Irish Examiner view: Inimitable Sinéad O'Connor a force of nature who was true to herself

The image of her tearing up a picture of Pope John Paul II on live television was a defining moment and threatened to destroy her career but for her, it was a simple act of protest and validation

Never a conformist, in life or in music, Sinéad O'Connor used her art as leverage. Picture Andres Poveda

Few people — be they lay, ecclesiast, political activist, artist, or polemicist — have had a greater impact on Irish society, or in a wider global sense, than Sinéad O’Connor.

Possessed of a voice that was not only a unique and beautiful singing talent, but one which expressed her constant fury at the vicissitudes, unfairness, and ugliness of modern life and the human failings which shaped her and many of those around her, O’Connor was truly inimitable.