Sinéad O’Connor is said to have died from a “broken heart” after the death of her teenage son.
The ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ singer, who was found dead at her rented flat in London on 26 July aged 56, was left devastated by the passing her boy Shane by suicide at the age of 17 in January 2022.
Sinéad’s friend and producer David Holmes, 54, who was working with her on her final album at the time of her death, says in a new RTÉ documentary ‘Sinéad’: “Even though Sinéad was this incredibly resilient survivor, I totally believe that people can die of a broken heart.”
Belfast-born David spent five years collaborating with Sinéad on what turned out to be her final album, ‘No Veteran Dies Alone’, after the pair met at the late Shane MacGowan’s 60th birthday celebration at Dublin’s National Concert Hall in 2018, where Sinéad performed alongside singers including Nick Cave and Bono.
David said about their meeting: “We ended up backstage. I just stopped and introduced myself and said, ‘My name is David Holmes, you probably have no idea what I do or anything about me but I would love to make an album with you about healing.’
“At that moment wasn’t a good time for Sinéad – everybody knows she had mental health issues.
“I needed healing myself. I was going through my own experience. It’s amazing what the right song or piece of music can do.”
David and Sinéad ended up recording nine tracks together before her death.
Singer Christy Moore, 78, also appears on the new documentary on the singer, which will be shown on Monday (08.01.24), and tells how her death was a “terrible loss”.
The show covers the ups and downs and controversies of Sinéad’s life, including the row that erupted when she famously tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II live on American TV in 1992 in protest at the Catholic church’s cover-ups of child abuse.