several people waved pride flags.
Sinead O’Connor fan, Ruth O’Shea (holding the flower), stands outside the former home of the late singer in Bray, Co Wicklow (Liam McBurney/PA)
Visitors from across the world along with locals, campaigners and those who simply love O’Connor’s music sang, wept and danced together as a Volkswagen camper van played some of her most powerful tracks across the packed street including Mandinka and Nothing Compares 2 U.
When the van left to join the funeral procession, the crowd struck up O’Connor’s music themselves and many shared flowers they had brought
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