Sinéad O’Connor: 17 Interesting Facts You Might Not Know

Sinéad O’Connor, an Irish singer and musician passed away on the 26th of July 2023. She was 56 years and she will be missed. There’s probably a lot that you don’t know about this famous singer / musician, but today my aim is to change that.

Here are 17 Interesting Facts You Might Not Know About Sinéad O’Connor

1. She was born as Sinéad Marie Bernadette O’Connor on the 8th of December 1966 in Dublin, Ireland. She was the third of five children of parents Sean O’Connor, a structural engineer turned barrister, and Marie O’Connor.

2. She was named Sinéad after Sinéad de Valera, the mother of the doctor presiding over the delivery, Éamon de Valera, Jnr., and Bernadette in honour of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes.

3. As a teenager, she was placed in Dublin’s An Grianan Training Centre, once one of the notorious Magdalene laundries, originally set up to incarcerate young girls deemed to be promiscuous. One nun bought her a guitar and set her up with a music teacher – which led to the launch of O’Connor’s musical career.

4. In 1979, a teenage Sinead left her mother and went to live with her dad and his new wife in the United States.

5. In 1992, Sinéad O’Connor caused a huge controversy when she unexpectedly tore up a photo of the Pope on Saturday Night Live, airing live to millions of people in the US. The stunt was a protest against sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church.

6. In 2007, Sinéad said that she considered herself a Christian, and that she believed in core Christian concepts about Jesus Christ. However, in 2018 she converted to Islam, calling it “the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian’s journey”. She also changed her name to Shuhada’ Davitt.

7. During the course of her life, Sinéad was married 4 times. She was married to John Reynolds (1989-1991), Nick Sommerlad (2001-2002), Steve Cooney (2010-2011) and Barry Herridge (2011).

8. She released 10 studio albums over the years: The Lion and the Cobra (1987), I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (1990), Am I Not Your Girl? (1992), Universal Mother (1994), Faith and Courage (2000), Sean-Nós Nua (2002), Throw Down Your Arms (2005), Theology (2007), How About I Be Me (and You Be You)? (2012) and I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss (2014),

9. Her hit song “Nothing Compares 2 U” was actually written by Prince and first recorded for his side project, The Family in 1985. Sinead O’Connor recorded a version of the song for her second studio album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got and it became an international hit in 1990.

Sinéad’s song reached number 1 in Ireland, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

10. Sinéad O’Connor’s song “Fire On Babylon” is about her mother (who died in 1985). Her mother was a common topic in her songs. O’Connor accused her mother of abusing her and her siblings. In this song, she levels another accusation when she sings: “Look what she did to her son.”

“It had to do with something I found out she’d done to one of my brothers that just really made me angry,” O’Connor explained in her memoir Rememberings. “Truth to tell, it’s very hard for me to get angry about my mother. It’s the way I’ve survived. I’ve convinced myself she didn’t know what she was doing. People will do that, but of course, I’ve misplaced that anger and it might be more mature for me to accept it.”

11. Sinéad O’Connor’s song “Thank You For Hearing Me” is about her split from Peter Gabriel. Sinéad sang on his 1992 album Us, appearing on the tracks “Blood Of Eden” and “Come Talk To Me.” O’Connor described their relationship as “an on-and-off fling in which I was basically weekend pu**y.”

12. Sinéad O’Connor was 20 years old when she released her first single (“Troy”) and had a son with her drummer, John Reynolds. She was blessed with tremendous talent, had a rebellious streak and she was offered lots of advice (which she often ignored). In 1990’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes” she works out the frustrations that come with being an unmarried young mother in an Irish Catholic family with a conflicted boyfriend and a burgeoning music career.

13. In “This IsA Rebel Song”, Sinéad O’Connor sings about loving an Englishman who has abused her in the past and refuses to love her back. It’s an allegory for the conflict in Northern Ireland between the English, who wanted the country to remain part of the UK, and the Irish nationalists who wanted it to become part of Ireland. Known as “The Troubles,” this conflict was still raging when O’Connor released the song in 1997.

The title doesn’t appear in the lyrics of the song. It’s a reference to what Bono would say when introducing the U2 song “Sunday Bloody Sunday”: “This is not a rebel song.”

14. Mandinka is a West African tribe with rich musical traditions. In her song “Mandinka” (the second single off her 1987 debut album), O’Connor felt a kinship with these people.

The song was inspired by the miniseries Roots, based on the book by Alex Haley. The series ran in 1977 and drew a huge audience (and this was before cable). Set in the 1700s, it follows an African man named Kunta Kinte (played by Levar Burton) as he is captured and sold into slavery.

Sinéad O’Connor showed up on national TV in America for the first time when she performed “Mandinka” on Late Night With David Letterman in 1988.

15. Sinéad O’Connor’s song “You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart” (which was on the soundtrack to the 1993 film In The Name Of The Father) beautifully encapsulates the film’s core themes of love, loss, and injustice.

Through its lyrics, the song delves deep into the emotional turmoil of a character caught between the overwhelming power of love and the weight of becoming the “thief” of another person’s heart. Metaphorically, it explores the profound impact that love can have on one’s conscience when their actions inadvertently cause pain and suffering.

The song was written by Bono, Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer and was not released on any of O’Connor’s studio albums. It was included on 1997 compilation album (So Far… The Best Of).

16. Deeply affected by the death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, O’Connor decided to cover “All Apologies” for her 1994 album Universal Mother. Cobain once said the song was written about the changes he was going through after fatherhood – not all of them pleasant.

17. Sinéad O’Connor sold over 6.2 million albums, including 3.1 million in the United States and 960,000 in the United Kingdom. Her best-selling album was I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (which sold over 4.96 million copies).

Well, there you have it, 17 interesting facts you might not have known about Sinéad O’Connor. If I’ve left out something important, feel free to comment below.

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