Sinead O’Connor died of natural causes, coroner says

A London coroner’s office said Tuesday that Irish singer Sinead O’Connor died of natural causes.

Ms O’Connor, 56, was found dead in a London home in July. Shortly afterwards, the local coroner announced that they would perform an autopsy on her body.

In a brief statement on Tuesday, the coroner said: “Ms. O’Connor died of natural causes.’ The coroner said they had “therefore ceased their involvement in her death.”

Best known for her rendition of Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ Mrs O’Connor became one world star in the 1990s – not only because of her music, but also because of her political provocations, both on and off stage. Most memorable, Ms. O’Connor tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II during a “Saturday Night Live” appearance in 1992 to protest child sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church.

In an assessment of Ms. O’Connor’s career for The New York Times, pop critic Jon Caramanica said the singer was “something bigger than a simple pop star.”

She “was a staunch moralist, an uncompromising voice of social progress and someone who regarded stardom, and its sanded and obscured boundaries, as a kind of disease,” Mr. Caramanica wrote. “She was also a singer with ferocious gifts,” he added.