As tributes from across the world pour in for Sinéad O’Connor, many are focused on the joy her music brought to people. 

Others applaud her for her politics or the frank way in which she spoke about her mental health.

But on today’s show, Seán Moncrieff decided he wanted to talk about Sinéad’s personal kindness.

About a decade ago, a woman texted into the show with a problem.

“[She] was absolutely distraught and she wasn’t coping and she knew she wasn’t coping,” Moncrieff recalled.

“It was all getting a bit too much for her and she was having all sorts of thoughts that she was very uncomfortable with.

“She was having thoughts about her kids she was uncomfortable with and David Carey [the show’s then in-house psychologist] in his very straightforward, no nonsense way said, ‘You have to get to a counsellor… or a psychologist. You have to do it today straightaway.’”

'She used to do these kinds of things all the time, below the radar'. @SeanMoncrieff shares a story which showed the extent of Sinéad O'Connor's generosity. pic.twitter.com/3roOG1neNg

— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) July 27, 2023

The slot ended but the texts kept coming and one arrived from a woman who was having a similarly tough time.

“This woman went on to describe her situation - which was absolutely horrendous,” Moncrieff said.

“She was a single parent, her partner had just disappeared off the face of the map, she had two kids as I recall, and I think at least one of them have behavioural difficulties.

“So, she was having to cope with that.

“Plus, she was broke, she had no money, she had virtually no means of support and was not really managing to put food on the table and she was feeling the wheels coming off.

“She was in an awful state.”

Irish singer Sinead O'Connor is seen at the Grammy Awards at New York's Radio City Music Hall, Feb. 22, 1989. (AP Photo)

A few minutes after he read out the message, the phone buzzed again with another message.

“I’ll pay for her counselling,” the message read.

It was from Sinéad O’Connor.

“Apparently she did this kind of thing all the time below the radar,” Moncrieff said.

“They were the kind of things you wouldn’t really hear about; there was a lot we knew about Sinéad O’Connor in the public domain but perhaps an awful lot that we didn’t know as well.”

Sinéad O’Connor passed away in London on July 26th.

Main image: Sinéad O'Connor. Picture by: Alamy.com