Sinead O’Connor died of ‘natural causes’, UK coroner rules

Sinead O’Connor died aged 56 last July – Copyright AFP Rodrigo BUENDIA

Irish musician Sinead O’Connor died last year of “natural causes”, a London coroner announced Tuesday.

The Grammy award-winning singer, best known for her 1990 cover of “Nothing Compares 2 U”, was found unresponsive at her south London home last July. She was 56.

London police said at the time that officers were not treating it as suspicious as an autopsy was carried out to determine the cause of her death.

A short statement by Southwark Coroner’s Court in south London 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’s death prompted an outpouring of sympathy from her legions of fans including other musicians and celebrities around the world, particularly in her homeland of Ireland.

Hundreds lined the route of her cortege in Bray, the Irish town 20 kilometres (13 miles) south of Dublin that she called home for 15 years, on the day of her funeral last August.

The willingness of the musician, who rose to international fame in the 1990s, to criticise the Catholic Church in particular saw her vilified by some and praised as a trailblazer by others.

O’Connor’s agents revealed she had been completing a new album and planning a tour as well as a movie based on her autobiography “Rememberings” before she died.

The musician had also spoken publicly about her mental health, telling the US television host Oprah Winfrey in 2007 that she struggled with thoughts of suicide and had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

More recently she had shunned the limelight, in particular following the death of her son Shane from suicide in 2022 aged 17.