Mourners to say final goodbyes to Sinéad O'Connor

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Sinéad O'Connor singing on stage with a guitarImage source, EPA

Image caption,

O'Connor was found unresponsive in her London home in July

At a glance

  • The funeral of Sinead O'Connor will take place on Tuesday morning

  • There will be a private service before a funeral procession passes along the seafront in Bray, County Wicklow

  • The Irish singer and activist lived in Bray for 15 years

  • Some roads in the town will be closed and police have asked people to use public transport, where possible

Reporting from

Bray, County Wicklow

Thousands of people are expected to line the streets of Bray in County Wicklow to pay their respects to Irish singer and activist Sinéad O'Connor.

The 56-year-old was best known for her 1990 single Nothing Compares 2 U, which catapulted her to worldwide fame.

O'Connor died at her home in London in July.

The cause of death has not yet been made public but police say it was not suspicious.

On Tuesday morning, a private funeral service will take place.

A funeral cortege will then pass through the seaside town, stopping briefly to allow people to pay their final respects.

The route will begin at the Harbour Bar end of Strand Road, where O'Connor lived for 15 years, and head along the seafront.

In a statement, the family said O'Connor "loved living in Bray and the people in it".

Image source, PA Media

Image caption,

Flowers and tributes have been growing outside O'Connor's former Bray home

Gardaí (Irish police) have asked members of the public to gather between 11:30 and 12:30 local time.

Road closures will be in place between these times in the Strand Road/Promenade area and all other traffic will be diverted onto the Adelaide Road.

Gardaí will be in attendance and warn that further road closures may be put in place.

They are encouraging those planning to travel to the seafront in Bray for the funeral procession to use public transport, if possible, as the Dart (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) can bring people straight there.

Image source, The Tenth Man

A tribute to O'Connor was unveiled on a cliff close to Bray over the weekend with large, white letters spelling out "Éire [Ireland] loves Sinéad".

It was designed by Dublin-based creative agency The Tenth Man.

The agency's creative director, Richard Seabrooke, told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster programme that the news of O'Connor's death hit him "like a tonne of bricks".

Mr Seabrooke said he felt it was important "that Ireland got to say goodbye" to the singer and also to show O'Connor's family that they weren't on their own.

"Her story is intertwined with ours over the last couple of decades," he said.

"To see how much she has helped change this country and see how much this country has changed because of Sinéad... we just felt like it needed to be said and luckily a couple of people agreed to go up a cliff at dawn time."

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