Image source, EPA

We're closing our coverage of tributes to Sinéad O'Connor now, thanks for joining us.

Here's a quick snapshot of the breadth and depth of feeling at the news felt around Ireland and the world:

• Ireland's president Michael D Higgins said the country has lost one of its "greatest and most gifted composers, songwriters and performers"

• From the world of music, tributes have flooded in from artists as varied as fellow singer-songwriter Bryan Adams, to legendary 80s rappers Ice-T and Flavor Flav

• British singer Alison Moyet said O'Connor had a voice that "cracked stone with force by increment"
• Irish comedians Dara O'Briain and Patrick Kiely paid tribute, with the O'Briain expressing the hope she realised "how much love ther was for her"

• Former MMA champion Conor McGregor, who O'Connor sang an Irish folk song for during a ring walk in 2015 said Ireland has "lost one of our absolute finest" and he had lost a friend
• A filmmaker who made a documentary about O'Connor has given a heartfelt interview to the BBC about the impact she had on girls and young women in Ireland in the 1980s and 90s

If you'd like to read a full write-up of the news of her death, click here.

Our obituary, charting her rise from a tumultuous childhood in Dublin to international stardom, is available here.

The page this evening has been brought to you by Andrew Humphrey, Nadine Yousif, Brandon Livesay, Adam Durbin, Michael Sheils McNamee Heather Sharp and Sam Hancock.

Mark Savage
BBC News Music correspondent

Her every note screamed with naked passion. She turned Prince's saccharine Nothing Compares 2 U into an almighty howl of pain and loss.

Those emotions were her bedfellows. She had a traumatic childhood. Her parents divorced when she was eight, and her mother - who she later claimed had abused her - died in a car accident in 1985.

As a teenager she was arrested for shoplifting and sent to a Magdalene Asylum, which she described as a "prison" where the "girls cried every day".

All those harrowing experiences, and ones yet to come, poured into her music. I Am Stretched On Your Grave is a hauntingly beautiful song about love and loss; while Three Babies, from her second album, laid bare her sorrow after she had suffered several miscarriages.

She also took on other people's pain. Her breakthrough single, Mandinka, contained oblique references to female genital mutilation. 1990's Black Boys On Mopeds addressed police brutality against black men, two years before the LA riots thrust the issue into the spotlight.

Although she was a controversial figure, there was always a tenderness to her protests. When she ripped up a picture of the Pope on US television, she was thinking about victims of abuse, not about her image.

Her later albums featured guest spots by her own children, and hymns to peace and community. Earlier this year, she won a classic album award in Ireland, and dedicated it to the country's refugee community.

Nothing Compares 2 U was the outlier: a song that made her famous against her wishes. At heart, she was a protest singer with a voice that demanded to be heard. That is how we should remember her.

Patrick Kielty has also paid tribute to the "heartbreaking" news of O'Connor's death.

"She was the truth way before most of us knew where to look. Rest in peace, Sinéad", the Irish comedian and presenter writes on social media.

Image source, Getty

US rapper Flavor Flav has paid tribute to O'Connor too, joining fellow 80s rap-legend Ice-T in mourning her death.

Writing on behalf of his group Public Enemy, he says the news has broken his heart.

"She was very supportive of Public Enemy and she was a legend that's gone too soon.

"My condolences to her son and family."

John Hand
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

Although Sinéad O'Connor was herself an acclaimed and distinctive songwriter, there is no doubt the musical highpoint of her career came with her cover version of Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U, which reached number one in both the UK and US in 1990.

The American actually recorded the song in 1984 but did not release it at the time. Instead he gifted it to funk band The Family for their one and only album. The song was then largely forgotten and Prince himself did not perform it live in the 1980s..

So when O'Connor turned it into a massive international hit - earning Prince a handy top-up in songwriting royalties - there was enduring interest in whether he actually liked her performance. It was hard to be sure as the enigmatic star rarely gave interviews on any subject - but he did start adding the song into his live set.

In 2021, in her own memoir, called Rememberings, O'Connor revealed that not only had she not met Prince before recording the song, but their first encounter only came years later.

In the book she recalled that he invited her to his house "to hang out" - but after she arrived, he tersely told her to fetch her own drink.

She wrote: "He commences stalking up and down, one hand rubbing his chin, looking me up and down. He shouts at me 'I don't like the language you're using in your print interviews. I don't like you swearing'."

O'Connor pointed out that she didn't actually work for him and, just for good measure, swore at him.

Obviously Prince, who died in 2016, was no longer around to offer his side of that night's events but in 2022 his family blocked the use of Nothing Compares 2 U in a high-profile new documentary about O'Connor's life.

Speaking with Christian Fraser on the BBC News Channel, Irish author Sinéad Gleeson says Sinéad O'Connor was a unique musician who made an indelible impact at a young age.

The author, who has met O'Connor and written about her impact as a musician, says the Irish icon didn't care what people thought about her, and she spoke out on political issues even when it was at great cost to her career.

O'Connor particularly hit on issues relevant to women in Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s, Gleeson says, including restrictive abortion rights and lack of marriage equality.

"We had this incredible voice and we had the music, but we also had someone who was very much an activist and somebody who spoke up for people who maybe didn't have a voice."

Chris Page
Ireland correspondent

Sinéad O’Connor’s iconic status in Ireland grew as her life experiences reflected profound and rapid change in her home country.

When she became globally famous in the early 1990s, Ireland was probably the most socially conservative state in western Europe – with the Catholic Church still dominant.

However, the religious establishment was beginning to lose its authority, amidst numerous scandals.

It was into this space that O’Connor’s outspoken challenges arrived – coupled with searingly personal testimony about her difficult early years.

Tributes to her in Ireland have noted that she could be said to have been ahead of her time in drawing attention to misogyny, abuse, and hypocrisy.

In more recent times, her authenticity about spirituality also seemed to chime in a society exploring its sense of diversity.

The Irish President Michael D Higgins has alluded to the singer’s place in wider Irish history - paying tribute to her “fearless commitment” to “uncomfortable truths”.

Image source, Getty Images

The Irish singer caused a huge uproar in 1992, when she tore a photograph of Pope John Paul II during an appearance on Saturday Night Live in the US.

Many said the incident destroyed her career.

Standing in a white dress and staring directly at the camera, she sung “we have confidence in the victory of good over evil”.

O’Connor then held up the photograph and ripped it apart, and said “fight the real enemy”.

It led to her being banned from appearing on the NBC television network and caused widespread outrage.

The singer spoke frequently of the moment in the years after, saying it was a protest against abuse carried out by members of the Roman Catholic Church.

O’Connor spoke with Today, a US breakfast TV show, in 2021.

She said: “10 years after the Pope ripping episode, you all then found out in America that this was going on”.

A filmmaker who has produced a documentary about O'Connor called Nothing Compares has spoken to the BBC about her "love letter to Sinéad".

Speaking to Radio 4's Front Row this evening, Kathryn Ferguson said her father played the singer's work on repeat while the family were driving around Belfast in the late 1980s - with her music becoming a "visceral soundtrack to my early childhood".

Asked about the impact O'Connor's abusive childhood had on her music, Ferguson says the singer "always used her platform to speak out against injustices and what she felt was wrong in the world, and particularly at home in Ireland".

On O'Connor's distinctive singing style, the filmmaker described her has being "gifted with the most exceptional voice", which "seemed to cut through all of the noise" and resonate with people.

You can listen to the full interview with Ferguson on BBC Sounds here, which begins at around the 34 minute mark.

We're getting more tributes from contemporaries of legendary Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor.

Jah Wobble, the original player of British post-punk band Public Image Ltd and an artist who has collaborated with O'Connor in the past, tells Paul Henley from BBC World Service's Newshour that she was "a very special person."

"She had the essence of a Celtic female warrior," Wobble says. He adds that her voice was "very powerful, very controlled … there was a sweetness and fragility to it."

Others have taken to social media to share their thoughts on O'Connor's death.

British singer Alison Moyet says she feels "heavy hearted" and that she had "wanted to reach out to (O'Connor) often but didn't."

Moyet adds that O'Connor had a "voice that cracked stone with force and by increment."

Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O'Neill has also paid tribute, writing on social media of her sadess at the news of O'Connor's death.

"Ireland has lost one of our most powerful and successful singer, songwriter and female artists," she says.

O'Connor's death was a big loss to her family, friends and "many followers across the world", the Republican politician adds.

The party's leader Mary Lou McDonald echoed her thoughts, describing O'Connor as an "iconic musical talent" who possessed a "voice of spell-binding beauty".

"Captivating. passionate, fearlessly outspoken. She was a once-off."

Image source, PA Media

More reaction from the world of Irish politics now, as Michael D Higgins sends his "deepest condolences" to O'Connor's father John and other members of her family.

In a statement, external, Ireland's president says his first reaction to hearing the news was to "remember her extraordinarily beautiful, unique voice".

Sinéad O'Connor spoke to the BBC's Heaven and Earth programme in 2002 about being a musical artist.

She talked about the way songs are "your soul speaking to you and sometimes you speaking to them."

We're continuing to hear from key Irish politicians, with foreign minister Micheál Martin the latest to react to the sudden death of Sinéad O’Connor.

"Devastated to hear of the passing of Sinéad O’Connor. One of our greatest musical icons, and someone deeply loved by the people of Ireland, and beyond," he said in a social media post, external.

"Our hearts goes out to her children, her family, friends and all who knew and loved her."

One of Sinéad O'Connor's final posts, external on X, formely known as Twitter, was on July 17, when she spoke of losing her son Shane to suicide:

The Dublin singer's 17-year-old son Shane died last year, days after he was reported missing.

Writing on social media following his death, O'Connor said he had "decided to end his earthly struggle" and requested "no-one follows his example".

She later cancelled all upcoming live performances for the rest of 2022 due to her "continuing grief" following the death of her son.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this live page, you can visit the BBC Action Line for help.

Former UFC champion Conor McGregor has posted tributes, external to Sinéad O'Connor several times on social media in the past hour, including photographs of the pair together.

"The world has lost an artist with the voice of an angel. Ireland has lost an iconic voice and one of our absolute finest, by a long shot. And I have lost a friend," he writes.

"Sinead’s music will live on and continue to inspire! Rest In Peace, Sinead you are home with your son I am sure," the Irish MMA fighter says.

As captured in the image below, O'Connor famously sang the Irish folk song The Foggy Dew for McGregor's walk-out to the Octagon at a UFC title fight in 2015 in Las Vegas.

Image source, Getty Images

Among the tributes being paid the singer, some have come from figures in Irish music and literature.

Irish author and essayist Sinéad Gleeson said it was "completely devastating news".

"Sinéad was a ground-breaking icon and an activist with an unparalleled voice. Sincere condolences to her family and all who loved and admired her."

"Oh lord, this is heartbreaking," wrote best selling author Marian Keyes on social media.

"How she suffered. Poor, poor Sinead. Rest in peace, you amazing, brave, beautiful, unique wonder."

Image source, Reuters

We've been hearing more tributes to Sinéad O'Connor from wide-ranging corners of the music world.

Tim Burgess, lead singer of British rock band the Charlatans, wrote on Twitter that "Sinead was the true embodiment of a punk spirit."

"She did not compromise and that made her life more of a struggle. Hoping that she has found peace," he said.

Fellow Irish musicians - and television presenters - John and Edward Grimes, known as Jedward, also shared their thoughts, writing that O'Connor is a "true Irish icon of our generation".

"We only just met her this year and she was in good spirits, a very welcoming person with a big heart," the duo wrote on Twitter.

Meanwhile US rapper Ice-T also shared a tribute:

"Respect to Sinead….. She stood for something… Unlike most people…. Rest Easy."

After the news of Sinéad O'Connor's death, we have started to see tributes posted on social media.

Irish comedian Dara Ó Briain took to Twitter to say "That’s just very sad news. Poor thing. I hope she realised how much love there was for her".

Irish journalist and TV presenter Conor Pope said: "There aren’t many news stories that will stop almost every Irish person in their tracks. This very sad news is one of them. RIP to one of the finest singers of this - or any - generation."

Stay with us as we continue to bring you the latest tributes and reactions to the death of the iconic Irish singer.