Moya Brennan: From school visits by the bard in Donegal, to playing for Anjelica Huston
Moya Brennan.
Moya Brennan, 68, grew up in Gweedore, Co Donegal, one of nine children. As a solo artist and as a member of Clannad, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary last year, she has won both an Emmy and a Grammy. She will appear on Ceol ó Kylemore: A Celebration of the Women of Irish Music, TG4, 9.30pm, Sunday.
Growing up in Gweedore in the 1950s, my grandfather was our schoolmaster. It was himself and my grandmother in a two-room school with a big fire. She took the juniors up to second class. He took the senior classes.
The stuff he did was completely outside the curriculum for that time – sowing, drama, music, art. We’d put on little Gaelic plays ourselves. He would use general knowledge books, encyclopedias – we’d learn from them.
He’d tell us stories about Greek mythology. It was fascinating to get a window into these other worlds when you were a young person growing up in rural Donegal. He influenced our lives very much.
There was a bard who’d visit the school every spring. All I remember is he’d be on the road walking. My grandfather knew him.
My grandfather would bring him in and he’d put him on a chair in front of us, all the different classes – four rows of classes; four or five people in each class, if even – and he would get the bard to tell us stories. When the bard left us, he disappeared off on foot again.
My father was a showband leader. Sometimes, he’d go to England and Scotland on tours around St. Patrick’s Day. When I was 11, he took myself and my younger brother with him to Glasgow. Of course, I had to perform. I was an Irish dancer.
I would be on the stage at the side of the hall with my Irish costume on. When there’d be a break, he’d make me do a little dancing and I sang two songs: Soldier Boy and My Boy Lollipop.
Going on stage, I was so excited, singing pop songs. I don't remember being nervous. I was just amazed by it. If I had more songs, I would've wanted to stay on. I remember people were standing in front of me.
I suppose it was a novelty – this young girl in an Irish costume singing these songs. It was the time of dances when men were on one side and women on the other side so it was a chance for them to come together at the front of the stage.
Everyone was obviously listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in the mid-'60s, but you couldn’t be a Beatles and a Stones fan. You had to be one or the other. You had to make a choice. We were a large family.
Myself and my uncle Pádraig [Duggan, fellow Clannad member] were definitely Rolling Stones fans and the rest of the clan were Beatles fans. I was in love with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, and I did like what they were doing.
One of the first albums I bought was Aftermath. I loved their slower songs like Lady Jane. When I was 16, I tried to get to Dublin to see them, but there was no way I was allowed to go by my parents!
The album that I used to play to death all the time – over and over again – in the early 1970s was Jesus Christ Superstar.
When it came out, it was exciting because it was a new thing, something completely different. It was a musical yet there was pop and rock singers singing on the album.
Like the part of Jesus was sung by Ian Gillan from Deep Purple. We were very animated in learning all the words to the songs.
It was one of those albums that you learned from top to bottom. It had a real wow factor.
An early book I was fascinated by was Lee Dunne’s Goodbye to the Hill because reading part of it reminded me of stories from my own family. My father left school when he was 12.
He used to travel as part of an entertainment troupe that went from hall to hall. He learned the accordion, saxophone and clarinet. That’s how he started off being an entertainer.
My grandmother was an acrobat who did some tricks. My grandfather played the piano. My auntie was an accordion player. My uncle was a trumpet player. It was a family thing. On a Wednesday, my father might cycle 30 miles to a hall to rent it out.
Then on Thursday, they’d all return to put on a couple of performances. They travelled with a caravan. It was where they used to stay. It was a circus vibe. They would park outside the hall. That was my father's upbringing. Growing up, we’d hear stories about that.
One of my favourite books is Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. It’s powerful. I’m not into books about the First World War, but it's a fascinating book.
The description and the way it's written is absolutely beautiful. You can nearly smell the trenches within the book.
My favourite movie is Cinema Paradiso. All you have to do is put the music on and I’ll start crying. It’s gorgeous.
The sentiment in it is amazing – the relationship between the old fella and the young fella. Also the love story in it.
It’s heart-breaking, and the final scene is so moving – when the character, who is a director himself at this stage, gets a package sent to him of all the kissing scenes that were cut out from their old cinema releases.
I love movies that can make me cry.
One of my favourite movies is The Dead. It’s exquisite and the last part of it with Donal McCann is so riveting and beautiful. It's a masterpiece.
Myself and Cormac de Barra did a gig in honour of Anjelica Huston [star in the film] and her father [the late John Huston, the film’s director] in New York.
There was a special dinner and they asked us would we play for it. We thought about doing something special so we sang The Lass of Aughrim.
It’s a lovely song and so poignant, and how Frank Patterson sings it in the movie is unforgettable.
