By David McKittrick
Ireland Correspondent

The Singer Sinéad O'Connor has taken out a full-page advertisement in an Irish national newspaper to complain that she should not be "called crazy". Ms O'Connor took the ad in the Irish Examiner, claiming that, for decades, she had been "consistently ridiculed, lashed and called mad", and, most recently, unfairly criticised for her campaign against headlice.

In Ireland she is regarded as a talented but troubled performer, with a striking voice and striking appearance. Some of her exploits are, however, regarded as bizarre.

In 1992, she ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on television, and objected to the American national anthem being played at her concerts. She was ordained Mother Bernadette Mary by a quasi-Catholic sect in 1999, and announced she was gay a year later, before marrying in 2001.

In her 2,000-word ad, she said: "I don't think there can be any person who has been as consistently lashed as I have been and always am, no matter what I do." She repeated claims that she was abused by her late mother, although these have been called exaggerated by her siblings, including author Joseph O'Connor.