Niamh Regan: Why she turned away from teaching to become a singer
Niamh Regan's new album Come As You Are is released on Friday, May 31. Picture: Molly Keane
Niamh Regan thought she had it all figured out. Married and qualified as a teacher, she saw a safe, predictable future ahead of her. But then, in 2020, the plaintive collection of folk songs the Galway artist had recorded in her downtime became a word-of-mouth success, and she had the opportunity to go into music full-time. Her new album, Come As You Are, tells the moving story of what happened next.
“It was a rough patch. Much was down to me. And the change in our lifestyles. Before I put out the first record, I was getting ready to get into full-time teaching. Steady Freddy, kids all that stuff was what was on the table. Then the album came out and all that went away,” she says from her base in Kilrickle, a small village near Loughrea in Galway.
