Yes, Sinead is doing things ‘My Way’
She has turned 45. She has just married for the fourth time. And when she walked down the aisle yesterday she walked in the footsteps of Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow
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By Ken Sweeney
Friday Dec 9 2011
Singer Sinead O'Connor has described her happiness in wedding her new husband.
The controversial rock singer wed her fourth husband, therapist Barry Herridge (38), last night at a ceremony in the legendary Little White Chapel in Las Vegas, famous for its Drive-Thru Tunnel Of Love where Frank Sinatra wed Mia Farrow.
The new bride revealed how the day -- also her birthday -- had a special poignancy. She is now older than her mother was when she died.
She described it as a "pivotal day" as her mother Marie died in a car crash in 1985.
"I have now lived longer than my own mother, who died three months before her own 45th birthday. I've read that it's a pivotal day in your life when you reach the birthday that your parent never saw, and here I am being married on it to the man I love," she told the Irish Independent last night.
Speaking to the Irish Independent before he went down the aisle, groom Mr Herridge described it as "the happiest day of my life".
"This is the only time I will ever marry, and Sinead is the only person I am going to marry. This is a great day, and the beginning of many more great days."
Ms O'Connor wore a pink Karen Merkel dress bought in Rococo in Sandycove, Dublin, with Mr Herridge in a blue suit and pink shirt.
There were no guests at the civil ceremony other than the witnesses provided by the chapel as part of the $550 (€410) wedding package. However, Ms O'Connor and her new husband said this was their wish.
"What we wanted was to be married, not a big ceremony with people watching. I didn't want that and neither did Sinead," said Mr Herridge.
Flight
Preparations had begun the night before, when, after stepping off a 10-hour flight from London, the couple headed straight for a local courthouse to obtain a marriage license.
"Being America, you can go to a courthouse at 10pm and get your license. There wasn't a soul in there apart from a very sleepy lady behind the counter.
"We had to fill in all these forms with our names and addresses. I'd brought the divorce certificate from my second marriage but they didn't ask to see it, they only wanted the name and city where I got divorced," said Ms O'Connor.
The mother of four said she was disappointed by claims that her wedding to Mr Herridge was a publicity stunt to promote a live date in The Olympia Theatre in Dublin on December 18, and a comeback album.
"I'm the sort of person who gets publicity anyway, I certainly don't have to go all the way to Las Vegas, and go to the trouble of getting married, to get it ," she said.
The Bray-based singer revealed that initially herself and Mr Herridge had planned to release the news of their marriage some days after the ceremony.
However, she said she feared a similar backlash from the negative comment she attracted for announcing her third marriage to Australian musician Steve Cooney in July 2010 after the fact.
"The last time I got married and didn't tell anyone, it backfired badly. The press were very badly behaved and that put enormous pressure on that marriage," she said.
But the singer said none of this would take away from the happiest day of her life, aside from the births of her four children.
She said she got an inkling of what the future might be like with Mr Herridge when the couple called to see his parents, Barry senior and Teresa, the night before they left for Vegas.
"They're such a wonderful couple in their late sixties. Barry's dad looks like just like him and he was gazing at Teresa like she was a goddess. It was a nice snapshot of how my husband will be to me when I'm old," she said.
The couple will return to Dublin tomorrow to attend an after-show party for a concert marking the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International.
- Ken Sweeney
Irish Independent
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