Editing Sinéad O'Connor (section)

== Early life and education ==
Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Sisario |first1=Ben |last2=Coscarelli |first2=Joe |date=26 July 2023 |title=Sinead O'Connor, Evocative and Outspoken Singer, Is Dead at 56 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/arts/music/sinead-oconnor-dead.html |url-status=live |access-date=28 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727125051/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/arts/music/sinead-oconnor-dead.html |archive-date=27 July 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> was born on 8&nbsp;December 1966 at the Cascia House Nursing Home on [[Baggot Street]] in [[Glenageary|Dublin]].<ref name="Allmusicbio" /> She was named Sinéad after [[Sinéad de Valera]], the mother of the doctor who presided over her delivery, [[Éamon de Valera, Jnr.]], and Bernadette in honour of [[Saint Bernadette of Lourdes]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=McCarthy |first=Justine |date=3 February 1990 |title=My daughter Sinead... |pages=11 |work=[[Irish Independent]] |url=https://prnt.sc/ZKNr8ogp4w0s |access-date=3 March 2023|via=[[Irish Newspaper Archives]]}}</ref><ref name="sodifferent">{{cite book|first=Dermott |last=Hayes |title=Sinéad O'Connor: So Different |publisher=[[Omnibus Press]] |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-71192-482-6}}</ref> She was the third of five children;<ref name="Hattenstone-2021">{{Cite news |last=Hattenstone |first=Simon |date=29 May 2021 |title=Sinéad O'Connor: 'I'll always be a bit crazy, but that's OK' |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/may/29/sinead-oconnor-ill-always-be-a-bit-crazy-but-thats-ok-rememberings |access-date=26 July 2023 |issn=0261-3077 |url-status=live |archive-date=7 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107141735/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/may/29/sinead-oconnor-ill-always-be-a-bit-crazy-but-thats-ok-rememberings}}</ref> an older brother is the novelist [[Joseph O'Connor]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 February 2011 |title=Nothing compares to you, Joe tells his sister Sinead |url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/nothing-compares-to-you-joe-tells-his-sister-sinead/26705415.html |access-date=26 July 2023 |website=Independent.ie |language=en |last=Sweeney |first=Ken |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726182217/https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/nothing-compares-to-you-joe-tells-his-sister-sinead/26705415.html |archive-date=26 July 2023}}</ref> Her parents were John Oliver "Seán" O'Connor, a [[structural engineer]] later became a [[barrister]]<ref name="Hattenstone-2021" /> and chairperson of the [[Divorce Action Group]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=17 June 2007 |title=Sinead's love of her 'devil' mum |url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/sineads-love-of-her-devil-mum/26297965.html |access-date=26 July 2023 |website=Independent.ie |language=en |last=O'Connor |first=Brendan |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726184445/https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/sineads-love-of-her-devil-mum/26297965.html |archive-date=26 July 2023}}</ref> and Johanna Marie O'Grady (1939–1985), who married in 1960 at the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, [[Drimnagh|Drimnagh, Dublin]]. She attended [[Dominican College Sion Hill]] school in [[Blackrock, County Dublin]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Gilmore |first1=Mikal |title=Sinead O'Connor: The Decade's First New Superstar |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sinead-oconnor-the-decades-first-new-superstar-194020/ |magazine=Rolling Stone |access-date=11 August 2023 |date=14 June 1990 |quote=In the early Eighties, Sinéad's father sent her to Sion Hill, in Blackrock — a school for girls with behavioral problems, run by Dominican nuns — and then to a succession of boarding schools that included Mayfield {{sic}} College, in Drumcondra, and Newtown School, in Waterford.}}</ref>

In her 2021 memoir, ''[[Rememberings]]'', O'Connor wrote that she was regularly beaten by her mother, who also taught her to steal from the [[collection plate]] at [[Mass in the Catholic Church|Mass]] and from charity tins.<ref name="Sturges-2021">{{Cite news |last=Sturges |first=Fiona |date=11 June 2021 |title=Rememberings by Sinéad O'Connor review – a tremendous catalogue of misbehaviour |language=en-GB |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/11/rememberings-by-sinead-oconnor-review-a-tremendous-catalogue-of-misbehaviour |access-date=4 August 2023 |issn=0261-3077 |url-status=live |archive-date=9 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210909201340/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/11/rememberings-by-sinead-oconnor-review-a-tremendous-catalogue-of-misbehaviour}}</ref> In 1979, at age 13, O'Connor went to live with her father, who had recently returned to Ireland after marrying Viola Margaret Suiter ({{née|Cook}}) in [[Alexandria, Virginia]], United States, in 1976.<ref>"Virginia, Marriage Certificates, 1936–1988", database with images, ''[https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK98-RT3K FamilySearch]'' (20&nbsp;February 2021), John Oliver O'Connor and Viola Margaret Suiter, 18&nbsp;June 1976; from "Virginia, Marriage Records, 1700–1850", database and images, ''[http://www.ancestry.com  Ancestry]'' (2012); citing Alexandria, Virginia, United States, certificate 76-019430, Virginia Department of Health, Richmond.</ref>

At the age of 15, following her acts of shoplifting and truancy, O'Connor was placed for 18 months in the Grianán Training Centre in [[Drumcondra, Dublin|Drumcondra]],<ref name="HighParkComplex">{{Cite web |title=High Park Reformatory, Dublin, Co. Dublin, Ireland |url=http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/DublinHighPark/ |access-date=9 August 2023 |website=childrenshomes.org.uk}}</ref> which was run by the [[Order of Our Lady of Charity]].<ref name=wp20100325>{{Cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/25/AR2010032502363.html | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | title=To Sinead O'Connor, the pope's apology for sex abuse in Ireland seems hollow | date=28 March 2010 | access-date=11 September 2017 | archive-date=3 September 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903032953/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/25/AR2010032502363.html | url-status=live}}</ref> She thrived in certain aspects, particularly in the development of her writing and music, but she chafed under the imposed conformity of the asylum, despite being given freedoms not granted to the other girls, such as attending an outside school and being allowed to listen to music, write songs, etc. For punishment, O'Connor described how "if you were bad, they sent you upstairs to sleep in the old folks' home. You're in there in the pitch black, you can smell the shit and the puke and everything, and these old women are moaning in their sleep&nbsp; ... I have never—and probably will never—experience such panic and terror and agony over anything."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=McNeil |first=Legs |date=April 1990 |title=Sinead |url={{Google books |id=GJ2P1hu6nToC |page=54 |text=such panic and terror and agony |plainurl=yes}} |magazine=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]] |location=New York City |publisher=Camouflage Associates |access-date=23 October 2020}}</ref> She later attended [[Maryfield College]] in Drumcondra,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.ie/regionals/herald/maryfield-a-class-apart/28962030.html|title=Maryfield a class apart|last=Scully|first=Niall|date=4 December 201|access-date=12 August 2023|website=Independent.ie}}</ref> and [[Newtown School, Waterford|Newtown School]] in [[Waterford]] for fifth and sixth year as a boarder, but did not sit the [[Leaving Certificate (Ireland)|Leaving Certificate]] in 1985.<ref>{{cite web |last=Carroll |first=Rory |title='An incredible loss': Ireland shares memories of Sinéad O'Connor |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jul/27/sinead-oconnor-ireland-shares-memories |website=The Guardian |access-date=28 July 2023 |date=27 July 2023 |url-status=live |archive-date=4 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230804003908/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jul/27/sinead-oconnor-ireland-shares-memories}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Teacher recalls Sinead O'Connor's time at Newtown and performances at T and H Doolan's |url=https://www.wlrfm.com/news/teacher-recalls-sinead-oconnors-time-at-newtown-and-performances-at-t-and-h-doolans-317463 |last=Foley |first=Kieran |website=WLRFM.com |access-date=28 July 2023 |language=en |date=26 July 2023 |url-status=live |archive-date=6 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230806135120/https://www.wlrfm.com/news/teacher-recalls-sinead-oconnors-time-at-newtown-and-performances-at-t-and-h-doolans-317463}}</ref>

On 10 February 1985, when O'Connor was 18, her mother died in a [[car accident]], aged 45, after losing control of her car on an icy road in [[Ballybrack]] and crashing into a bus.<ref>{{Cite news |date=26 February 1985 |title=Schoolboy swept to death from rock |pages=11 |work=[[The Evening Herald]] |url=https://prnt.sc/xVuPclHN3Ujd |access-date=5 October 2022|via=[[Irish Newspaper Archives]]}}</ref><ref name="Marie">{{cite web|url=https://people.com/music/sinead-oconnor-she-still-loves-mother-despite-abuse-dr-phil/|title=Sinéad O'Connor Says She Still Loves Her Mother Despite Years of Physical and Sexual Abuse|first=Dave|last=Quinn|work=[[People (magazine)|People]]|date=12 September 2017|access-date=22 July 2021|archive-date=22 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210722213759/https://people.com/music/sinead-oconnor-she-still-loves-mother-despite-abuse-dr-phil/|url-status=live}}</ref> In June 1993, O'Connor wrote a public letter in ''[[The Irish Times]]'' in which she asked people to "stop hurting" her: "If only I can fight off the voices of my parents / and gather a sense of self-esteem / Then I'll be able to REALLY sing&nbsp;..." The letter repeated accusations of [[child abuse]] by her parents as a child which O'Connor had made in interviews. Her brother Joseph defended their father to the newspaper but agreed regarding their mother's "extreme and violent abuse, both emotional and physical". That month, Sinéad said: "Our family is very messed up. We can't communicate with each other. We are all in agony. I for one am in agony."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://apnews.com/75b63677eceede6a82d4d0d04262dfd3|title=Singer and Family Rummage Through Their Psyches in Public|work=[[AP News]]|date=1 July 1993|access-date=5 October 2013|archive-date=6 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131006065753/http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1993/Singer-and-Family-Rummage-Through-Their-Psyches-in-Public/id-75b63677eceede6a82d4d0d04262dfd3|url-status=dead}}</ref>