Morgana: 'What draws me to making art is that sense of just making something fun'

She began making music with Gemma Doherty as part of Saint Sister, but Morgan McIntyre is forging her solo career as Morgana. Her time is now, writes Ciara Byrne

Morgana: Morgan McIntyre has spent the last number of years developing her solo project.  Pictures: Meghan Law

Straight off the bat, an hour to be exact after the announcement of Morgana’s Lovely Days gig in the Guinness Storehouse with CMAT and BIIRD, I sit upstairs in Kaph on Drury Street with Morgan McIntyre, better known these days as Morgana. Our oat flat whites cost close to a fiver each, and McIntyre breaks the news that she’s moving back to her native Belfast, where her mortgage will be cheaper than Dublin rent.

The reality of living as an artist in Ireland — a land known for its rich music and culture — is that musicians and 9-5 workers alike are being pushed out due to rising rents (and coffee prices). Many take up full-time jobs to financially sustain themselves, which eliminates the flexibility needed to write, record, and tour.

Beginning her musical career as part of the dream folk duo Saint Sister in 2014 after meeting co-collaborator Gemma Doherty in college, McIntyre has spent the last number of years developing her solo project. Affirming that Saint Sister are currently on a break to pursue their own musical routes, McIntyre explains that the most recent Saint Sister album, Where Should I End, acted as a canvas for her to develop and hone a version of the sound she would go on to create as a solo artist.

“Towards the end of that period of time, I was writing songs that were more in the pop world,” she says. Doherty was, at the same time, leaning into her composing roots, which resulted in a beautiful body of work and the start of their resultant solo avenues.

Approaching this solo project on the cusp of 30, the Morgana persona was born out of a newfound confidence in the singer.  

“I was only really interested in making folk ethereal experimental music in my 20s,” she says. But another part of her felt pressure not to put too much of herself forward, both in her music and the way she expressed herself.

“I really wanted to be the kind of in-the-background cool-gal aesthetic that doesn’t give too much away,” she admits.

“And it just isn’t me,” she laughs. “I will tell anyone anything. I’m such an oversharer.”

Though she would love to make music in the style of Saint Sister again, “the more experimental, more focused stuff”, it would only make sense to bring Saint Sister back from hiatus for this, she says, rather than making space for it in her current era. For now, “Gem is flourishing”, she tells me.

Morgana: 'I'm such an oversharer.' Picture: Niamh Barry

Elements of theatrical performance define McIntyre’s live stage presence. Having only released two songs officially under the moniker, she has garnered a dedicated fanbase through her live performances and collaborations with other Irish musicians such as Sorcha Richardson and Nealo.

“I feel like maybe I am more myself than I have ever been on stage,” she tells me with a gentle confidence.

She thus far has attracted an audience of “25-year-old to 35-year-old women who maybe don’t fit in a very specific box,” who she reckons are trying to attune to their authentic selves, and don’t want to ascribe to who they’re told to be on social media.

McIntyre aspires to be a beacon of this. “I’m hoping to be someone on stage that is trying to shake off a lot of self-consciousness,” she says. “I know that when I see other women do that, I feel better about myself. Like CMAT, for example. She’s amazing.”

Beginning her solo career with a slot supporting CMAT, the two are reuniting tonight at the Guinness Storehouse gig. CMAT — who has built her audience on radical honesty and being unashamedly herself — is a source of inspiration for Morgana, who brings a similar level of theatrics to her live performances.

Theatre has been ingrained in McIntyre from a young age, and so staging, props, and audience involvement are a unique and thrilling element of any Morgana show. She asserts that the crossover between theatre and live music is small, with the stage making theatrical flair an easy addition — using a bit of creative thinking.

“I was a little theatre nerd when I was a kid,” she admits. Spending much of her time doing improv and school plays, she initially wanted to be an actor.

“When I left school I applied for loads of drama schools,” she says. “I didn’t want to do music.”

Using the stage to not just sing, but perform, brings McIntyre back to her school days. It allows for self-expression in a way that artists often do not utilise.

“What drew me and what draws me to making art is that sense of just making something fun,” she tells me.

A live Morgana performance brings the word “glimmer” to mind. There is something ethereal about the set up, the way that she includes the crowd. 

Performing at St James’ Church for Other Voices in December 2024, Morgana began her performance outside the church, moving backwards into the pews filled with an awe-inspired crowd. She wore a disco ball helmet, sending flecks of light onto the stained glass windows and white walls of the revenant building.

Theatre has been ingrained in McIntyre from a young age

‘Prepared to party, ready to cry,’ is the slogan that adorns her merchandise, but unironically, party and cry she did while speaking about what the festival means to her during this performance.

“Prepared to party, ready to cry” is also a standout lyric from her latest track, Power Cuts.

Forced to leave Dublin, contending with comparison and doing everything she can to achieve her dreams, the track reflects a modern-day 20- to 30-something trying to realise their potential and live life to their own standards while fighting the system that oppresses them. Putting her all into her dreams in her 30s, McIntyre knows more than most the resilience that is required to keep going in an industry that tends to celebrate youth.

“Things like coming off stage, coming out, interacting with the audience, putting on a character,” McIntyre describes, “things that are the most basic elements of a theatre show... when you put them in a gig space, they go so much further. They kind of excite the audience.”

For a while, the artist told herself that she couldn’t do anything other than music, that she wasn’t qualified.

“I kept saying I couldn’t do anything else,” she admits. Her manager, Conor Cusack, told her otherwise. Being a musician requires so much learning on the job, he pointed out, she’d acquired project and team management skills, she could go into production or project management.

“When he said that, I was like, it’s that I don’t want to do anything else. I just really love making music and I’m just gonna keep going.”

This love has carried McIntyre to the heights she has reached now. With only two official releases under her belt, the Belfast singer has garnered a reputation for creating immersive live experiences which leave her audience with a sense of belonging.

‘Prepared to party, ready to cry’ captures the ups and downs, the highs and lows of life as a late 20s, early 30s girlie. A forthcoming EP will be released on June 11, with the album not due for release until 2026.

A long wait for those of us desperate for the on-demand listening of tunes we’ve heard and connected with live. But she’s not in a rush. She’s doing things at her own pace. And her time is now.

• Morgana performs at Tipperary’s When Next We Meet festival on June 7. whennextwemeet.ie