Trivia

A few weeks after her notorious Saturday Night Live appearance, she appeared at a benefit concert with Kris Kristofferson. When her name was announced, the crowd responded with what appeared to be a dead-even split between cheering and booing. Due to this rare reaction, she immediately scrapped her scheduled song (the keyboardist started playing and she waved for him to stop, which he did) and sang "War" again (the song she sang on SNL), then left the stage and broke down crying in Kristofferson's arms.

Was incarcerated in one of the notorious Magdalene Asylums during her teens for shoplifting.

She made news in 1990 when she announced she would refuse to go onstage at the Garden State Arts Center in New Jersey if "The Star Spangled Banner" was performed. The venue heeded her demand. Afterwards she was informed that she will no longer be invited to perform at the Arts Center.

On the 3rd October 1992, she caused a huge international stir when she tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II, live on Tim Robbins/Sinéad O'Connor (1992), while shouting "Fight the REAL enemy!" after singing an a capella version of Bob Marley's "War". Almost immediately, NBC received over a thousand phone calls with complaints. To this day, NBC refuses to ever air the incident again, and all subsequent reruns of that show have a pre-show recording of her singing the song. O'Connor also received a permanent ban from the show.

When she won a Grammy in the Best Alternative Music Performance category for "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got" (1990), she refused to accept it making her the first recording artist to rebuff N.A.R.A.S. Thus, the title of the song became somewhat prophetic.

Her mother Marie died in a car crash when Sinéad was just 18 years old.

Had a bitter three-year battle with ex-boyfriend, Irish journalist John Waters, for full custody rights of their daughter Roisin. The singer decided to turn over the baby to her father, just four days after she attempted suicide by swallowing 20 Valium tablets. [1999].

In 2003, announced she had fibromyalgia, a illness known for causing incredible fatigue. This was a factor in her retirement from music.

Once worked as a "Kiss-O-Gram" girl in Dublin.

In February 2023, she shared a new version of "The Skye Boat Song", a 19th century Scottish adaptation of a 1782 Gaelic song, which is also the theme for the fantasy drama series Outlander (2014).

Retired from music in 2003 to raise her three children, but announced in February 2005 that she was returning to the business.

Re-establishing Herself as a prominent Musician by Releasing Séan-Nos Nua, an Album of Traditional Irish Folk tunes, as well as New Music. (October 2002)

In October 2018, she announced her conversion to Islam and her name as Shuhada' Davitt.

Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world. (1991)

Winner of the 1991 Brit Award for International Female.

Son Shane (Nevi'im Nesta Ali Shane O'Connor), from her relationship with Irish folk musician and producer Donal Lunny, committed suicide 7 January 2022, at age 17.

Ranked #35 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock N Roll

Was ordained as a Latin Tridentine Church priest by a rebel bishop; her adopted religious name was Mother Bernadette Mary.

O'Connor's memoir, "Rememberings", was published in June 2021. Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph wrote that it was a "brave, wry new memoir" with "humour and perspective". The Guardian wrote that it was a memoir "full of heart, humour and remarkable generosity".

She had daughter Brigidine Róisíne Waters (b. 10 March 1996) from her relationship with Irish columnist and author John Waters.

Her fourth child, first with partner Frank Bonadio, was born on Christmas Eve 2006.

In a 2000 interview in Curve, O'Connor said that she was a lesbian. She later retracted the statement, and in 2005 told Entertainment Weekly "I'm three-quarters heterosexual, a quarter gay".