Sinead O’Connor’s comeback Irish tour rolled into Limerick for a date at the converted Milk Market that saw Ireland’s premier chanteuse return with a powerful performance that enraptured all in attendance.

From the moment she strides on stage you know that this is going to be a special night, where for her recent performance at Féile 19 O’Connor had sheepishly approached the mic, here she strides purposefully with a confidence no doubt gained from her live performances since.

For this tour she has a vibrant young band with her who provide robust backing and the choice of leaning heavily on tracks from her two most recent studio albums ‘I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss’ & ‘How About Me Be Me (And You Be You)’ early on pays off with opener Queen of Denmark and Wolf is Getting Married grabbing the immediate attention of the audience.

After that strong opening the band leave the stage with O’Connor remaining to provide our first spine-tingling moment of the night with a starkly stunning rendition of Stretched on Your Grave with which she demonstrates the range, delicacy and power of a voice that has spellbound us for nearly four decades. She is then joined by two of her bandmates for a wonderfully sublime harmony on In My Heart.

Black Boys on Mopeds and ’Til I Whisper You Something keep up the energetic momentum before Thank You for Hearing Me creates truly spiritual and emotional electricity which climaxes in a spontaneous outburst of applause and goodwill from an genuinely appreciative crowd.

The always poignant and powerful Last Day of Our Acquaintance perfectly segues straight into the upbeat groove of Emperor’s New Clothes before the ultimate crowd pleaser Nothing Compares 2 U gets the ecstatic reaction you would expect, Prince might have written it but it will always be Sinead’s song.

The first track of the encore is the achingly beautiful Three Babies before the night is brought to a close with her latest composition Milestones which we’ll hopefully see on album in the near future.
For now we can just be grateful that our wonderful warrior priestess is back and her musical muse is stronger than ever.