Police Release Details Of Dolores O’Riordan’s Death

After lead Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan’s death on Monday, the police have confirmed that they are treating her death as “not suspicious.”

O’Riordan, the Irish singer-songwriter who rocketed to fame with the Cranberries’ success in the early 90’s, was found dead in a London hotel on Monday morning. According to her publicist, O’Riordan was in London for a “short recording session,” and “no other details are available at the time.” They added, “Family members are devastated to hear the news and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.”

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police confirmed that police were called to the Park Lane Hilton at 9:05 on Monday, and that “a woman in her mid-40s” was pronounced dead on arrival. They added that her death is currently being treated as “not suspicious,” but that there is a report being put together for the coroner. According to Westminster’s coroner’s office, the post-mortem is tentatively scheduled for tomorrow, and it is widely believed that the results will be out by the weekend. 

O’Riordan’s death took the international music community by surprise. She was only 46 and appeared to be in good health in the weeks leading up to her death. Just before Christmas, she had posted to her Facebook saying that  she was “feeling good” and had her “first bit of gigging in months.” After her death, Kinks guitarist Dave Davies said he was “shocked” that she had died, as she had seemed “happy and well” when he saw her at the end of 2017.

But O’Riordan has suffered previous health issues; in May 2017, the Cranberries cancelled their European tour because of problems with O’Riordan’s health. The official release stated that the tour suspension was due to “medical reasons associated with a back problem.” She had also struggled with bipolar disorder since her adolescence.

While the singer is mourned all over the world, she is particularly mourned in her home country of Ireland. Irish President Michael D. Higgins said that she “had an immense influence on rock and pop music in Ireland and internationally,” and that her death was “a big loss.”

O’Riordan and the Cranberries earned their place in Ireland’s cultural history with their song “Zombie,” released in 1994 to commemorate the victims of the 1993 Warrington bombing. After her death, Colin Parry, the father of one of the children killed in the bombing, spoke about the impact the song had on him. “To read the words written by an Irish band in such a compelling way was very, very powerful,” he told Good Morning Ulster in an interview.

Those closest to O’Riordan have been mourning her loss quietly. Her bandmates released a statement saying that they were “devastated” by her death and that they “feel very privileged to have been part of her life from 1989 when we started the Cranberries.” They concluded by saying, “The world has lost a true artist today.”

Her family, which O’Riordan once described as her “salvation,” are waiting for her body to be released. “Her family is still waiting for more details to come from London about her death,” said Fr. James Walton, the parish priest for her hometown. “The plan is for her to be buried here at home. When that will be will depend on when her body is released.”

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