![]() We’d just started using electronics and wrote the song on a Prophet 5 synth. It was a difficult time for us because Enya had just left along with our manager/producer, Nicky Ryan, to pursue a solo career. We wanted something more ethereal than the grim reality of life in Northern Ireland depicted in the series, so wrote a hymn to the Troubles. He, the head of music and the producer had all heard a Scottish-Gaelic song on our previous album and came over to Dublin to tell us about their project.Ĭiarán and Moya came over, and we wrote Harry’s Game in my house in just a week. Ciarán’s double bass was a revelation, adding depth and form wherever needed, and Pól’s flute was a further reminder of how the roots of the tradition soared skywards in the band’s countless inventive arrangements of old songs, and in their own compositions too.Ī very fine way to say goodbye: still in love with the music, and intent on getting to the heart of every song.In 1982, Yorkshire TV approached us for some music for a drama series called Harry’s Game, based on Gerald Seymour’s 1975 novel set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The second half of the performance swung from a mesmerising Dulamán to In a lifetime (Aisling Jarvis taking on the vocals originally sung by Bono with a quiet, unshowy confidence), Níl sé ina lá and so much more.Īn unquenchable generosity of spirit suffused this performance, Moya’s harp bringing delicious detail, especially to Carolan’s Eleanor Plunkett. Spooling photographs of concert programmes, press interviews and festival posters during the interval chronicled Clannad’s musical life with a heady mix of nostalgia and tenderness. This concert was a glorious reminder of the depth and breadth of their legacy, writ large across a robust two and a half-hour performance. Photograph: Tom Honan for The Irish Times.Ĭlannad have always drawn deep from the well, and yet made songs and tunes from the tradition their own in a way that drew listeners who might otherwise have passed that tradition by. Moya Brennan playing the harp during Clannad's farwell concert at Dublin's 3Arena on Saturday night. Photograph: Tom Honan for The Irish Times. Moya Brennan of Clannad performing during the band's farwell concert at Dublin's 3Arena on Saturday night. ![]() Those instantly recognisable close family harmonies underpinned dTigeas a damhsa, Moya’s delicate vocals offering a reminder of the timelessness of these songs, juxtaposed against the fleeting nature of any artist’s relationship with them. Her voice, deliciously wraithlike and woven like a skein through the lyrics, carries traces of a lifetime of performance, but its essence is still what it was when she first took to the stage at Letterkenny Folk Festival as a teenager. Moya Brennan took quiet, unassuming possession of centre stage from the get go, with a delicate reading of Buachaill ón Éirne, from their 1985 album, Macalla. This was a performance marked by poise and precision. Moya Brennan and her brothers, Ciarán and Pól, had planned to mark their 50th anniversary in 2020, but stages went dark, but there was something deeply fitting about the fact that they performed their farewell Dublin concert in 2023, the 50th anniversary of the release of their debut album. ![]() For a band whose sound has been variously described as ethereal and otherworldly, Clannad have a distinct capacity for producing music that’s grounded in the strongest sense of place.
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