Biography
Irish singer, songwriter, and harpist Máire Brennan, who later performed as Moya Brennan, achieved global recognition through her work with Clannad, the group that came together in County Donegal during 1970. Clannad, initially made up of Brennan along with brothers Ciarán and Pól Brennan plus twin uncles Noel and Pádraig Duggan, earned acclaim for introducing contemporary Celtic music that incorporated rock, jazz, and new age influences. Ireland’s most successful musical family once included Brennan’s younger sister Eithne, who went on to worldwide fame as Enya.
Brennan entered the world in Dublin in 1952 as the oldest of nine children and spent her early years in the remote, Irish-speaking village of Gweedore in County Donegal. Her father Leo ran a well-known tavern in nearby Meenaleck, where the siblings performed as youngsters. After training in harp, piano, and vocals at Dublin’s Royal Irish Academy of Music, she devoted the 1970s to recording and touring with Clannad, building critical regard ahead of the band’s international breakthrough via the 1982 single “Theme from Harry’s Game.”
During the 1980s the ensemble maintained a worldwide profile, delivering an expansive soundtrack for the television series Robin of Sherwood and securing another success with “In a Lifetime,” the duet pairing Brennan with U2’s Bono. She launched her solo career on Atlantic Records with the 1992 album Máire, then issued Misty Eyed Adventures three years later; both projects drew input from relatives and from Planxty founder Dónal Lunny. After Clannad’s Grammy-winning 1997 release Landmarks, the group paused its activities, prompting Brennan to join Word Records for Perfect Time in 1998 and Whisper to the Wild Water in 1999.
With the 2003 album Two Horizons she adopted the simpler phonetic spelling Moya Brennan. An Irish Christmas appeared for the 2005 holiday period, and her seventh studio effort, Signature, followed in 2006. Clannad restarted live work in 2008, allowing Brennan to interleave band commitments with solo projects such as the 2009 live recording Heart Strings and the 2010 traditional-song collection My Match Is a Makin’ created with harpist Cormac DeBarra, which resurfaced the next year in revised form as Voices & Harps. In 2013 she released the second DeBarra collaboration Affinity while Clannad returned with Nádúr, their first studio album in sixteen years. Brennan’s ninth solo album, Canvas, arrived in 2017 and included contributions from her children Aisling and Paul.
Brennan entered the world in Dublin in 1952 as the oldest of nine children and spent her early years in the remote, Irish-speaking village of Gweedore in County Donegal. Her father Leo ran a well-known tavern in nearby Meenaleck, where the siblings performed as youngsters. After training in harp, piano, and vocals at Dublin’s Royal Irish Academy of Music, she devoted the 1970s to recording and touring with Clannad, building critical regard ahead of the band’s international breakthrough via the 1982 single “Theme from Harry’s Game.”
During the 1980s the ensemble maintained a worldwide profile, delivering an expansive soundtrack for the television series Robin of Sherwood and securing another success with “In a Lifetime,” the duet pairing Brennan with U2’s Bono. She launched her solo career on Atlantic Records with the 1992 album Máire, then issued Misty Eyed Adventures three years later; both projects drew input from relatives and from Planxty founder Dónal Lunny. After Clannad’s Grammy-winning 1997 release Landmarks, the group paused its activities, prompting Brennan to join Word Records for Perfect Time in 1998 and Whisper to the Wild Water in 1999.
With the 2003 album Two Horizons she adopted the simpler phonetic spelling Moya Brennan. An Irish Christmas appeared for the 2005 holiday period, and her seventh studio effort, Signature, followed in 2006. Clannad restarted live work in 2008, allowing Brennan to interleave band commitments with solo projects such as the 2009 live recording Heart Strings and the 2010 traditional-song collection My Match Is a Makin’ created with harpist Cormac DeBarra, which resurfaced the next year in revised form as Voices & Harps. In 2013 she released the second DeBarra collaboration Affinity while Clannad returned with Nádúr, their first studio album in sixteen years. Brennan’s ninth solo album, Canvas, arrived in 2017 and included contributions from her children Aisling and Paul.
Albums
Singles
