Sinéad O'Connor plans to be a healthcare assistant in wake of COVID-19

Sinéad O’Connor has revealed that she is planning to study to become a healthcare worker.

Appearing on Irish TV show The Late Late Show on Friday (May 29), O’Connor said she’s been accepted onto a new college programme.

Speaking to host Ryan Tubridy, O’Connor was asked about her previous comments about wanting to work in hospice care.

“We spoke before about hospice [care] and what you wanted to do with people – kind of befriend them and guide them,” Tubridy said. “Are you thinking of taking that a step further?”

O’Connor replied: “I’ve been accepted onto the course to start in Bray Institute of Further Education in September. So it’s the FETAC Level 5 healthcare support course.”

The singer revealed that the new course would mean that she “[has] a diploma and can work as a healthcare assistant.

“So you can work as a healthcare support in any area, really. But the area I want to work in particularly would be hospice work, would be palliative care, as a companion. So the area I would most like to work in would be companioning people who for one reason or another don’t have family ’round or are on their own.”

Sinéad O’Connor made her return to the stage on Ireland’s Late Late Show last year

She continued: “Obviously, the Covid thing gave me more impetus: A) What do I want to do with my life? and B) If I had taken this course two years ago, which I was going to do but touring got in the way, I could have been out working now, helping people, which I would have liked to be doing.

“So I want to do the diploma to work in palliative care, but I’m quite happy to work in other areas also.”

Speaking about her chances of passing the course, O’Connor said: “I didn’t go to school much, as my poor father will tell you. And the only exam I ever did was the Inter Cert – and I failed everything except Art. I just hope I pass it, but if I don’t pass it I’m going to keep going until I pass it.”







O’Connor made her live return after a five year hiatus on The Late Late Show last year, playing ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ and a cover of The Pogues‘ ‘Rainy Night In Soho’.

Earlier this year, the singer reflected on a worrying 2017 video in which she candidly opened up about her mental health and revealed that she had been having suicidal thoughts.

“There was shit going on in my life that drove me a bit mental, in the midst of which I had a radical hysterectomy which would drive anyone mental,” O’Connor said. “I can laugh about that [period] now, but at the time it was terrible. I don’t enjoy suffering.”

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