R.I.P. Moya Brennan (Clannad)

The serene voice of Irish Grammy and Bafta-winning group, Clannad- Moya Brennan has passed away at her home in County Donegal at age 73.

The Celtic folk singer, songwriter and harpist, the eldest of nine children, began singing with her family band in 1970 and recorded more than two dozen albums and sold millions of records worldwide, becoming one of the world’s foremost traditional Irish acts and became synonymous with Celtic music.

They found chart success for the music of the 1982 TV series Harry’s Game, which was set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and became the outro music for U2 (on their War Tour, through the Joshua Tree Tour) and Clannad and Bono would soon collaborate on 1985 radio hit, “In a Lifetime.”

Brennan had a successful solo career away from her siblings, also recording with Mick Jagger and Paul Young, and the group would win their Bafta in 1984 and a Grammy Award in 1999.

Among her four sisters is Eithne (better known as Enya) and the band had lost their twin uncle members, Padraig in 2016 and Noel in 2022- in spite of that and Covid-related delays, the band did persevere to end things on their own terms, with a final farewell after five decades on their In A Lifetime Tour.

The tour concluded on October 9, 2023, but we were fortunate enough to see them live the week before, in St Paul, MN. What we thought was the absolute end, actually found the band playing the Royal Albert Hall the following year, in celebration of their Robin of Sherwood and Legend work, with a second half of band favorites.

They would reform one last time, just nine weeks ago, to open the Hot Press Magazine 50^th anniversary concert in Dublin with a stirring “Theme from Harry’s Game.”