Irish artists have a tradition of being very heavily engaged in what is happening in their own society. So it was important that they had a voice.

My creative process is quite slow. I hear melodies in my head while I'm washing the dishes and I allow my subconscious to do the work.

When you have mental illness you don't have a plaster or a cast or a crutch, that let everyone know that you have the illness, so people expect the same of you as from anyone else and when you are different they give you a hard time and they think you're being difficult or they think you're being a pain in the ass and they're horrible to you. You spend your life in Ireland trying to hide that you have a mental illness.

You can't have a church run by people who don't believe in God.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm now in the business of making spiritual records and using my voice for that purpose. I'm not going to be singing songs that I made in the past. I closed the door on that incarnation of Sinead O'Connor.

What I like about being a musician is that I find the thing soothing, but I also give the soothing to other people.

Biggest lesson I've ever had in life is that blues had a baby and they named it rock 'n' roll.