‘She found peace here’: local people tell of Sinéad O’Connor’s last years in Ireland

Sinead O'Connor pictured in Bray in 2008. ‘I treated her the same as everybody else,’ said one resident of the seaside town. Photograph: Kim Haughton/Shutterstock

In the end it didn’t save her but Sinéad O’Connor lived most of her of final years in Ireland behind a “protective ring” that offered, for a while, the chance of a normal life.

After all the triumphs and agonies that had marked her public life, the singer was able to blend into communities that accepted and to some extent shielded her.