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Media
Sinead O’Connor hits out at Irish Independent article
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 9 May 2012
Sinead O’Connor has hit out at claims made in an Irish Independent article at the weekend about the circumstances surrounding the cancelation of her recent world tour and the sacking of her manager Fachtna O Ceallaigh.
O’Connor began a tour in support of her latest album, ‘How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?’, in March, but cancelled the remaining dates in April, telling fans via her website that she was “very unwell due to bipolar disorder”, having suffered “a very serious breakdown between December and March”, which, she revealed this week, had led her to attempt suicide in January. She added that she had been advised by her doctor not to tour at all but had initially forged ahead because she “didn’t want to ‘fail’ or let anyone down”.
Around the same time she also fired O Ceallaigh, and it is this which Irish Independent reporter Niamh Horan focussed on in Sunday’s article. Horan quoted a source as saying: “Fachtna received a very colourful email from Sinead. And things deteriorated after that”.
In a response published via her website, O’Connor said that this was simply not true, and that she had sent “a perfectly reasoned email for perfectly poignant reasons” that ended their professional relationship, which she said had deteriorated in recent months. This was, she said, because he and the rest of her management team had failed to support her as she struggled with severe mental distress at the same time as promoting an album and touring.
O’Connor says that her touring schedule breached agreements in her management contract for the amount of time she could be away from her children in any month. She added that the promotional schedule running concurrently with the tour was also “unreasonable in my opinion and even at times inhumane”, making it difficult to manage her illness, and that she was not consulted about most of the commitments scheduled. She also claims that some people around her had told her that delays and problems on the tour were her fault because of this.
She said: “I was shocked when I found myself expected to carry out unreasonable tasks and stay sane fit and healthy, while not being given space, time, or assistance of any kind to get medical help. I was very shocked and wounded to the core to find myself the subject of criticism and angry complaints rather than care. I was never told when I did anything right. And I was often told what a stress and trouble I am”.
Read the Irish Independent article here.
And O’Connor’s full statement here.
