SINÉAD O'CONNOR has hit out at claims she spoke to murder suspect Ian Bailey about turning his poetry into songs.
Earlier this week, a photo emerged appearing to show O'Connor and Bailey enjoying lunch together outside a restaurant in Glengarriff in West Cork.
Bailey, who is the chief suspect in the 1996 murder of French filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier, claimed that the Nothing Compares 2 U singer was interested in his poetry and that they spoke about potentially turning some of his work into music.
"She has become aware of my poetry and she was interested in my poetry with a view to turn one or two of them into songs, and that’s really what [the lunch] was about," Bailey told the Daily Star.
"Also Sinéad is now a journalist working for the Sunday Independent … Ms O'Connor approached me as a professional working journalist and expressed interest in talking to me about her new column in the Sindo."
However, Ms O'Connor took to Twitter on Thursday morning to rubbish the claims, stressing that Bailey was lying.
"Bailey lying his face off in the Star today. Saying we were discussing putting his poems to music. NEVER happened," she wrote.
"Can star call me to confirm in future before they run his lies?"
Sinead O'Connor and Ian Bailey spotted having dinner together in Cork https://t.co/NKwAgD5bQq
— Chris Sherrard (@cdsherrard) July 15, 2021
Bailey told reporters earlier this month that he was getting a lot of attention from "big bosomed" female admirers online following his split from long-term partner Jules Thomas.
"I was a social media virgin until recently and then I put up posts and went from zero to 100 in 60 seconds.
"I put up a Twitter account, Facebook account and Instagram and I noticed I am getting quiet a lot of contact from members of the female sex through my Facebook page," he said.
Bailey has consistently denied any involvement in Sophie's death, despite an overwhelming amount of evidence suggesting otherwise.
He was arrested twice by gardaí in the months following the murder, but was never charged.
In 2019, Bailey was convicted in absentia in a French court of Ms Toscan Du Plantier's murder, but numerous extradition warrants have been rejected by the Irish courts.
The unsolved investigation has been thrust back in the spotlight this month following the release of two documentaries, one on Netflix and the other, directed by Oscar-winning director Jim Sheridan, on Sky.
