Making Sense of Sinead O’Connor’s Nonsensical Las Vegas Wedding - Newstbt.com

Sinead O’Connor’s marriage to Barry Herridge, which was officiated in a 2011 Las Vegas ceremony, sadly ended just three hours after the wedding due to an apparent mistake made while following her heart. The beloved Irish pop singer passed away on Wednesday at the age of 56, with her cause of death still unknown.

On Dec. 8, 2011, Sinead O’Connor and Barry Herridge exchanged vows at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, NV. O’Connor made her grand entrance in a pink dress and as a grand finale, the newlyweds took their seat in the chapel’s rentable pink Cadillac for her “I do”. However, the couple did not make it to their happy ending as “certain people in my husband’s life” and “a wild ride looking for weed” took its toll, according to O’Connor. Herridge, a drug counselor, was deeply affected by her search that caused O’Connor to let him go. Despite the downfall of the marriage, O’Connor’s history with breaking her own rules in the name of love remains.

A History of Following Her Heart

After responding to an online blog post she wrote three months prior, O’Connor met Barry Herridge, who would become her fourth and final husband. She told the Irish Independent that she was taken away by the wonderful email he sent and even commented that Barry was “extremely persuasive— and other unprintable things.” Unfortunately, their marriage only lasted 16 days and began with O’Connor shredding a photo of Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live” in October of 1992— an event that seemed to set the tone for a life of obvious mistakes made from following her heart.

O’Connor, before shredding a photo from her mother’s house and offering a verbal warning to “fight the real enemy,” shouted the lyrics from Bob Marley’s “War” which she intertwined with terms such as racism, slavery, and nationalism. At Madison Square Garden only two weeks later, in celebration of Bob Dylan’s 30th debut album anniversary, 18K people were present with Kris Kristofferson introducing O’Connor as a person with “courage and integrity.” However, 13K people loudly booed her after the introduction. This was likely in part due to O’Connor’s accusations of her mother’s abusive behavior towards her during her childhood.

50 years prior to that time, approximately 3,000 Roman Catholic priests had been accused of sexually exploiting minors, and the church had been complicit in concealing some of their crimes. Yet, the scale of the issue was not yet completely comprehended. It wouldn’t be uncovered until Pope John Paul II apologized for the scandal a decade later, an apology that was followed by Benedict XVI, who additionally addressed those affected by the abuse, called for the perpetrators to be brought to legal accountability and harshly criticised the negligence of church authorities. By the moments of her recognition, O’Connor was no longer remembered by the public. Even her performance at the Dylan Concert was removed from the CD. Ultimately, prior to her own death in 2022, O’Connor had to suffer the loss of her 17-year-old son, Shane, who had committed suicide in January of the same year.