Sir Bob Geldof has spoken out about the loss of his friend Sinead O’Connor, revealing he was messaging her shortly before her death and she was “full of a terrible loneliness.”
O’Connor – best known for her 1990 hit Nothing Compares 2 U – died on Wednesday at the age of 56, sparking an outpouring of messages and tributes for the star.
Sir Bob was performing at the Cavan Calling festival over the weekend, and according to Dublin Live, he also paid tribute to his “good friend.”
He said: “She was a very good friend of mine. We were talking right up to a couple of weeks ago.
“Some of her texts were laden with desperation and despair and sorrow and some were ecstatically happy. She was like that.”
Speaking about the tragic loss of her son Shane, 17, 18 months ago to suicide, Sir Bob said: “There’s no other option, as all of you know, than to just keep on. Many, many times Sinead was full of a terrible loneliness and a terrible despair.”
Earlier in the weekend, fans of O’Connor sang her most famous song at a poignant gathering in Dublin to pay tribute to the late star.
Around 100 people joined together to sing Nothing Compares 2 U at the event on Sunday afternoon.
Alongside her powerful vocals and lyrics, the Irish singer was known for taking fierce stances on social and political issues such as the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and the sexualisation of female musicians.
The lunchtime singalong in Barnardo Square, central Dublin, was organised by socialist feminist group Rosa.
Earlier on Sunday, Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Toibin said O’Connor sang with a “sense of mission” to speak out against injustices.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House on Sunday morning, Toibin said he has “tremendous admiration” for O’Connor.
“Her voice is personal. You can actually hear the pain, but it’s not just the pain, I think there’s too much about the pain,” he said.
“You can hear the sort of courage, the bravery, the ferocity, and the sense of mission, I think, also.
“The sense of breaking glass, speaking out, open space for others. This was what she meant and this is what she did.
“She began at a time when those things she did were so necessary in Ireland, for somebody to emerge like that, who would speak in that way.”
The Grammy-winning singer sparked controversy and made headlines in 1992 when she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II on US TV show Saturday Night Live in protest at the Catholic Church, sparking a ferocious backlash.
Reflecting on the climate of Ireland at the time, Toibin said that Pope John Paul II was “adored” and “revered” by many, with huge crowds coming to see him during his visit to the country in 1979.
He described the action of her tearing up her own mother’s photograph of the Pope as an “extraordinary moment” which showed she was willing to “go against the grain” to highlight what would become the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.
