Vale Sinead O'Connor (Dec 1966 - Jul 2023)
When people die, it's not really the dying that shocks you but the age at which it happens. Sinead O'Connor is/was essentially my age so, the shock is somewhat greater. She was an extraordinary singer whose phrasing was exquisite. She remained rebellious through her career and essentially fearless.
There are three images of Sinead O'Connor in my mind - the first is her singing 'Nothing Compares 2 U'. The second is of her ripping up the image of Pope John Paul II, denouncing the church for its role in child sex abuse. The third is of her brief fourth marriage to some therapist guy Barry Herridge, and she released some photos on social media. The funny thing is they didn't seem like aspects of the same person, even though it was clearly her in all three situations.
Her Wikipedia page reads like a string of outrageous statements made by O'Connor which were then retracted. She appears to have been somebody who blurted things out and then had to retract them often. She was a truth-seeker as well as truth teller - and she was definitely vindicated about the Catholic Church and sex abuses so we owe her something right there. The diagnosis of being bipolar did not come as a surprise, although her struggles seemed to be equally Herculean, Sisyphean, and Pyrrhic. She also had many incidents where she threatened to commit suicide.
She is going to be sorely missed. The world is a little dimmer and more grey without her.
Funny Story
Maybe this isn't so funny... but my replacement/successor at my previous job at UTS has upped and quit this week. I counted the weeks and it comes to 8 weeks that she lasted in the job. The official reason was that she took a post-doctorate position in Queensland - however I'm no dummy. I know the exact sequence events in which she had to participate, and the likely fall-out from those events.
She would have been handed my 34 page handover document with tons of things to do; she would've been made to pick up all the loose threads which would have been arduous. She would have had to sit through and note-tale the Technical Steering Committee meeting in late June; the Advisory Board meeting on 11 July; and the Board meeting on 20 July. At each juncture her boss would have gone to town on her writing with Obsessive-Compulsive-disorderly zeal, and she handed in her resignation on the 24th July.
You can't make this stuff up.