One of the things the world will remember about Sinéad O'Connor will be her courage to speak out on issues she was invested in and her fearlessness in the face of criticism.
The iconic artist, who was found dead at her London home this week at age 56, famously stirred controversy throughout her decades-long career. But she also inspired many with her candidness about mental ill-health.
O'Connor had a difficult childhood growing up, dealing with an abusive mother and spending time in care. She wrote in her autobiography Rememberings: “At the time my mother lost us, I didn't want to leave her. She made such a scene of grief when our father drove off with us."
Sinéad also detailed her mother's abusive behaviour. Speaking to the Guardian in 2010, she told the story of winning a competition in school for curling into the smallest ball.
"The reason she could do it was because she was so used to having the s**t kicked out of her by her mother. Not surprisingly, she never got over it," said Simon Hattenstone, the journalist who wrote the feature for the Guardian, following O'Connor's death.
In an interview with The State of Mind Web Journal, Sinéad said: “I grew up in a situation of extreme abuse, but there was no chance to talk about it, so music became the escape if you like.”
Sinéad's music career started when she formed Ton Ton Macoute via an advert in the Irish music magazine Hot Press in 1984.
After the band's Dublin shows were well-received, she was then signed with Ensign Records ahead of her 1987 debut album, ‘The Lion And The Cobra’, which included her breakthrough single 'Mandinka'.
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“Traditionally in the music industry, for male and female artists, it's as if we're working for the people who are actually working for us," she told NPR music.
"From the time you sign (with a record label) as a teenager, it's not encouraged that you act like a boss or that you expect to be treated like one.
"If you're female and you don't want to go along with everyone's agenda, you get treated like you're being difficult.”
She shot to stardom after her cover of Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U, and its hauntingly beautiful music video rocked the music world.
After this came all that comes with fame, including appearances on talk shows, one of which went down in history.
In 1992, O'Connor appeared on the US show Saturday Night Live and was shown tearing up a picture of Pope John Paul II, which she said was her mother's.
Speaking after the incident, she said: "I am a protest singer. I just had stuff to get off my chest. I didn't say I wanted to be a pop star. It didn't suit me to be a pop star. So I didn't throw away any career that I wanted."
She later revealed in an interview that she had always planned on destroying the picture but was "waiting for the right time".
O'Connor added: "My intention had always been to destroy my mother’s photo of the pope. It represented lies and liars and abuse. The type of people who kept these things were devils like my mother."
After this stunt, she received severe backlash from both Irish and international fans for her defiance of the Catholic Church.
Throughout her life, Sinéad suffered from mental ill-health, revealing in a 2007 interview with Oprah Winfrey that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Speaking on the American talk show Oprah, O'Connor said: "It's almost very difficult to explain when you are the person that suffers from the thing, but the best way I can describe it is it's almost like before you get ill, you are a solid wall, and while you're ill, it's like the bricks are falling away and it's one teetering little brick."
O'Connor linked her mental health issues to her abusive upbringing and the toll it had taken on her.
"In Ireland, we're still quite behind in terms of recovery and therapy and all that kind of stuff, so when I was growing up there was no such thing as talking to anyone about abuse and what you've been through—there was no such thing as therapy and no such thing as recovery, basically.
"So for me, music was where I kind of put everything."
Sinéad had a rich spiritual life, being ordained as a priest of the Latin Tridentine Church despite repeatedly criticising the Catholoc Church, exploring the Rastafarian religion before converting to Islam and adopting the name Shuhada' Sadaqat.
She called Islam "the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian's journey" in a video she shared announcing her conversion.
Sinéad is survived by three children; her daughter Roisin and sons Yeshua Benadio and Jake. Her 17-year-old son, Shane, died by suicide last year.
