Russell Crowe recalls hanging out with "hero of mine" Sinéad O'Connor

Among the many celebrities and fans posting tributes to Sinéad O’Connor—who died earlier this week at age 56—few were fortunate enough to actually share a hot beverage and meaningful conversation with the activist and “Nothing Compares 2 U” singer. Russell Crowe was one of these lucky few, as he revealed in a long tribute to O’Connor posted on Twitter earlier this week.

“Last year, working in Ireland, having a pint in the cold outside a Dalkey pub with some new friends, a woman with purpose strode past us,” Crowe opens his thread, which paints O’Connor almost as a fairy godmother or other such spiritual guide from a Disney movie.

Crowe goes on to describe how one of his friends knew O’Connor and introduced him to the singer. “…with mist on my breath, I made Sinéad,” he writes, revealing that she “uttered with disarming softness ‘oh, it’s you Russell.’”

The group drank tea and discussed “without fences… the recent Dublin heatwave, local politics, American politics, the ongoing fight for indigenous recognition in many places, but particularly in Australia [where Crowe lives now], her warm memory of New Zealand [where Crowe was born], faith, music, movies and her brother the writer [novelist Joseph O’Connor].”

O’Connor leaves behind a long legacy of advocacy and compassion, from the infamous moment where she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live, telling audiences (and the world) to “fight the real enemy” to a more recent event where she dedicated her RTÉ Choice Music award to refugees in Ireland, stating “You’re very welcome in Ireland. Mashallah. I love you very much and I wish you happiness.” For all of this and more, Crowe says he had the chance to tell O’Connor that “she was a hero of mine.”

“When her second cup was taking on the night air, she rose, embraced us all and strode away into the fog-dimmed streetlights,” he continued. “We sat there the four of us and variously expressed the same thing. What an amazing woman.”

“Peace be with your courageous heart Sinéad,” he concluded.

Crowe is far from the only admirer to send love Sinéad’s way this week. Morrissey posted a long message lionizing the singer and calling out some in the music industry who he saw as giving her empty platitudes only in death. Fellow Irish artist Hozier also paid tribute to O’Connor at a recent concert. “It’s very, very hard to quantify. Her courage and her honesty and the truth that she spoke cost her a great deal,” he said. “I stand here as an artist who walks on the roads that she paved, at great cost, and paved with the brilliance of her heart.”