A councillor in Co Wicklow has thanked the family of late singer Sinead O’Connor for allowing fans the opportunity to mourn the global superstar, but also the woman who spoke “truth to power”.

The acclaimed singer’s family are allowing those who wish to say a “last goodbye” to stand along Bray seafront in Co Wicklow as the cortege passes by, which will continue past O’Connor’s former home where she lived for 15 years, before a private burial on Tuesday morning.

Councillor for Bray East Erika Doyle, who connected with O’Connor when she first moved to Bray, told BBC Breakfast: “We are very grateful to Sinead’s family for allowing us the opportunity to say goodbye this morning.

“The seafront in Bray is over a kilometre long so there is plenty of opportunity for people to gather and already I can see a lot of activity here this morning.

“Last night we ended our summer festival, there was fireworks and a funfair and even as that was going on, there was a constant stream of people turning up with flowers, candles, laying tributes, so we are really happy to be a part of her final journey and say goodbye this morning.

“Sinead, although she was attached to Bray and she was very Irish and that was a huge part of her identity, she was a global superstar and that is easy for us to forget here in Bray where we saw her as a mum and as a neighbour, but she touched lives all across the world so we are expecting people here certainly from Bray, from Wicklow, from across Ireland but also from abroad and even the media interest this morning is global, it’s not Irish.”

She continued: “Sinead’s legacy is still being written and will be for a considerable amount of time, people are taking the opportunity to connect with her in some way even if that is to say goodbye to her as she passes.”

Ms Doyle described O’Connor as “quite quiet” but “never silent”.

She said: “When we mourn Sinead today, we need to mourn the Sinead of Nothing Compares (2 U), but we also need to mourn the difficult, troubled Sinead who shone a light on really difficult areas in this country, maybe we just weren’t quite ready for that.

“She was a real person, she was a whole person, and as with any other person, there is the amazing, incredible parts that were maybe more visible than most, but there was also the other parts as well and that’s a part of being a human being. I think today we need to acknowledge that.

“She was controversial but in the way that anybody says things that people aren’t ready for, I think that is a good thing, it’s speaking truth to power.”

Standing in Bray in front of a number of tributes to the singer, Ms Doyle told BBC co-hosts Rachel Burden and Jon Kay that the people in the area became “very protective of her” from unwanted public attention and “sought to protect her from the worst of it”.

“There are shelters on the seafront across from her home, I spotted one (paparazzi) lurking there one day so I gave her a call just to give her a heads-up and the funny thing was, I called her quite quickly but already she said two or three people had been in touch to let her know, so that was the way we were. I think we’re quite like that, us Irish,” she said.

“Fame doesn’t necessarily impress us that much and we were determined to keep the worst of it away from Sinead and take care of her while she was here and I really hope she felt that.

“I think that maybe the decision of the family to allow her to travel along here shows that she did and that she felt peace at least for a little while in Bray.”

Ms Doyle described O’Connor as a “powerhouse” and an “incredible talent”, but also as a mother and a neighbour.

She added: “Sinead walked around town, she did her own shopping, she took her kids to school. She might have been heading down to do some incredible international event but then she’d come back home and still be seen with her little kids cycling their bike along the seafront.”