Inquest told that Cranberries singer was found unresponsive in hotel room in Park Lane, London

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Tests have been carried out to establish how the Cranberries frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan died, an inquest has heard.



The 46-year-old singer was found “unresponsive” at a hotel on Park Lane in central London on Monday, the coroner’s officer, Stephen Earl, said at the opening of the inquest at Westminster coroner’s court on Friday.

“The London ambulance service was contacted and verified her death at the scene,” Earl said. “Subsequently, the Met police attended and they determined the death to be non-suspicious.”

Earl added that a postmortem examination had been carried out and the court was waiting for test results.

The coroner, Shirley Radcliffe, adjourned the hearing until 3 April, when a date for the full inquest will be set.

O’Riordan, from Friarstown, Co Limerick in the Irish Republic, was renowned for her distinctive singing voice and enjoyed huge success with the Cranberries in the 1990s.

She had been in London to record a cover of the Cranberries’ hit song Zombie with the hard rock band Bad Wolves. Her bandmates, Noel and Mike Hogan and Fergal Lawler, said they were “devastated” by the news. “The world has lost a true artist,” they said in a statement.

In 2014, O’Riordan split from her husband of 20 years, the former Duran Duran tour manager Don Burton, with whom she had three children. None of her family was present at the court.