Producer Shares Sinéad O'Connor's Unreleased Album Screenshots, Accused of Exploiting Her Memory
Writer Adele Bertei has accused producer David Holmes of having ulterior motives after he publicly shared details about O'Connor's unreleased album on Instagram, claiming the singer had "dropped" him before her death over dissatisfaction with the production.
"SINÉAD IS FURIOUS. I commune with her through the veil." — This line appeared in a post on writer Adele Bertei's Instagram, sounding less like a press statement and more like a séance transcript. The subject of her "furious" spirit is the late singer Sinéad O'Connor, and the spark that set off Bertei's anger was a post made by producer David Holmes over the weekend.
Timing his post to coincide with the third anniversary of O'Connor's death, Holmes went public on Instagram about a collaborative album project titled *No Veteran Dies Alone*, sharing several screenshots he described as "texts I received while making that final record." In the messages, O'Connor called the record "so good" and expressed a wish to "keep making records together until one of us drops dead." In his caption, Holmes admitted he wasn't sure "if it will ever see the light of day," but called it a "stone cold classic" and "a love letter to her children and to the world."
Adele Bertei, who wrote the O'Connor biography *Sinéad O'Connor's Universal Mother*, isn't buying it. In her own IG post, she flatly accused Holmes of "exploiting" O'Connor's memory, adding a pointed claim of her own: Holmes did record early tracks for O'Connor's final album, but was later "dropped" by O'Connor because she didn't like the direction of his production.
"Was she initially inspired by him? Maybe. She was always impulsive, and she loved being in the studio — they did write songs together. But him posting these texts on social media now? He should be ashamed," Bertei wrote. She also stressed that people shouldn't be fooled into thinking Holmes was the key figure behind this "mystery album" — a record she called "beyond magnificent" — arguing that the real problem is Holmes taking credit that isn't his to take.
As for whether and when the album might actually see an official release, Bertei only offered a vague hint: perhaps it will be shared by O'Connor's "most trusted guardians" "when the time is right." NME has reached out to Holmes's representatives for comment and has not received a response as of publication.
O'Connor passed away in July 2023 at age 56, with the cause of death listed as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Her funeral was held in the Irish town of Bray, with both Bob Geldof and Bono in attendance. Her final studio album was 2014's *I'm Not Bossy, I'm the Boss*, and her last released single was "The Skye Boat Song," recorded for the TV series *Outlander*. Since her passing, a stage production based on her life has been staged in Manchester, while rumors of a biopic have persisted since 2023 without any confirmed developments.
