Locals in Co Wicklow expressed gratitude to be able to say a last goodbye to a well-known member of their community: the award-winning musician Sinead O’Connor.
Flowers, stones with messages on them and hand-written notes have been left on the wall of her former home on Strand Road in Bray in the days since her death.
A neighbour was seen placing lit candles on the wall between the two properties ahead of the funeral cortege’s arrival.
People gathered at the Bray seafront on Tuesday morning for various reasons: because of her music, because her personal struggle was familiar to them, or because they knew her as a local.
People applauded as the hearse passed by, before following the cortege in a solemn procession.
Locals remarked that it was a goodbye that the singer would have approved of, and some people wept as the hearse passed them.
Ann, who works in the CrepeAlicious kiosk opposite Sinead O’Connor’s Bray home, said the singer had “no airs or graces” about her.
“When Sinead lived over there I had the kiosk here, and she used to come over for an ice cream with her younger son.
“She’d come over for her little ice cream with sprinkles.
“She was lovely. Very down to earth, very ordinary. She’d have a bit of craic as well.”
Ann said she had considered not opening the kiosk out of respect for the late singer.
“But then I thought, Sinead loved the colour, she used to comment on the colours of the balls (hanging outside the kiosk).”
She said it was an “amazing” turnout to say a final goodbye, with people lined all along the stretch of seafront, the largest gathering being outside O’Connor’s former home Montebello.
A pink chair was placed outside her pink-framed conservatory along with three rows of pink flowers with a photograph of the singer placed on the chair.
Adrian Duggan, a Bray local, said he found the pink chair which was placed on the steps to the late singer’s former home on the beach.
“I’d never seen a pink chair on the beach before,” he said.
He said a neighbour of O’Connor’s, Ken Doyle, told him she had a chair “exactly like it”.
He said that the coastal town was delighted at the chance to say a last goodbye to O’Connor, who he described as a “one-off”, and said it was “phenomenal” to see crowds gather outside her former home.
Ken Doyle, of the band Bagatelle, told RTE that Sinead was a very private person.
“She had the quoin stones painted with the Rastafarian flag and I met her at the gate and I just said: ‘Hi Sinead, you must be a big Bob Marley fan with the Rastafarian flag on the quoin stones.’
“And she said: ‘I am. I’m a huge fan. He’s my hero really.’
“And I said: ‘Well I had the honour of supporting him at Dalymount Park in 1980.’
“And she looked at me and took a puff from her cigarette, and said: ‘You lucky fecker.’ And she walked away and that was our conversation.”
Olivia Galvin, who lives in nearby Kilmacanogue, said she had come down to “pay our last respects to Sinead and to honour the life she lived here and the life she lived in Bray and the fight she put up”.
“I think she fought very hard on behalf of people who felt a bit oppressed or unheard and she spoke her truth always, not to mention sharing her amazing voice.
“I think she was a warrior for the Irish nation,” she said, adding that her influence also spread beyond Ireland.
“She was a private enough person but yet, she settled in here and I remember reading an interview she’d done saying: ‘I’m just ordinary, I still have to go out and buy a pound of butter like everybody else.’
“So I think she felt comfortable here… I think she felt very at ease and Bray people just let her get on with her life.
“If anybody saw Sinead it was a highlight to see her, but it felt like she felt at home here. I guess she liked the sea and the Wicklow air.”
She added: “Her interaction with people was very much ‘treat me as a person, not as a superstar’.”
Ms Galvin described her outspokenness on mental health, minority groups and the Church as “really powerful”.
“She did it ahead of her time, she kept going despite the huge backlash.
“I’ve been up and down during the week and I think there is a real palpable sense of ‘we’ve lost something special here, someone really special’.”
