Dolores O'Riordan

Dolores O´Riordan was born in Limerik, Ireland, in September 1971. Then, two of her eight brothers had died, and her father was incapacitated by an accident.

When she was eight years old, she suffered sexual abuse for four years by a friend of the family. It was a terrible experience that she told when she was 42, but she never got over it

In her adolescence, he had few friends. To her companions, she was a weird girl. So, her childhood and adolescence were really difficult.

However, she always loved music. She sang, composed songs, played the guitar, and listened to her idols: Duran Duran, Sinéad O´Connor…And… She had an original and beautiful voice.

Noel and Mike Hogan listened to her and, impressed by her vocal talent, offered her to be the Singer of their band, The Cramberries.

The group had many hits all over the world. One of the most known was “Zombie”. This is a song about problems in Northern Ireland, between Catholics and Protestants.

Later, they have had great successes with songs like “Ode to my family” “When you´re gone”… but, “Dreams” and “Linger” are really English classical music .

After that, The Cramberries published five records.

On July 1994, Dolores married Don Burton, the Duran Duran manager. The couple had three children. They got divorced twenty years after.

In September 1995, she performed “Ave María” with Luciano Pavarotti at the concert “Pavarotti and friends: Together for the children of Bosnia”. Princess Diana, who attended it, told Dolores that the song brought her to tears.

In 2003, the band decided to take a temporary time out.

Then, musically like a solo singer, got ups and downs. Personally, she had personal problems, with alcohol, depression,…

She was considered one of the richest women in Ireland.

Dolores thought “When life is perfect, it is boring. You should find new challenges to have a reason for living”.

In 2010, The Cramberries decided get together again, and they did a tour of America and Europe. Now, she argued with Noel Hogan about songwriting. She always got involved in problems…

In 2012 Dolores attempted suicide with overdose.

In April 2017, the band released a new and final album “Something else”. One month later, she talked about her bipolar disorder diagnosed two years earlier.

The 15th January 2018, the great singer and guitarist Dolores O´Riordan appeared drowned in the bathtub of a hotel in London. She had taken too much alcohol.

In the funeral acts, her songs were heard and her photos were seen. It was really sad and emotional.

Ana Seral

English for fun. 4º A.