Sinead O’ Connor revealed a few months ago that her 17-year-old son Shane died by suicide days after he went missing from an Irish hospital’s suicide watch ward.
“My beautiful son, Nevi’im Nesta Ali Shane O’Connor, the very light of my life, decided to end his earthly struggle today and is now with God,” the singer stated. “May he rest in peace and may no one follow his example. My baby. I love you so much. Please be at peace.”
Police confirmed Shane O’Connor’s death in January. “Following the recovery of a body in the Bray area of Wicklow on Friday 7 January 2022, a missing person appeal in respect of Shane O’Connor, 17 years, has been stood down,” Irish authorities said in a statement. Bray, Ireland is approximately 15 miles away from Dublin, where the Tallaght University Hospital is located.
Shane’s death came two days after a missing persons report was filed after he left an Irish hospital where he was on suicide watch. On social media, his mother pleaded for her son’s safe return while criticizing the hospital for allowing Shane to leave.
“Like, how has a seventeen year old traumatized young person WHO WAS ON SUICIDE WATCH in Tallaght Hospital’s Lynn Ward been able to go missing???” O’Connor stated. The hospital refuses to take any responsibility. Anything happens to my son on their watch? Lawsuits,” O’Connor tweeted Friday. “I want to know why Lynn Ward at Taillight hospital who were supposed to have HCA’s supervise my child 24/7 have managed to let him out of their grasp this morning when 7 days ago he made two severe suicide attempts.”
Over the past decade, Sinead O’Connor has been forthcoming about her own struggle with mental illness and thoughts of suicide, with the singer threatening to take her own life on numerous occasions, including a May 2016 incident where she was located safely after being considered “missing and suicidal” in a Chicago suburb.
O’Connor has asked for privacy in order to grieve her son.
