Mourners to say final goodbyes to Sinéad O'Connor

The 56-year-old was best known for her 1990 single Nothing Compares 2 U, which catapulted her to worldwide fame.

O'Connor died at her home in London in July.

The cause of death has not yet been made public but police say it was not suspicious.

On Tuesday morning, a private funeral service will take place.

A funeral cortege will then pass through the seaside town, stopping briefly to allow people to pay their final respects.

The route will begin at the Harbour Bar end of Strand Road, where O'Connor lived for 15 years, and head along the seafront.

In a statement, the family said O'Connor "loved living in Bray and the people in it".

Gardaí (Irish police) have asked members of the public to gather between 11:30 and 12:30 local time.

Road closures will be in place between these times in the Strand Road/Promenade area and all other traffic will be diverted onto the Adelaide Road.

Gardaí will be in attendance and warn that further road closures may be put in place.

They are encouraging those planning to travel to the seafront in Bray for the funeral procession to use public transport, if possible, as the Dart (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) can bring people straight there.

A tribute to O'Connor was unveiled on a cliff close to Bray over the weekend with large, white letters spelling out "Éire [Ireland] loves Sinéad".

It was designed by Dublin-based creative agency The Tenth Man.

The agency's creative director, Richard Seabrooke, told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster programme that the news of O'Connor's death hit him "like a tonne of bricks".

Mr Seabrooke said he felt it was important "that Ireland got to say goodbye" to the singer and also to show O'Connor's family that they weren't on their own.

"Her story is intertwined with ours over the last couple of decades," he said.

"To see how much she has helped change this country and see how much this country has changed because of Sinéad... we just felt like it needed to be said and luckily a couple of people agreed to go up a cliff at dawn time."

Isabelle Ferrer travelled to Bray from Dijon in France.

“She was my favourite singer ever," she told BBC News NI outside O'Connor's former home on Tuesday morning.

“Representing women, she was far ahead of her time, a long ago.”

She has a tattoo of O’Connor’s autograph.

While Ms Ferrer never got to see her favourite singer in concert, she felt it was important to say her final goodbye in person.

“I thought maybe I would see her because she was doing a new album, in London, but I knew her. I knew her life. She is very important to me," she said.

“It’s so weird that feeling because I’m not her friend but it feels like I am.

“I think there is something about her soul, something about her.”

-bbc