A former teacher of Sinéad O'Connor has spoken of experiencing the late singer's burgeoning teenage talent, saying her "incredible belief and passion" were there from the start.
Joe Falvey joined Oliver Callan on RTÉ Radio 1 on Thursday morning to share his memories of his celebrated pupil and how their friendship began at Newtown School in Co Waterford in the 1980s.
"Sinéad came in 1983, she was there until 1985," Mr Falvey told the host.
"During that period, we had a very interesting insight into Sinéad - and that was the young lady, young woman, teenager that I met in the mid-Eighties. She radiated beauty in spirit as well as in features.
"The two of us struck it off. I, as teacher, by the nature of a co-ed boarding school, the teachers would be there in the evening at downtime, supervising meals, supervising prep. So I got to know Sinéad then. She was in my class.
"I began to come across her increasingly with her guitar as a 16-year-old, playing on footsteps or a bench around the school, and it went on from there."
"And did you notice her talent straight away?" asked Oliver Callan.
"Oh absolutely," Mr Falvey replied.
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"She was there just kind of strumming with her friend and I remember our first conversation outside of class, kind of saying: 'Who's song is that? I don't recognise it'. And she said: 'That's mine. I wrote it'. And then she played other stuff for me.
"What struck me day one, day two, day three, day 100 was for a 16/17-year-old writing the way she was writing - the insight, the maturity and the passion. There was something special about her.
"I said to her: 'Would you be interested in playing outside school? To play to an audience?'"
Their conversation then turned to a renowned Waterford venue - T&H Doolan.
"It was a centre for music heads, trad heads," Mr Falvey explained.
"So there was a folk and arts club there and I knew some of the guys. I said: 'Look, there's a young one up in school - Sinéad - I think she's very talented. Would you give her a slot?' And they said: 'No problem. If you think she's good, fair enough'.
"So I got permission for her to miss evening study and I brought her down to T & H. The main act that night was Dominic Mulvany, I think he's a Greystones-based folk singer."
Mr Falvey said it was a night he will never forget.
"Sinéad went up [on stage] to begin. I was sitting at the counter with Dominic Mulvany and other people looking at their pints - this young one, 16-years-old. And then she started...
"It was the most memorable moment in my life. Everybody turned around and said: 'What in the name of God is that?' The power from this young, slim girl. It was a shattering moment.
"I had heard her singing gently around the school - this was power.
"Dominic Mulvany, the main act that night sitting alongside of me, turned around and said: 'How the **** am I supposed to follow that?!'
"She became the main act. The night was incredible. Dominic has got many good nights out of that because he's told that story himself!"
"So that was that moment, but again that night and other occasions, it was the sophistication, the maturity of the level of lyrics she was writing and singing with an incredible belief and passion," Mr Falvey continued. "It was there from the very beginning, and it was an amazing moment that will always live with me."
The stage was set for bigger plans.
"She approached me then, she wanted to enter a song in a competition," Mr Falvey recounted.
"We talked a lot and at one stage she wanted to get some music scripted and I said, 'The way to do it nowadays is make a demo'.
"So there was a friend of mine had a recording studio. Brian O'Reilly [from the band] Loudest Whisper, he had a studio in Fermoy. So I brought her and another pupil Jeremy Maber... That was another eye-opener. We were there for three hours. My brother came up from Cork to do keyboards."
Mr Falvey said that Sinéad O'Connor had "three songs selected" and was "acting producer".
"She had it all thought out... 'Can I doubletrack this? Can I have this effect? Can I have that effect?'
"We were mesmerised. Whatever about me the semi-amateur or total amateur, but Brian O'Reilly was gobsmacked."
The fruits of the session were two cassette copies and the original master tape.
"I still have it - I'm sitting here at home with that original master tape in my hand," said Mr Falvey, "which Sinéad gave me when she was leaving school. She says 'That's for you'.
"Also when she was leaving school, she gave me a copy of William Butler Yeats - The Secret Rose and Other Stories as a gift. 'To Joseph, for being so helpful. Lots of love, Sinéad'.
"So off she went with that cassette tape/demo... Then I heard nothing for about a year and a half - I knew she was in London. And then the postman arrived one day with her first album, The Lion and the Cobra. She sent that to me - I have it in my hands - 'To Joe, with many thanks. Love, Sinéad' and her phone number.
"We stayed in contact for the beginning years and then every so often over subsequent years she'd ring me up and say, 'Look, so and so is doing a biography are you happy to be interviewed?'
"She was a very special person in my life. Having met her, we struck up this rapport."
Mr Falvey also told Oliver Callan that he tried to persuade Sinéad O'Connor to stay in school to sit her Leaving Certificate.
"Now, she left school before the Leaving, and I sat down with her as her teacher - as one of her teachers - and I said: 'Look Sinéad, there's only another two months to go for the Leaving Cert. Why don't you see it through?', because increasingly she was not coming back after the weekend when she'd go home to Dublin for the weekend.
"She said: 'Look, the Leaving Cert is irrelevant to me - music is going to be my life'.
"I said to her: 'Can't you do it (the Leaving Certificate) anyway and it'll still be your life?'
"'No'," she says. "'I emotionally have moved on. I want to devote my life to music'."
"This powerful spirit - she was so pure, she was so genuine and so real," Mr Falvey concluded.
"There was no compromising. I was always proud of her.
"And I was very pleased that when she did her biography, I'm the only teacher she mentioned in her biography!
"To the end, we stayed loyal to each other."
