Sinead O’Connor biography, age, net worth, husband, children, parents, siblings

Shuhada’ Sadaqat (previously Magda Davitt; born Sinéad[b] Marie Bernadette O’Connor; 8 December 1966 – July 2023), known professionally as Sinéad O’Connor, was an Irish singer and musician.

Sinead O’Connor debut studio album, The Lion and the Cobra, was released in 1987 and charted internationally.

Her second studio album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (1990), received glowing reviews upon release and became her biggest success, selling over seven million copies worldwide.

Its lead single, “Nothing Compares 2 U”, was named the number one world single in 1990 by the Billboard Music Awards.

Sinead O’Connor’s biography

O’Connor was born in the Cascia House Nursing Home at 13 Pembroke Road, Dublin, on 8 December 1966. 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. She was the third of five children; her siblings were novelist Joseph, Eimear, John, and Eoin.

Her parents were John Oliver “Seán” O’Connor, a structural engineer later turned barrister and chairperson of the Divorce Action Group, and Johanna Marie O’Grady (1939-1985) who married in the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Drimnagh, Dublin, in 1960.

In 1979, O’Connor left her mother and went to live with her father, who had married Viola Margaret Suiter (née Cook) in Alexandria, Virginia, United States, three years prior in 1976.

At the age of 15, her shoplifting and truancy led to her being placed for eighteen months in a Magdalene asylum called the Grianán Training Centre run by the Order of Our Lady of Charity. In some ways, she thrived there, especially in the development of her writing and music, but she also chafed under the imposed conformity.

Unruly students there were sometimes sent to sleep in the adjoining nursing home, an experience of which she later commented, “I have never—and probably will never—experience such panic and terror and agony over anything.”

O’Connor’s mother Marie died in a car accident on 10 February 1985 aged 45 as she lost control of her car on an icy road and crashed into a bus, when O’Connor was eighteen.

Sinead O’Connor’s career

One of the volunteers at Grianán was the sister of Paul Byrne, drummer for the band In Tua Nua, who heard O’Connor singing “Evergreen” by Barbra Streisand.

She recorded a song with them called “Take My Hand” but they felt that at 15, she was too young to join the band. Through an ad she placed in Hot Press in mid-1984, she met Colm Farrelly. Together they recruited a few other members and formed a band called Ton Ton Macoute.

The band moved to Waterford briefly while O’Connor attended Newtown School, but she soon dropped out of school and followed them to Dublin, where their performances received positive reviews.

Their sound was inspired by Farrelly’s interest in world music, though most observers thought O’Connor’s singing and stage presence were the band’s strongest features.

1990s

Her second album – 1990’s I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got – gained considerable attention and mostly positive reviews: it was rated “second best album of the year” by the NME. She was praised for her voice and her original songs. She was also noted for her appearance: her trademark shaved head, often angry expression, and sometimes shapeless or unusual clothing.

The album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got featured Marco Pirroni and Kevin Mooney, of Adam and the Ants fame, and contained her international breakthrough hit “Nothing Compares 2 U”, a song written by Prince and originally recorded and released by a side project of his, the Family.

Sinead O’Connor’s husband

O’Connor had four children and was married and divorced four times. She had her first son, Jake, in 1987 with her first husband, music producer John Reynolds, who co-produced several of her albums, including Universal Mother. Reynolds and O’Connor later married in 1989. The same year, O’Connor had an abortion after things did not work out with the father. She later wrote the song “My Special Child” about the experience.

Soon after the birth of her daughter Brigidine Roisin Waters on 10 March 1996, O’Connor and the girl’s father, Irish journalist John Waters, began a long custody battle that ended with O’Connor agreeing to let Roisin live in Dublin with Waters. In August 2001, O’Connor married British journalist Nick Sommerlad in Wales; the marriage ended in July 2002 after 11 months. She had her third child, son Shane, in 2004 with musician Donal Lunny. In 2006, she had her fourth child, Yeshua Francis Neil Bonadio, whose father is Frank Bonadio.

O’Connor was married a third time on 22 July 2010, to longtime friend and collaborator Steve Cooney, and in late March 2011, made the decision to separate. Her fourth marriage was to Irish therapist Barry Herridge. They wed on 9 December 2011, in Las Vegas, but their marriage ended after having “lived together for 7 days only”. The following week, on 3 January 2012, O’Connor issued a further string of internet comments to the effect that the couple had re-united.

On 18 July 2015, her first grandson was born to her son Jake Reynolds and his girlfriend Lia.

On 7 January 2022, two days after her 17-year-old son Shane was reported missing from Newbridge, County Kildare, he was found dead by the Gardaí in Bray, County Wicklow. O’Connor stated that her son, custody of whom she lost in 2013, had been on “suicide watch” at Tallaght Hospital, and had “ended his earthly struggle”. O’Connor criticised the Health Service Executive (HSE) with regard to their handling of her son’s case. She initially criticised Ireland’s family services agency, Tusla, but retracted this a few days later. In January 2022, a week after her son’s suicide, she was hospitalised on her own volition following a series of tweets in which she indicated she was going to take her own life.

Sinead O’Connor’s religion

In the late 1990s, bishop Michael Cox of the Irish Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church (an Independent Catholic group not in communion with the Catholic Church) ordained O’Connor as a priest.

The Roman Catholic Church considers ordination of women to be invalid and asserts that a person attempting the sacrament of ordination upon a woman incurs excommunication. The bishop had contacted her to offer ordination following her appearance on the RTÉ’s Late Late Show, during which she told the presenter, Gay Byrne, that had she not been a singer, she would have wished to have been a Catholic priest. After her ordination, she indicated that she wished to be called Mother Bernadette Mary.

In a July 2007 interview with Christianity Today, O’Connor stated that she considered herself a Christian and that she believed in core Christian concepts about the Trinity and Jesus Christ. She said, “I think God saves everybody whether they want to be saved or not. So when we die, we’re all going home… I don’t think God judges anybody. He loves everybody equally.” In an October 2002 interview, she credited her Christian faith in giving her the strength to live through and overcome the effects of her child abuse.

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