Bob Geldof remembers text messages received from Sinead O’Connor weeks before her death

Bob Geldof has recalled speaking with Sinead O’Connor just weeks before her death, at a recent show.

• READ MORE: Sinéad O’Connor, 1966-2023: an artist of integrity, intensity and honesty

The singer-songwriter and activist recalled his longtime friendship with the musician while on stage during the Cavan Calling festival in Ireland. Here, he reflected on growing up on the same road as her and her family, as well as his admiration for her courage while in the public eye.

“She meant a lot to everyone. She meant a lot to us,” The Boomtown Rats singer began. “Sinead lived on the same street about 75 yards down the road. I knew her and her brother Joseph, the great novelist. We used to share the 7A bus stop going into school… So I grew up with the O’Connors and they were great and she is a pistol.

“She was relentless. She had a voice like none of us have ever heard – so pure. And being a great artist, that voice completely represented her soul and her spirit and whenever we hear that we’ll always be with that great woman.”

As he continued, he also touched upon the “terrible loneliness” and sense of “despair” that she dealt with throughout her life, and admitted that he had received texts from her in recent weeks – recalling the highs and lows that she was going through.

“There’s no other option, as all of you know, than to just keep on. Many, many times Sinead was full of a terrible loneliness and a terrible despair,” he explained. “She was a very good friend of mine. We were talking right up to a couple of weeks ago. Some of her texts were laden with desperation and despair and sorrow and some were ecstatically happy. She was like that.”

Towards the end of his touching tribute – which saw him wear a t-shirt with a photo of her on the front — he also praised her for her courageous appearance on Saturday Night Live in 1992.

The now infamous clip showed O’Connor perform a cover of Bob Marley’s song ‘War’ a cappella, and later rip apart a photo of Pope John Paul II as she spoke the word “evil”, and threw the pieces at the camera, saying “Fight the real enemy”. The performance was in protest against the sexual abuse of children in the church and saw her banned from the show.

“She tore up the picture of the Pope because she saw me tear up the picture of John Travolta on Top Of The Pops,” he said. “It was a little more extreme than tearing up fucking disco. Tearing up the Vatican is a whole other thing but more correct actually. I should have done it.”

The iconic Irish singer and activist died at the age of 56 last week, after being found unresponsive in her London home. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The news came one year after the death of her son Shane, who died by suicide. Currently, no cause of death for the singer has been announced, although the police have confirmed that the circumstances are not being treated as suspicious.

Tributes quickly poured in from across the music industry from Garbage, Billy Corgan, Michael Stipe, Ice-T and many more.

P!nk and Brandi Carlile soon paid live tribute to the singer, covering ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ at a recent show. Fall Out Boy also covered the song at a recent gig, while Foo Fighters and Alanis Morissette performed ‘Mandinka’ at a recent festival.

Additionally, fans gathered in Dublin this weekend and to sing her cover of the Prince song, while Ruth Coppinger, an activist and former Irish parliamentarian, paid tribute to the late singer at the gathering, describing her as an “exceptional and unique voice that could be both a whisper or a scream in one line”.

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