The Cranberries lead singer Dolores O'Riordan passed away on January 15, 2018. She was only 46, and her passing has shocked music fans. O'Riordan and The Cranberries brought their own brand of rock music in the '90s and rose to prominence with their debut album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We.
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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.
00:18Country girl
00:19Despite her fame and rock star status, O'Riordan told The Telegraph in 2001 she was most at
00:24peace in rural Ireland.
00:26She 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, or the New York scene.
00:35I just want to be a part of my family scene.
00:37I don't want to get into a clique of people that I suddenly feel I have to have an identity
00:41with.
00:42I 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.
00:56Politics
00:58While not nearly as openly political as fellow Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O'Connor, O'Riordan
01:02occasionally expressed her political opinions to the press.
01:05In a 1995 interview, she told Rolling Stone she thought abortions were demeaning to women.
01:09"'I'm in no position to judge other women, you know.
01:12But I mean, idiot, why didn't you not get pregnant?
01:14It's not good for women to go through the procedure.
01:17It belittles women."
01:18In 2009, she allowed her music to be used in a movie called South Dakota, A Woman's
01:22Right to Choose, an anti-abortion film that's part documentary and part feature, telling
01:26the story of two pregnant teens and the decisions they made.
01:29O'Riordan also moderated a post-screening panel for an audience of hundreds of teenage
01:33girls.
01:34When the Los Angeles Times covered the panel, they said O'Riordan stayed neutral while encouraging
01:38the girls to speak up about how they felt without fear of being judged.
01:41In 2014, O'Riordan was a mentor on The Voice of Ireland, and told The Independent before
01:45the finale that she didn't have any chemistry with the show's other female mentor.
01:49She believed there was one key difference between them.
01:51I'm a feminist, and she's not, someone who uses their sexuality to be heard or to be
01:56seen or get attention.
01:57I don't think you need to do that.
01:58I think women should be equal."
02:00But O'Riordan didn't always consider herself a feminist.
02:03In 2001, she told The Telegraph,
02:05"...I think the feminists probably need some serious man in their lives."
02:09Facing her demons
02:10In 2015, O'Riordan pleaded guilty to charges filed following an incident that started on
02:15a flight from New York to Ireland, and continued at the airport.
02:18O'Riordan was allegedly physically and verbally abusive with the flight crew, acting belligerent
02:22and shouting,
02:23"...I'm an icon.
02:24I'm the Queen of Limerick."
02:25When police arrived at the airport, she reportedly head-butted one officer and spit at another.
02:30O'Riordan's mother, Eileen, told the Limerick Leader,
02:32"...it wasn't drugs or alcohol that triggered her daughter's outburst, but stress from the
02:35end of her 20-year marriage," which she alluded to in a 2013 interview.
02:39"...and you've been together, what, 18 years or something?
02:41Married 18 years?"
02:42"...yeah, I married 18 this year, so yeah, there was a bit of hope.
02:45And we haven't really killed each other yet, only completely."
02:49O'Riordan was placed in psychiatric care following the incident, and the judge ordered her to
02:52apologize to the crew and the police in writing, and donate 6,000 euros to charity.
02:57O'Riordan's friend Barry Egan wrote a piece for the Belfast Telegraph after the airport
03:00drama that tried to explain why, failing marriage aside, she was in such a dark place.
03:05Egan wrote that O'Riordan confessed to him in 2013 that she was sexually abused by a
03:09man for four years when she was a little girl.
03:12She kept the secret buried for a long time, but had to face it in 2011, when her father
03:16lost his seven-year battle with cancer, and she came face-to-face with her abuser at his
03:20funeral.
03:21She said the man apologized for what he did to her.
03:23O'Riordan says the abuse she suffered as a child had a major impact on her as an adult.
03:27At the same time, she struggled to come to terms with her newfound fame.
03:30She fought to manage the depression that led to her thoughts of self-harm, anorexia, alcoholism,
03:36insomnia, and panic attacks.
03:38She also shared that in 2012, things got so bad she tried to overdose.
03:42When that failed, she reassessed her life, citing her kids as a reason to live.
03:46O'Riordan was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2015.
03:50Believer
03:51O'Riordan frequently talked about the values instilled in her during her childhood, which
03:55the Telegraph called old-fashioned, romantic, and Catholic.
03:58O'Riordan herself told the Irish Independent she believes in God and an afterlife, adding,
04:03"...I believe in other dimensions.
04:05When people die, they go to another dimension, and we can communicate with them."
04:09She said part of her beliefs came from her experience saying goodbye to her father, and
04:12added he regularly came to her in dreams, where she spoke with him.
04:17Secure legacy
04:18When she talked to the Telegraph in 2001 about her legacy, she said it was one she was proud
04:22of.
04:23"...When I die, I'll have a massive catalogue of beautiful songs behind me.
04:26I'm proud I wrote Linger.
04:27I'm proud I wrote Dreams.
04:29I love it when I hear people doing cover versions of my songs.
04:32I'm like, I wrote that!
04:33By God!
04:34I'm so proud of myself."