- Music
- 29 Jul 24
One year on from her death, the Irish music icon's cause of death has been confirmed
Sinéad O'Connor's death last year was caused by an "exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma together with low grade lower respiratory tract infection,” according to her death certificate.
As reported by the Irish Independent, Sinéad's close friend and collaborator, and first husband, John Reynolds, registered the death certificate in London last week.
The news follows a weekend of tributes to the Irish singer and songwriter, marking the first anniversary of her death.
In January, a statement from Southwark Coroner's Court confirmed that Sinéad "died of natural causes". She had been found unresponsive at her home in London on July 26, 2023. She was 56.
Thousands of fans lined the streets of Bray in August 2023, to say a final goodbye to the singer ahead of her private burial.
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"She was one of a kind," Hot Press editor Niall Stokes wrote in a special tribute at the time. "Troubled. Vulnerable. But unmistakably always who she was. One of the greatest Irish artists of the past 50 years. Yes. One of the most important and influential singers in the world. Yes. Ground-breaking. Trail-blazing. Warm. Tender. Fiery. Fierce. A lover. A fighter. A poet. With a voice to change the world.
"The best-known Irish woman of all. Someone we knew just by her first name. Sinead. All over the planet people are grieving for her. Her family are bereft. But her genius and her memory will live on."
Last Friday, to mark the first anniversary of her death, fans gathered in Dublin's Merrion Square for an open-air screening of Kathyrn Ferguson's powerful documentary on Sinéad, Nothing Compares.
On the same day, Screaming Orphans – the Donegal band who toured with Sinéad in the '90s as her backing vocalists and opening act – released a moving cover of her 1994 track 'John I Love You'. Their rendition also featured production and drums by John Reynolds.