The cause of Sinead O’Connor’s death has been revealed more than a year after she was found dead in her London home. A local coroner concluded last July that the Irish Grammy Award winner died from “natural causes,” but a Dublin-based newspaper has obtained a copy of her death certificate, which states that O’Connor died from “exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma together with low-grade lower respiratory tract infection.”
Sinead O’Connor died just 18 months after her 17-year-old son committed suicide, prompting some to speculate that the singer had taken the same drastic action. Her final tweet exacerbated such concerns, which included a photo of her son next to the comment declaring she had been “living as undead night creature since.” She was 56 years old when she died.
In recent years, Dublin-born O’Connor began to speak openly about the many tragedies she endured in her early life and the mental health problems she suffered as a result. In her memoirs – released in 2020 and entitled Rememberings – the singer described years of physical and sexual abuse as a child. By the time she reached her teens, she had begun shoplifting and was sent to one of Ireland’s notorious Magdalene Asylums as punishment. Her mother died in a car accident when she was 18.
The last decade of her life was marred by diagnoses of severe mental health conditions, including bipolar and borderline personality disorder. She had courted controversy with unusual behavior even before that time, some of which turned many people against her. In 1992, for example, she was banned from Saturday Night Live after ripping up a photo of the Pope during a performance. She later claimed to be a Catholic priest, sometimes appearing in priest’s vestments, and later still converted to Islam and adopted the name Shuhada’ Sadaqat.
Soon after adopting the Muslim faith, O’Connor – who is white – faced another backlash when she declared her contempt for white people and said she never wanted to spend time around them again. She apologized months later, explaining that she was “angry and unwell” when she made the remarks.
