Sinead O’Connor played Cupid yesterday – when she paid for a poverty-stricken love-sick student to jet to London to see his girlfriend.
The Nothing Compares 2 U singer was walking down Grafton Street in Dublin when she spotted the 20-year-old busking with a sign looking for money to fly and see his love.
The Wicklow star immediately came to a halt after being stunned by what she thought was “the sweetest thing” – just as she was “beginning to wonder if there’s any point being a romantic person”.
His sign: It forced Sinead to stop in her tracks | SINEAD O’CONNOR
Curious Sinead said she asked him how much the flight was – and on finding out Ryanair were looking to charge him €140, wanted to make sure she wasn’t being conned.
“I quiz him like I’m Jeremy f**king Paxman for about ten minutes and finally I say, ‘So how do I know if I give you this 140 quid I happen to have in my purse here, you won’t go taking drugs or some other bullshit with it?’
“He answers, ‘Why would you want to do that? Why would you want to give me the money?’ I say ‘Cus I’m a very romantic person’.
“He beams. His face literally lights up like an Easter candle. As happy as my own son’s faces when they first played a guitar through an amp with distortion, so pleased is he to discover he is not alone in his fervourous nature.
Romantic: Sinead found out that romance does still exist
“Almost as pleased I am to discover I am not alone in mine. I don’t care if he’s full of s**t or not. He’s a romantic. They’re out there. “We’ are out there.
“And even if he isn’t, and he was lying his face off, he deserved kudos for choosing the loving way and being so godamn clever.”
She then forced him to pack up and go home with the cash – worried that someone would end up robbing him – and made him promise her to send a booking confirmation.
And writing on her blog, Sinead said she was so happy to discover “romance isn’t dead”, when he actually does that.
She added: “I’m almost as happy as if it were me going to see my girlfriend, only I don’t have a girlfriend.”
