The music world was shocked by the passing of The Cranberries' lead singer Dolores O'Riordan on January 15th, 2018. She was only 46 years old when her body was found in a London hotel. You know her voice, you know her songs, so here's a look at what you might not know about her and the legacy she left behind...
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00:00The music world was shocked by the passing of the Cranberries' lead singer Dolores O'Riordan
00:05on January 15th, 2018.
00:07She was only 46 years old when her body was found in a London hotel.
00:11You know her voice.
00:12You know her songs.
00:13So here's a look at what you might not know about her, and the legacy she left behind.
00:19Despite her fame and rock star status, O'Riordan told The Telegraph in 2001 she was most at
00:24peace in rural Ireland.
00:25She described her cozy, loving childhood, her close relationship with her mother, and
00:29her thoughts on the rock star life, saying,
00:31"'I don't want to be a part of the Hollywood scene.
00:33Or the New York scene.
00:34I just want to be a part of my family scene.
00:36I don't want to get into a clique of people that I suddenly feel I have to have an identity
00:40with.
00:41I have a real identity with a beautiful family I really know and really love.'"
00:45She talked about her piece of paradise, too, a house outside Limerick with a cottage for
00:49her mother, complete with horses, a pot-bellied pig, a flock of chickens, her dogs, and the
00:54peacocks the family raised.
00:56While not nearly as openly political as fellow Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O'Connor, O'Riordan
01:00occasionally expressed her political opinions to the press.
01:03In a 1995 interview, she told Rolling Stone she thought abortions were demeaning to women.
01:07"'I'm in no position to judge other women, you know.
01:09But I mean, idiot, why didn't you not get pregnant?
01:12It's not good for women to go through the procedure.
01:14It belittles women.'"
01:15In 2009, she allowed her music to be used in a movie called South Dakota, A Woman's
01:19Right to Choose, an anti-abortion film that's part documentary and part feature, telling
01:24the story of two pregnant teens and the decisions they made.
01:27O'Riordan also moderated a post-screening panel for an audience of hundreds of teenage
01:31girls.
01:32When the Los Angeles Times covered the panel, they said O'Riordan stayed neutral while encouraging
01:36the girls to speak up about how they felt without fear of being judged.
01:39In 2014, O'Riordan was a mentor on The Voice of Ireland, and told The Independent before
01:43the finale that she didn't have any chemistry with the show's other female mentor.
01:47She believed there was one key difference between them.
01:49"'I'm a feminist, and she's not.
01:51I'm a woman who uses their sexuality to be heard or to be seen or get attention.
01:55I don't think you need to do that.
01:56I think women should be equal.'"
01:58But O'Riordan didn't always consider herself a feminist.
02:01In 2001, she told The Telegraph,
02:02"'I think the feminists probably need some serious man in their lives.'"
02:07In 2015, O'Riordan pleaded guilty to charges filed following an incident that started on
02:11a flight from New York to Ireland and continued at the airport.
02:15O'Riordan was allegedly physically and verbally abusive with the flight crew, acting belligerent
02:19and shouting,
02:20"'I'm an icon.
02:21I'm the Queen of Limerick.'"
02:22When police arrived at the airport, she reportedly head-butted one officer and spit at another.
02:27O'Riordan's mother, Eileen, told the Limerick Leader,
02:28"'It wasn't drugs or alcohol that triggered her daughter's outburst, but stress from the
02:32end of her 20-year marriage,' which she alluded to in a 2013 interview."
02:36"'And you've been together, what, 18 years or something?
02:38Married 18 years?'
02:39"'Yeah, we're married 18 this year, so yeah, there was a bit of hope.
02:41And we haven't really killed each other yet, only completely.'"
02:44O'Riordan was placed in psychiatric care following the incident, and the judge ordered her to
02:48apologize to the crew and the police, in writing, and donate 6,000 euros to charity.
02:53O'Riordan's friend Barry Egan wrote a piece for the Belfast Telegraph after the airport
02:57drama that tried to explain why, failing marriage aside, she was in such a dark place.
03:02Egan wrote that O'Riordan confessed to him in 2013 that she was sexually abused by a
03:06man for four years when she was a little girl.
03:08She kept the secret buried for a long time, but had to face it in 2011, when her father
03:13lost his seven-year battle with cancer, and she came face-to-face with her abuser at his
03:17funeral.
03:18The man apologized for what he did to her.
03:20O'Riordan says the abuse she suffered as a child had a major impact on her as an adult.
03:23At the same time, she struggled to come to terms with her newfound fame.
03:27She fought to manage the depression that led to her thoughts of self-harm, anorexia, alcoholism,
03:32insomnia, and panic attacks.
03:34She also shared that in 2012, things got so bad she tried to overdose.
03:38When that failed, she reassessed her life, citing her kids as a reason to live.
03:43O'Riordan was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2015.
03:47O'Riordan frequently talked about the values instilled in her during her childhood, which
03:50The Telegraph called old-fashioned, romantic, and Catholic.
03:54O'Riordan herself told the Irish Independent she believes in God and an afterlife, adding,
03:58"...I believe in other dimensions.
04:00When people die, they go to another dimension, and we can communicate with them."
04:04She said part of her beliefs came from her experience saying goodbye to her father, and
04:08added he regularly came to her in dreams where she spoke with him.
04:13When she talked to The Telegraph in 2001 about her legacy, she said it was one she
04:16was proud of.
04:17"...When I die, I'll have a massive catalog of beautiful songs behind me.
04:21I'm proud I wrote Linger.
04:22I'm proud I wrote Dreams.
04:23I love it when I hear people doing cover versions of my songs.
04:26I'm like, I wrote that!
04:28My God!
04:29I'm so proud of myself."