For three years, the singer, who died this week, found simplicity and happiness in a mountain sanctuary where she was just another neighbor.
Few people come to Knockananna without good reason, the journey requiring a long, serpentine drive up the country roads that wind through Ireland’s Wicklow Mountains.
And the village itself is a simple place, little more than a crossroads with a pub, a smattering of pretty white stone houses — some with thatched roofs — and a shop with a single gas pump out front. Cellphone service is patchy, adding to the world-apart feeling.
But some people do find their way to Knockananna, among them Sinéad O’Connor, who enjoyed a sanctuary of sorts in the village during some of the final years of her life.
“Down the mountain, as I call it, nobody can forget about Sinéad O’Connor,” the musician said in a 2021 interview. In the village, she said, nobody much cared — “which is beautiful for me.”
Ms. O’Connor described becoming friends with the local women who came by offering bread and scones, welcoming her to a place where everyone knows everyone else but which can nevertheless still feel a bit lonely.
“We bury bodies for each other,” she said. “It’s lovely having friends.”
Now those friends, and the village that asked little of her but offered much, are remembering Ms. O’Connor with fondness and familiarity following her death on Wednesday at age 56.
For years the singer had fought mental health battles. It was no secret to her neighbors in Knockananna.
“I hope that her happy was here, you know?” said Jude, 57, who became close with Ms. O’Connor, her voice cracking with emotion. “Because that’s all she ever really wanted to be — was just what other people take for granted.”
Jude, who like others in the village asked that her last name not be used over privacy concerns, remembers arriving at the door with scones when her new neighbor first arrived up the road in early 2020.
