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Sinéad O'Connor's family thankful for 'outpouring of love and affection'

Getty/Paul Bergen/Redferns Irish singer Sinead O'Connor performs at Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 16 March 1988. (Photo by Paul Bergen/Redferns)Getty/Paul Bergen/Redferns
Sinead O'Connor, pictured in 1988

The family of Irish singer and activist Sinéad O'Connor has thanked the "countless kind people who sympathised and offered condolences", after her death.

She died, aged 56 in July at her home in London.

Thousands of people lined the streets of Bray, in County Wicklow, to pay their respects in August as the funeral cortege passed by, ahead of a private burial service.

In an acknowledgement in The Irish Times, her children thanked her fans for the "wonderful funeral procession" and the "national and international outpouring of love and affection for Sinéad from the time of her passing".

"The prayers and thanks of the extended O’Connor family are with you all," they added.

They also thanked the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, his wife Sabina and the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Leo Varadkar for coming to the funeral.

Her funeral service was led by Dingle Druid Juli Ní Mhaoileóin.

PA ans of singer Sinead O'Connor line the streets for a "last goodbye" to the Irish singer as her funeral cortege passes through her former hometown of Bray, Co Wicklow, ahead of a private burial service. PA
Fans lined the streets as O'Connor's her funeral cortege passed through her former hometown of Bray, County Wicklow

There was an interment ceremony in the garden in Deansgrange Cemetery.

The family also thanked Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri and his colleagues for the "Muslim prayers and blessing of Sinéad at both these ceremonies".

PA/Liam McBurney Flowers at the grave of Sinead O'Connor in The Garden section of Deansgrange Cemetery, DublinPA/Liam McBurney
Flowers at the grave in The Garden section of Deansgrange Cemetery, Dublin

Pauline Scanlon sang, accompanied by Éamonn De Barra and Donogh Hennessy and there was more music at the graveside by Síle Denvir, Nicola Joyce, Noriana Kennedy, Éilis Kennedy and Damien Dempsey.

The family thanked Northern Ireland-based charity The Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust for facilitating bringing her body back to Ireland.

They also thanked the media for respecting the privacy requested by the family and asked that this privacy continued to be respected.

The 56-year-old was best known for her 1990 single Nothing Compares 2 U, which catapulted her to worldwide fame.

The cause of death has not yet been made public but police say it was not suspicious.