UK authorities have released Sinéad O'Connor's remains

An autopsy was conducted to secure a 'medical cause of death' before the body of Sinéad O'Connor was released to her family. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Sinéad O’Connor’s remains have been released by the UK authorities, according to the clerk of the London Inner South Coroner's Court.

John Thompson said an autopsy was conducted to secure a “medical cause of death” before the body of the singer, aged 56, was released to her family.

Mr Thompson's comments appear in today's Irish Times.

Senior Coroner Andrew Harris was notified on Wednesday, July 26, about Ms O’Connor’s death in her apartment in a converted 1940s warehouse on Shakespeare Rd, between Herne Hill and Brixton, south London.

At the time, no medical cause of death was given and Mr Harris directed an autopsy be conducted.

However, he later stated on his website: “The results of this may not be available for several weeks." 

The decision on whether or not an inquest will be held will be decided when the results of the autopsy are known and submissions have been heard from her family.

If an inquest is to be opened, the date of the brief public hearing will be provided at the London Inner South Coroner's Court.

Sinead O'Connor had only moved into her new apartment a few weeks before her death. Picture: Miki Barlok

Ms O’Connor had only moved into the apartment a few weeks before her death.

Shortly after she arrived, she posted a short video of herself in the apartment on social media.

Bob Geldof has said that about two weeks before her body was found, she had sent him text messages which he said were “laden with desperation, despair and sorrow”.

The Boomtown Rats frontman, who dedicated the band’s performance at Cavan Calling last month to Ms O'Connor, told the crowd that she was full of “a terrible loneliness and a terrible despair”.

He said they had been talking up to a couple of weeks before her body was found.

Some of the texts were laden with desperation and despair and sorrow and some were ecstatically happy.

In February 2022, just weeks after her 17-year-old son Shane took his life, the singer vowed never to sing again.

The grief-stricken mother said on Twitter that there was "nothing to sing about" and that any reports about her performing in 2022 or 2023 “or ever again” were “erroneous”.

Ms O’Connor, who had been planning to return to performing again in 2024, said at the time: “There will never be anything to sing about again”.

After her death, her management at 67 Management, said Ms O’Connor was, at the time of her death, completing her new album, reviewing new tour dates for 2024 and “considering opportunities in relation to a movie of her book”.

They said: “Wonderful plans were afoot.”