Dolores Mary Eileen O'Riordan (1971 - 2018)

Dolores Mary Eileen O'Riordan was born September 6, 1971 in Ballybricken, Limerick, Ireland. She was a daughter of Terence Patrick O’Riordan and Eileen Greensmith. O'Riordan was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family.

O'Riordan was singing before she could talk. When she was five years of age was singing at school. She started with traditional Irish music and playing the Irish tin whistle. When she was seven years old, her sister accidentally burned the house down; the rural community was able to raise funds to purchase the family a new homestead. O'Riordan's formative experiences were as a liturgical soloist in the choir in local church and as singer at school. From the age of eight, she was sexually abused for four years by a person whom she trusted. At the age of ten, she would sing in local pubs where her uncles took her.

O'Riordan attended Laurel Hill Coláiste FCJ school in Limerick. At the age of twelve, O'Riordan began piano lessons. By seventeen, she learned to play the guitar and performed a solo gig in Laurel Hill Coláiste secondary school.

Her mother, encouraged her to consider becoming a nun or get a college degree and become a music teacher; instead, she ran away from home at eighteen and lived a couple of years with her boyfriend.

O'Riordan was still a student at Laurel Hill Coláiste FCJ secondary school when she first joined the band, The Cranberries. She left school without any qualifications. The group, "The Cranberries" released their first album March 1, 1993 titled Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?

O'Riordan experienced difficult touring conditions with low-income, sleeping on people's floors and in cramped vans across Ireland and UK. She had to overcome her shyness at the time during the early live performances with the Cranberries, singing "with her back to the audience". O'Riordan had been rapidly gaining international attention after the release of the Cranberries' first album.

On July 18, 1994, O'Riordan married Don Burton. They met in the US while Duran Duran and the Cranberries were on tour together. The wedding was held at Holy Cross Abbey in County Tipperary. The couple had three children: Taylor, Molly and Dakota. In 1996, they lived at The Coach House, a medieval-style residence beside Ballyhannon Castle at Quin in County Clare, Ireland.

Early in 1994, O'Riordan injured her leg in a ski accident in the Alps' Val d'Isère and underwent major surgery. In September 1994, the Cranberries released "Zombie", the lead single of the follow-up album, No Need To Argue. The song reached No. 1 of Triple J's Hottest 100, which was the first time ever that a female-led band had topped Australia's biggest song poll. She stood alone in the countdown's history for sixteen years. In terms of female-fronted acts, O'Riordan still remains one of only two women to sing on a No. 1 song on the Hottest 100 ranking [as of 2020]. She reached her commercial peak with No Need to Argue, the top-selling album worldwide in the first semester of 1995, and the world's best selling album of the year by a European artist. By this time, within the release of the first two albums of the Cranberries with accompanying tours, O'Riordan had achieved both success and celebrity status.

Her leg injury recurred unexpectedly, and led to three concerts being postponed scheduled until June 1995.

She has been recognized as a style icon, sporting a pixie cut or buzzed hair in the 1990s, and performing barefoot, saying "it just feels comfortable and honest to pull your toes along the ground".

On March 23, 1995, O'Riordan appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. On September 12, 1995, O'Riordan performed "Ave Maria" along with Luciano Pavarotti in his Pavarotti & Friends series of benefit concerts, entitled Together for the Children of Bosnia, which raised funds for War Child and the children of Bosnia, held in Modena, Italy. Princess Diana, who attended the live performance, told O'Riordan that the song brought her to tears.

The third album, To the Faithful Departed was released on April 30, 1996 and debuted at number two in the UK, and number four in the US. It also featured the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one single "Salvation". Halfway through the Free To Decide World Tour 1996-97 promoting To the Faithful Departed, O'Riordan and the Cranberries canceled the remaining dates announcing that they would take time off in 1997. While the group claimed that "exhaustion" was the result of an extensive touring schedule, pressure from managers". O'Riordan publicly stated, "I was very depressed and I was extremely anorexic on that record, and as it came out I got progressively worse". O'Riordan was the one who made the decision to take a break.

In 1998, the O'Riordan and Burton bought a 61-hectare (150-acre) stud farm, called Riversfield Stud, located in Kilmallock, County Limerick, before selling it for US$5 million in 2004. They then moved to Howth, County Dublin, where O'Riordan acquired a house in 2004, which she later sold in 2010, and spent summers in a log cabin on a property they bought in 1994, near Buckhorn, north of Peterborough, Canada.

On November 12, 1998, Dolores O'Riordan and Fergal Lawler presented the award for Best Song at the MTV Europe Music Awards, in Milan, Italy. On December 11, 1998, she performed live with the Cranberries at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert at Oslo Spektrum, Oslo, Norway.

The Cranberries released Bury the Hatchet. The album peaked at number one on both the Canadian Albums Chart, and on the European Top 100 Albums. The world tour has been her biggest ever, which started in April 1999 and lasted until July 2000.

Bury the Hatchet was quickly followed by her fifth effort with the group, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, released on October 22, 2001. On December 15, 2001, O'Riordan performed solo in the Vatican as part of the annual Vatican Christmas concert (Concerto di Natale) for Pope John Paul II.

On February 7, 2002, O'Riordan and the Cranberries announced in Dublin that they donated all the proceeds from their single "Time Is Ticking Out" to the Chernobyl Children's Project. On December 14, 2002 she received a second invitation to perform at the Vatican Christmas concert.

In June 2003, O'Riordan met AC/DC singer Brian Johnson when the Cranberries were playing concerts with AC/DC and the Rolling Stones on the latest leg of their Licks World Tour. In mid-July 2003, the two friends started collaborating on material for a project that should have been the rock opera version of Helen Of Troy. Johnson said he's been working on it for about seven years and that the musical to which O'Riodan would lend her voice was expected to feature many artists. The $1.2 million production was initially to debut in March 2003 at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Florida. However, despite the pronouncement, the project was adjourned and Johnson expected it to be completed in late 2003 so that it could be played in London.

In 2003, the band decided to take a temporary time-out to experiment with solo projects.

O'Riordan stated she had become a prisoner of her own celebrity and did not find a balance in her life.

In 2003, O'Riordan recruited Canadian music producer Dan Brodbeck and musicians to develop new compositions for her solo project.

On March 6, 2004, she performed "Ave Maria" during the 54th International Song Festival at the Ariston Theater, Sanremo, in northern Italy. On May 29, 2004, O'Riordan performed during the first concert of the Festivalbar, in Milan, Italy. In 2004, she appeared with the Italian artist Zucchero on the album Zu & Co. In 2004, O'Riordan worked with composer Angelo Badalamenti of Twin Peaks fame on the Evilenko soundtrack, providing vocals on several tracks.

In 2005, she appeared on the Jam & Spoon's album Tripomatic Fairytales 3003. On December 3, 2005, O'Riordan made her third appearance at the Vatican's annual Christmas concert.

In April 2006, O'Riordan signed a contract with Ciulla Management, based in Sherman Oaks, California. She made a cameo appearance in the Adam Sandler comedy Click, released on June 23, 2006. On December 9, 2006 she would be invited at the Vatican Christmas concert who took place in Monte Carlo, as the concert which was to be held at the Vatican was canceled by the Pope Benedict XVI.

Are You Listening? was released in May 2007. The album entered and peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Top Rock Albums ranking, and number 77 on the Billboard 200.

O'Riordan performed on many televised live performances in 2007 in support of that record, and travelled to over 22 countries. On March 21, 2007, she performed on TV show Taratata in Paris, France. On April 20, 2007, O'Riordan made an appearance live on The Late Late Show on RTÉ in Dublin. On May 16, 2007, she appeared on Carson Daly's late-night show, Last Call with Carson Daly, in Burbank, California, in an episode that aired on 18 May 2007. She also appeared on May 17, 2007, on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Burbank, California, in an episode that aired on 19 May 2007. On May 25, 2007, O'Riordan performed during a live broadcast of Channel 7's Sunrise in Sydney, Australia. In May 2007 she played six songs acoustically at True Music with Katie Daryl on HDNet in Los Angeles, California, in an episode that aired on 2 September 2007. The same month she performed on the Heaven and Earth Show aired on BBC One. On 29 June 2007, O'Riordan took to the stage of Festivalbar in Catania, Italy.[135] On November 19, 2007, she cancelled the remainder of her European Tour (Lille, Paris, Luxembourg, Warsaw, and Prague) due to illness. In December 2007, she performed in a few small American clubs, including Des Moines, Nashville, and Charlottesville, Virginia.

In 2008, O'Riordan won an EBBA Award.

In January 2009, the University Philosophical Society (Trinity College, Dublin) invited the Cranberries to reunite for a concert celebrating O'Riordan's appointment as an honorary member of the Society, which led the band members to consider reuniting for a tour and a recording session. O'Riordan released her second album No Baggage, featuring 11 tracks, in August 2009.

On August 25, 2009, while promoting her solo album No Baggage in New York City on 101.9 RXP radio, O'Riordan announced the Cranberries Reunion World Tour of 107 concerts.

The Cranberries reformed and the tour began in North America in mid-November, followed by South America in mid-January 2010 and Europe in March 2010. By 2010, O'Riordan suffered from vocal cord nodules which caused her doctor to prescribe six weeks of inability to perform. Consequently, concert dates were cancelled and postponed, but the recurring problem persisted until 2012.

On July 1, 2011, a concert entitled "TU Warszawa" / "Here, Warsaw" was the main event of the inauguration of Poland's presidency of the EU council. O'Riordan performed "Zombie" and "I Lied" with the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra, in Warsaw, Poland. O'Riordan celebrated the reunion by touring with the Cranberries across Asia in July 2011. During the six years of their hiatus, O'Riordan and Noel Hogan occasionally shared ideas. In 2011, they recorded their sixth album, Roses released in February 2012.

On March 22, 2012, the Cranberries cancelled nine minutes before the show at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney, O'Riordan suffered from food poisoning. When she recovered, the Roses Tour resumed two days later and the cancelled show was rescheduled for March 26th. In May 2012, the final two concerts of the North American tour of the Cranberries had to be postponed for a then undisclosed reason, which was later said to involve from O'Riordan's "hectic touring schedule"; this caused some uncertainty about the upcoming European leg of the tour.

In October 2013, O'Riordan and Marco Mendoza reconvened their partnership and were working on the songs for her announced third solo album scheduled for 2014, and presumably some film possibilities. Her final performance at the Vatican Christmas concert occurred in December 2013. In the autumn of 2013, as her hometown of Limerick was preparing to start its tenure as Irish City of Culture in 2014, O'Riordan was approached by the city to play a special gig. During a New Year's Eve party under the Spire of St Mary's Cathedral, she performed with a quartet from the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

In mid-January 2014, between shoots for The Voice, O'Riordan stated that she had written fifteen songs for a new solo album and she planned to go to Los Angeles in order to elaborate the start of the album. In mid-July 2014, O'Riordan had announced that she would not return to The Voice of Ireland for a second season due to her health condition.

In April 2014, O'Riordan began recording new material with Jetlag, a collaboration between Andy Rourke of the Smiths and Olé Koretsky, a DJ and producer based in New York. They then formed a trio under the name D.A.R.K. Their first album, Science Agrees, was released in September 2016.

O'Riordan and her husband Burton ended their relationship in September 2014 after 20 years together. Following her split from Burton, she suffered from serious depression in 2014 and her mental health issues were compounded by alcohol use. O'Riordan left Canada and moved to New York.

On November 10, 2014, O'Riordan was arrested and charged in connection with air rage on an Aer Lingus flight from JFK to Shannon airport. During the flight, she grew verbally and physically abusive to the crew. When police were arresting her, she resisted, reminding them that her taxes paid their wages and shouting "I'm the Queen of Limerick! I'm an icon!", headbutting one Garda officer and spitting at another. She allegedly fractured the air hostess' foot during the incident and had been medically assessed at University Hospital, escorted by Shannon Police. Following her arrest, O'Riordan spent three weeks in a psychiatric hospital. She later pleaded guilty to the charges. Eileen O'Riordan stated that her daughter was in a fragile mental state and that medical results indicated there was no alcohol or drugs detected in her daughter's system. Later, O'Riordan told the media that she had been stressed from living in New York hotels following the end of her 20-year marriage.

In January 2015, O'Riordan returned to the US, where she bought an apartment in East Village of New York City. She developed a relationship with Russian musician Olé Koretsky, with whom she shared the last years of her life.

On April 28, 2017, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the band, the Cranberries released a new studio album Something Else.

In May 2017, the band started the world tour as acoustic concerts, with a string quartet. Most of the time, O'Riordan sang seated on a stool. After eleven shows, O'Riordan was said to be in "excruciating pain". The Cranberries published on social media the cancellation of the sold-out tour in Europe and North America, stating that Dolores' back problem was in the mid to upper area of her spine and diaphragmatic movements associated with breathing and singing exacerbated the pain. During her rest, O'Riordan had been planning a new album of the Cranberries, and had written and recorded demo versions in her final years.

In May 2017, O'Riordan publicly discussed her bipolar disorder, stating that she had been diagnosed in 2015. O'Riordan admitted that "there have been times when I've struggled. The death of my father and mother-in-law was very hard.

In September 2017, O'Riordan began composing a suicide note while drinking heavily and taking Lorazepam.

O'Riordan's last public performance was on December 14, 2017 in New York City, when she sang three Cranberries songs at Billboard's Christmas party.

O'Riordan's final social media post, looking to the future, occurred on January 4, 2018.

On January 15, 2018, O'Riordan had a phone call with her mother. Later that morning, she was found unresponsive in the bathroom and was pronounced dead. The cause of her death was a result of accidental drowning in a bath following sedation by alcohol intoxication. She was buried at Caherelly Cemetery in Herbertstown, County Limerick, Ireland.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Find A Grave, memorial page for Dolores O'Riordan (6 Sep 1971–15 Jan 2018), Find a Grave Memorial ID 186661244, citing Caherelly Cemetery, Herbertstown, County Limerick, Ireland.

• "Dolores O’Riordan, Lead Singer of the Cranberries, Dies at 46". Christine Hauser, The New York Times. Retrieved on 15 January 2018.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_O'Riordan
• http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0642512/bio