Fans lined streets of Sinéad O’Connor’s former hometown in Ireland to bid farewell to the gifted singer as her funeral procession passed by.
Throngs of fans lined the streets of Sinéad O’Connor’s former hometown in Ireland to bid farewell to the gifted singer as her funeral procession passed by Tuesday following a private memorial service.
A vintage VW camper van with rooftop speakers blasting Bob Marley’s song “Natural Mystic” led a hearse at walking pace through a thick crowd of admirers along the waterfront in Bray. O’Connor said she loved Marley’s music.
Devotees of O’Connor’s singing and those touched by her sometimes-troubled life tossed roses and other flowers on the hearse.
A group that had been waiting for well over an hour outside O’Connor’s former home, singing her songs at times, began to clap as four police officers on motorcycles leading the cortege approached and the procession came to a halt.
They snapped photos through the windows of the hearse where her coffin was dwarfed by a pile of blue hydrangeas and pink roses.
Ruth O’Shea, who had come to the coastal town of Bray south of Dublin with her two daughters, became teary as she spoke of O’Connor’s significance, saying she had “meant the world” to her.
“She was so rebellious and empowering and inspiring, and my mother hated me listening to her music,” O’Shea said.
