Father remembers Sinead O’Connor for giving his dying daughter ‘the best week of her short life’ revealing late singer contacted 20-year-old fan with terminal cancer and took her ‘dancing, drinking and dining’ (and she even shaved her head!)
- The Irish singer’s amazing act of kindness has been revealed following her death
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Sinead O’Connor once called a fan dying of terminal cancer and spent the whole week ‘dancing, dining and drinking’ with her, the fan’s grieving father has revealed.
The Irish singer, who died this week aged 56, contacted Louise Woolcock from Preston, Lancashire, in 1991, who had terminal cancer, her father has revealed.
Sinead had heard Louise’s story because the family were raising money for a local hospice who were taking care of the 20-year-old in her final months.
In a letter written to Telegraph today, Louise’s father Philip Woolcock said that his daughter was a ‘great admirer’ of her music and was ‘thrilled’ by the visit, saying he will always remember the Irish singer’s kindness.
‘Sinead invited my daughter to travel to London to spend some time with her. Needless to say, Louise was thrilled. A few days later, she met Louise at Euston station and, to cut a long story short, Louise had the best week of her short life,’ he wrote.
‘They dined, they drank, they danced – but most of all they laughed irreverently. Sinead was at the height of her fame at this time and found it highly amusing that, when they were out, people were asking for Louise’s autograph,’.
He added that his daughter returned home ‘exhausted’ but ‘happier than ever’.
Sinead then sent her wine, flowers and letters right up until her death in 1992, and even gifted her the platinum record of Nothing Compares 2 U and dedicated her.
Philip added that Sinead ‘never sought any publicity for these acts of love and compassion’.
‘Today my thoughts are with two remarkable women who, I have no doubt, will be somewhere still laughing, dancing and singing,’ he added.
Sinead O’Connor, pictured at MTV Video Music Awards in 1990, has died aged 56
The singer’s fans in Ireland, Britain and around the world are mourning her death at the age of 56
It comes as it was revealed Sinead told neighbours that she had moved back to London from Ireland to be less lonely but shortly before her death she had cried and described being ‘devastated and depressed’ following the suicide of her son.
The singer’s final days have been laid bare by people who spoke to her outside her new £3,000-a-month penthouse flat near Brixton where she was found unresponsive on Wednesday morning.
Residents of the luxury block in South London described seeing her on her large balcony ‘looking down’ and watching the world go by for long periods. They also noticed she would have her lights on, and her windows and doors wide open, 24/7.
Sinead turned Prince’s minor song Nothing Compares 2 U into a global smash in 1990
Sinead O’Connor, left, and Chrissie Hynde in central London for the UK launch of the Fourth United Nations Global Conference on Women in 1995
Others said she would smoke outside the main entrance and grab them for chats, and had no idea she was one of the biggest stars of the 1990s,
The Grammy-winning singer had said she was working on new songs and had plans for a world tour – but locals also said they felt ‘very sad’ seeing her battling with grief and loneliness.
Sinead was bipolar but after her son Shane took his own life at the age of 17 she tweeted there was ‘no point living without him’ and was soon hospitalised.
Pushpakumara Moragamana, 57, who lived opposite, said Ms O’Connor would stand smoking outside the block and chat to neighbours. Ms O’Connor cried about how she felt ‘devastated and depressed’ after the death of her teenage son.
Mother-of-four Ms O’Connor is survived by her three remaining children.
Sinead revealed she was living like an ‘undead night creature’ since her son’s suicide last year in a poignant and desperate final Twitter post shortly before her death.
Shane, 17, took his own life in January 2022 after escaping hospital while on suicide watch.
Her final video from inside the home where she died revealed she was positive about writing new songs and a tour
Ms O’Connor struggled since her son Shane, 17, took his own life in January 2022 after escaping hospital while on suicide watch. She posted this photo with her son last week
She said: ‘He was the love of my life, the lamp of my soul. We were one soul in two halves. He was the only person who ever loved me unconditionally.’
Sinead also posted a series of Spotify links to sad songs, including one she dedicated to ‘all mothers of suicided children’. She also posted links to How Can You Mend A Broken Heart by Al Green, as well as Curtis Mayfield’s Here But I’m Gone and No One Knows About A Good Thing.
Born Sinéad Marie Bernadette O’Connor in Glenageary, Co. Dublin, in December 1966, the singer had a difficult childhood.
One of five children, O’Connor spoke out about being subjected to physical abuse at the hands of her mother, who died in a car crash in 1985.
Her final video from inside the home where she died revealed she was positive about writing new songs and a tour
At the age of 15, she was placed in a Magdalene asylum for shoplifting and truancy.
However, her musical talents were discovered while she was there and she released her first critically acclaimed album, The Lion And The Cobra, in 1987.
Her 1990 recording of Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U earned O’Connor multiple Grammy Award nominations and, in 1991, she was named artist of the year by Rolling Stone magazine.
In her career she recorded ten solo albums, wrote songs for films and collaborated with other artists, but was also well known for her controversial outbursts.
In 1990, O’Connor said she would refuse to go on stage in New Jersey if The Star-Spangled Banner was performed.
And the singer, who frequently spoke out about the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, made global headlines two years later when she ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II while appearing as a guest on US TV show Saturday Night Live.
O’Connor was later ordained as a priest by a bishop from an independent Catholic group and announced that she wanted to be known as Mother Bernadette Mary.
In 2014, she revealed she had joined Sinn Féin and called for leader Gerry Adams to stand down.
O’Connor worried fans in August 2017 when she posted a video to Facebook in which she tearfully spoke about feeling ‘suicidal’ because of her mental health issues.
Married four times, O’Connor announced in an interview with a US magazine in 2000 that she was a lesbian and said she was bisexual in subsequent Press interviews. She also spoke openly about suffering from mental health problems. During an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007, O’Connor revealed that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had suffered with suicidal thoughts.
The mother-of-four told Winfrey that medication had helped her find more balance, but said it was ‘a work in progress’.
Sinead turned Prince’s minor song Nothing Compares 2 U into a global smash in 1990
In 2012, O’Connor cancelled a planned tour, saying her doctor had told her to rest after a ‘very serious breakdown’.
And, in November 2015, she posted a message on Facebook saying she had taken an overdose at a hotel in Ireland.
The next month, she said she had been detained in a hospital for mental health evaluation.
O’Connor was reported missing in the US in May 2016 when she failed to return from an early morning bike ride after making a series of Facebook posts about her family. October 2018 saw her announce she had converted to Islam and changed her name to Shuhada’ Sadaqat.
Following her son’s funeral last year, O’Connor posted a series of tweets in which she said she had ‘decided to follow my son’ but later apologised and said she was being admitted to hospital.
She is survived by her three children, Jake, 34, Róisín, 25, and Yeshua, 15.
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