O’Connor, who died in London last week aged 56, was propelled to international stardom in 1990 with her version of Prince’s song Nothing Compares 2 U.
Alongside her powerful vocals and lyrics, the Irish singer and activist was known for taking fierce stances on social and political issues such as the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and the sexualisation of female musicians.
‘It’s hard not to feel incensed when there are so many people posting about Sinead and how fearless she was, people who would never in a million years align themselves with anybody who stood for something or had anything remotely controversial to say,’ actress and singer Lily, who is currently appearing in The Pillowman in the West End, posted on Twitter.
‘It’s so spineless. If you can’t stand up for people in life don’t do it in death,’ she declared.
The Somewhere Only We Know singer echoed Morrisey’s views on the tributes to O’Connor, who called them ‘sterile slop’ and lambasted the kind words coming in for her when it was ‘too late’.
The former Smiths frontman shared a lengthy, angry message to his website as the world reeled from the news of O’Connor’s death, taking aim at the numerous tributes, which he described as ‘the cruel playpen of fame gushes for Sinead today… with the usual moronic labels of ‘icon’ and ‘legend’.
‘You praise her now ONLY because it is too late. You hadn’t the guts to support her when she was alive and she was looking for you.’
He ripped into everyone from the press to the industry to ’15-minute celebrities,’ saying the press would ‘call Sinead sad, fat, shocking, insane … oh but not today!’
‘Music CEOs who had put on their most charming smile as they refused her for their roaster are queuing-up to call her a “feminist icon”, and 15-minute celebrities and goblins from hell and record labels … are squeezing on to Twitter to twitter their jibber-jabber … when it was YOU who talked Sinead into giving up,’ he seethed.
He also said that she was ‘degraded, as those few who move the world are always degraded’.
O’Connor, who lost her teenage son Shane to suicide last year, was notably treated badly many times throughout her career, most famously after ripping up a photograph of Pope John Paul II live on SNL in protest at the church’s cover up of child sexual abuse.
Years later, the Never Get Old singer wrote an open letter to the Pope asking to be excommunicated from the church before ‘reverting’ to Islam.
It has also emerged that major UK broadcasters like the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are not planning special tribute programmes about the star following her death, Variety confirmed, despite her cultural impact.
The networks have previously overhauled their programming when major celebrities have died, with BBC Four dedicating a whole night of shows to George Michael following his death.
Steven D Wright, a TV commentator and former Channel 4 commissioner, told the outlet that the ‘simple explanation’ behind the absence of O’Connor tributes on screen is because she ‘was underrated and not taken seriously.’
He continued: ‘Only now are people saying, “Hang on, she was kind of an iconoclast for having spoken out against the Catholic Church when she did.”
Despite this, O’Connor’s passionate fanbase have paid tributes to the late singer, with 100 fans gathering on the streets of Dublin on Sunday to sing her most famous song together, organised by socialist feminist group Rosa.
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MORE : Sir Bob Geldof lays bare ‘sorrowful’ text exchanges he had with Sinéad O’Connor before her death in emotional tribute
MORE : 100 Sinéad O’Connor fans gather on streets of Dublin to sing Nothing Compares 2 U in powerful tribute
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