Acclaimed Irish singer Sinead O’Connor, who was found dead in her London home in July last year, died of natural causes, the coroner has said.
The Nothing Compares 2 u singer was pronounced dead at the scene, and police said her death, at the age of 56, was not being treated as suspicious.
“This is to confirm that Ms O’Connor died of natural causes. The coroner has therefore ceased their involvement in her death,” London Inner South Coroner’s Court said in a statement on Tuesday.
The coroner’s court said at the time of her death that an autopsy would be conducted before a decision was made on whether to hold an inquest.
O’Connor’s death prompted an outpouring of sympathy from her fans, including other musicians and celebrities worldwide, particularly in her homeland of Ireland.
On the day of her funeral in August, hundreds lined the route of her cortege in Bray, the Irish town 20km (13 miles) south of Dublin that she called home for 15 years.
Some who came to honour her sang along to hits blasted from a vintage Volkswagen camper van, and others showered her hearse with flowers.
The musician, who rose to fame in the 1990s, changed the image of women in music at the time. Her shaved head, pained expression, and shapeless wardrobe were seen by many young women as a direct challenge to popular culture’s long-prevailing notions of femininity and sexuality.
She was also vocal about her political stance against the Catholic Church.
O’Connor was vilified by some and praised as a trailblazer by others.
Her agents revealed that she had been completing a new album and planning a tour as well as a movie based on her autobiography, Rememberings, before she died.
She converted to Islam in 2018 and took the name Shuhada’ Davitt, later Shuhada’ Sadaqat, but she continued to use Sinead O’Connor in her professional life.
The musician had also spoken publicly about her mental health, telling the American television host, Oprah Winfrey, in 2007 that she struggled with thoughts of suicide and had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
More recently, she had left the limelight following the death of her son Shane, who died by suicide in 2022 at age 17. (Aljazeera)
