By midday yesterday thousands were lining the seafront in Bray, the County Wicklow town the Irish singer had called home, to greet the funeral cortege.
Police motorcycles cleared a path for a van with speakers that played Bob Marley and the Wailers' song Natural Mystic. The hearse appeared, bedecked in flowers tossed by the crowd. Vehicles with O'Connor's relatives followed while Bob Geldof was among those in the funeral cortege, riding in a taxi.
As the procession approached O'Connor's former home people applauded. Others sang Nothing Compares 2 U and held up banners: "Thanks Sinéad. Rest in power." "When words fail, music speaks."
Candles, poems, tears and smiles completed an elegy in sunshine for a singular, ethereal voice that had sung and spoken about love and darkness.
Earlier, Umar Al-Qadri, the chief imam at the Islamic Centre of Ireland, oversaw prayers at a private funeral service. "Just as Sinéad O'Connor brought diverse souls together through her art, so have you orchestrated a symphony of unity during her final journey," he told mourners. O'Connor had used the Muslim name Shuhada' Sadaqat after she converted to Islam.
Police found the singer unresponsive in a south London flat on 26 July, prompting worldwide grief and tributes. She was 56. The cause of death remains unclear.
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