Sinead O’Connor Launches Rant Against Manager, Is In Hospital

Sinead O’Connor, the famous yet controversial singer who has battled mental illness for years, attacked her former manager Bruce Garland on Thursday via Facebook and threatened to send him to jail. This post comes after another Facebook video where a tearful O’Connor talked about her issues and seemed to indicate that she was on the verge of committing suicide.

In the Thursday Facebook profanity-filled post, O’Connor calls “BRUCE” an identity thief and claims that he would be prosecuted “for forgery and for facilitating my suicide four times as well as failing to act to save my life.” She outright declared that Garland would go to jail and that she would be laughing as he fell on behalf of artists who were hurt by managers. She also mentioned that her new manager is Anna M. Sala from a company named AB Artists.

In response to an email from Billboard, Garland found the assertion that O’Connor had fired him “objectionable,” but stated that the Facebook post made it clear that he was no longer working for her. Sala issued a statement which called O’Connor a brave and courageous woman who was fighting against the stigma of mental illness.

Despite O’Connor’s rage at Garland, she appears to be in a better mental state compared to her earlier Facebook video posted on August 3. In that video posted from a Travelodge motel in New Jersey, O’Connor declared that there was “absolutely nobody” in her life aside from her psychiatrist and that he was the only thing keeping her alive at that moment.

The video sparked an outpouring of emotion from O’Connor’s fans as well as notable figures such as Janet Street-Porter and Tyson Fury, and her fans rushed to the Travelodge to help her. O’Connor is in a hospital as of now, but currently does not appear to be depressed and denied that she is suicidal.

No Stranger to Mental Struggles

O’Connor, who is best known for her 1990 arrangement of the Prince song “Nothing Compared 2 U,” has been battling various mental illnesses like post-traumatic stress syndrome over the past few years. She posted earlier rants threatening suicide last May and in November 2016, with the former rant being caused by losing custody of her 13-year old son.

O’Connor was abused physically and sexually as a child, and is no stranger to making dramatic gestures. In 1992, she infamously tore a photo of Pope John Paul II during a showing of Saturday Night Live and called him evil due to controversies surrounding the Catholic Church and child abuse. Last June, she celebrated Brexit not because it would be good for Britain, but because it would liberate Ireland from British tyranny.

But now O’Connor is resting and recovering, hoping to live a normal life despite her disorder. Perhaps the outpouring of concern surrounding her condition will persuade people to pay attention to mental health advocates and look for ways to sympathize and help the mentally ill.

[Featured image by RTNKabik/AP Images]