Sinéad O'Connor: Bob Geldof reveals texts 'laden with despair' from Irish singer in weeks before death

Sinéad O'Connor sent text messages "laden with desperation, despair and sorrow" to Bob Geldof just a matter of weeks before her tragic death.

The Boomtown Rats frontman revealed all to a sold-out festival crowd at Cavan Calling in Ireland. Geldof explained how he'd grown up with O'Connor and her family having lived "just down the road" from the singer.

Fans have been in mourning ever since Sinéad O'Connor's passing at the age of 56 was confirmed last week. The Nothing Compares 2 U hitmaker was found unresponsive at her southeast London home and tributes have been pouring in for the Irish musician ever since.

Bob Geldof told the Cavan Calling crowd: "Many, many times Sinead was full of a terrible loneliness and a terrible despair. She was a very good friend of mine. We are talking right up to a couple of weeks ago.

"Some of the texts were laden with desperation and despair and sorrow and some were ecstatically happy. And she was like that."

O'Connor made her name on the stage, but it was her presence away from the microphone that helped catapult her to a household name of the 80s. She was very outspoken on topics ranging from religion, war and feminism and took part in a number of renowned demonstrations and protests.

She famously tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live in 1992 to protest the Catholic Church. Something with Bob Geldof was more than happy to reflect on during his festival performance.

Geldof reminisced: "She tore up the picture of the Pope because she saw me tearing up a picture of John Travolta on Top Of The Pops. It was a little more extreme than tearing up f****** disco, tearing up the Vatican is a whole other thing, but more correct actually, I should've done it."