The father of singer Sinéad O’Connor visits his daughter’s grave every week where he brings her up to date on what is happening in his life.
In a rare interview on RTÉ Radio 1’s Oliver Callan show Seán O’Connor said that when his daughter died on July 26th, 2023, he cried his eyes out for a fortnight. The outpouring of grief from her fans at the time had been a comfort. “I still miss her and of course it’s a comfort,” he said.
“Sinéad had two personas. One was in the public arena and the other was with her family. And I saw her funeral as being lovely for her fans. At a personal level, I’ve never had publicity in respect of Sinéad, and it made it all the more hurtful for all of us when she died.
“I visit her grave every week. And we have a conversation or I bring her up to date. I put my hand on the gravestone, which was designed by my daughter, Eimear. And it’s very simple. It just says Sinéad O’Connor, two dates, born and died, and ‘God is Love’. And that’s it. It’s more to do with her fans than the family. The family is in the heart.”
READ MORE
Seán said in life his daughter could be cranky at times. “Sinéad could be outrageous in the public world and she could be outrageous with the family. She could be cranky. But in the end I always had a feeling of compassion for her. She was always on the edge. We got on very well most of the time and sometimes she’d fall out with me.
“It’s a very great help for me to know that in January, two years ago, we were on the phone and we agreed we’d go to Wexford for a three-night holiday. We did. Together. It was the greatest bit of gas.
“We went out to the hotel. We went in to check into two rooms, myself and Sinéad, and we went off for a drive and we came back. I had been upgraded. I had a suite with chocolates, a bunch of flowers.
“Jesus, you couldn’t go anywhere with Sinéad, but someone would come over in the back of beyond in Wexford, ‘oh Sinead, how are you, I love that song of yours’. So we had that and we’d arranged to go away again in April, but when April came she said she’d go to England instead and I didn’t see her again, other than when she came home from England [after her death].
“So it was a sad time, the strength of the family around then helped me and I’m beginning to deal with it now.”
Seán also spoke about the impact his daughter’s death had on the family.
“Our family of siblings are quite united. I mean, they have their differences, but although they’re from different parentage to some extent, they were all brought up together,” he said, adding that “all in all, when we have a family get-together, we can all turn up together.”
When asked about faith, Seán said: “I believe in God, and I believe, I am not sanctimonious, but as I get older, you think more about passing on and actually behaving in a certain way that’s more related to Christianity, like caring for your neighbour a bit more. There’s not enough love in the world, you know, that’s what you discover.”
