here is a new message from Sinéad sent by her manager:

hi everyone, sinead here, well into 2009 but wishing you all a very  
happy, healthy, fulfilling and so on new year.     it seems to be  
hard times everywhere these days so hopefully all of you can find  
some way to survive, make money, feed your children, heat your  
homes and have a minute to enjoy life.    i suppose it is time to  
look at the things that are free in life like walking by the sea or  
in the woods, hanging out with friends chit chatting, going to the  
local park to play with your kids or your mates, go for a run or a  
brisk walk, listen to music, go to the library and get some books  
to read.     its all good for the mind and the spirit and its all  
basically free.     when things get better which they probably will  
eventually there will be plenty of time to go back to buying things  
outside of the necessaries like food and clothes and so on.    in  
the meantime,  look for the free things in life and start thinking  
about exchanging stuff with friends like books, music, clothes you  
dont want.

i had a great holiday season, full of family life and love,  
presents for the children, christmas dinner and lots of flopping  
around on the sofas playing games of cards and so on.    it was  
great and very relaxing with no stress.    after i finished the  
proms in late november in rotterdam, i was just glad to get home  
because i had been away for quite a long time.     i enjoyed  
singing at the proms, especially with the orchestra, but honestly  
it is not something i would do again because it kept me away too  
much from my home and my children.

this year i am concentrating on writing new songs on my own, co  
writing with some other people and demoing the songs before going  
in to record them 'properly'.    i am really excited about how its  
going;  its going to be a guitar based electric kind of record, i  
think.    mostly songs about love, in some way or another.     i  
have been doing some writing and demoing with marco pironni (ex  
adam and the ants)  and chris constantinou who plays bass.    i  
have known marco for years, he played on various songs in the past,  
including mandinka and jump in the river, and i feel very  
comfortable working with him and chris.    i have also come up with  
some songs of my own and now i have to work on getting my voice  
really into shape so i can make the record i want to make.     i  
suppose it is going to be early next year before it gets a physical  
release but, in the meantime sometime later this year, i will start  
making some of the stuff available through the website or somewhere  
appropriate.

emi is going to release a deluxe package of i do not want what i  
have not got sometime probably around the end of april.     it is  
supposed to mark the 20th anniversary of the record and nothing  
compares to you even though it is really only (only!) 19 years  
since it came out but really who cares.     there will be an extra  
cd of some unreleased tracks and b sides and hard to find mixes on  
so on;  john reynolds is the one who has compiled all that stuff  
and my manager fachtna is just talking to me now about what things  
i might do around the record release.    its kind of funny for me  
in some ways because a lot of what happened at that time is  
completely gone from my memory for some reason;  i know that when  
nothng compares really took off it was a kind of crazy time and i  
was whizzing here there and everywhere, doing tv shows, endless  
interviews, etc.     i am sure i was really overwhelmed  by the  
whole thing even if i didnt really realise it at the time.    so,  
if i do some interviews around this re release i am going to have a  
hard time when they start asking me how it was!
i am also looking to do some shows this year, although not too  
many.     i think they will be acoustic shows with just myself,  
steve cooney and kieran kiely, like last years shows.    i want to  
do live performances because of course i love to play and sing live  
and also it is good to feel the audience reactions.     but, i have  
to say, my priority this year is to write and record and get stuff  
down so we can have an album to release early in 2010.     if i can  
do that and be proud of the content, as well as enjoying the live  
shows, then i will believe that creatively i will have had a good  
2009.

there is nothing else really at the moment;  keep an eye out here  
for more info and some exclusives, i hope, that can maybe keep you  
musically satisfied for a while.    there are some interesting  
ideas about collaborations and individual projects that are being  
floated around at the moment so once we make decisions on those  
things i will let you all know.    til then, be safe, be happy, be  
inventive.     much love to everyone, sinead.