Dolores O'Riordan grew up in Ballybricken, County Limerick, in a large Catholic family. Her unmistakable voice eventually carried her from rural Ireland to an international audience as the lead singer of The Cranberries.

The band's music brought together alternative rock with melodies and vocal phrasing that were unmistakably her own. Songs such as Linger and Zombie made O'Riordan an international star.

Yet her music often remained deeply personal. She wrote about love, loss, family, conflict, and the experiences that shaped her life. Zombie, written in response to the deaths of two children in the 1993 Warrington bombing, became one of the most powerful protest songs of its generation.

O'Riordan died suddenly in London in 2018, aged 46. Her voice remains one of the most distinctive to emerge from Ireland's remarkable musical tradition.