Glen Hansard Tribute to Sinéad O'Connor // Lisa O'Neill Sings O'Connor's 'Three Babies'

August 9, 2023, day after Sinéad O'Connor's funeral. Swell Season performs at Atlanta Symphony Hall Words said by Glen Hansard: Ireland has gone through something very intense in the last couple of weeks. Something very transformative, something very difficult. Ireland has had this kind of crack in its psyche, this break point. Ireland is in a difficult place right now, psychologically, because one of our great, great daughters of Ireland -- one of Ireland’s great women -- passed away unexpectedly, too young. And Sinéad O’Connor was a profound human being. I had the good fortune of knowing her and she was an incredibly bright, erudite, super tuned-in, like Ireland’s Joan of Arc, she was hearing voices, she was following instincts that we can only catch up with now. And we had a very complicated love for Sinéad because Sinéad was provocative. She would say things, and she would kick against the bricks, and kick against the bricks. And it was a difficult love, there’s no doubt about it. Loving Sinéad O’Connor was not an easy thing. She demanded that you evolve or get the f*ck out. But anyway, she’s gone and she went too soon, and Ireland doesn’t know what to do. Because Ireland spent a long time ridiculing her and ignoring her and silencing her and putting her away. And she died in London. Anyway, look we’ve had a f*cking beautiful night, but when I speak about Sinéad I’m in a heap, because I think our country – we don’t know what to do with it. I don’t know what it’s like over here, but for us, we are in a troubled place.