Clannad - Back to the roots of Irish folk

Clannad, whose name in Gaelic derives from an clann as Dobhar, meaning “the family from Dore”, are less a band than a lineage of musicians, belonging to the Brennan and Duggan families, originally from the village of Gweedore in County Donegal, Ireland.

Clannad's musical journey began in 1970, when some members of the Irish Brennan clan - Maire, Ciaran and Pol - started playing in the tavern bought by their parents, together with two of their uncles, Padraig Duggan and Noel Duggan.

The members of the two families, in any case, already came from a solid musical background: Leo Brennan, the family patriarch, led a band and played saxophone, clarinet and accordion. His wife was a music teacher who played organ and harmonium, and whose own parents were devotees of Irish folk music.

The family group soon had the chance to make a name for themselves with the pub's customers, offering a repertoire that ranged from traditional Irish folk to Beatles, Donovan, Joni Mitchell, and other classics, all rigorously reworked in the Irish language.

Given their success on the local scene, the group decided to enter the prestigious Letterkenny folk festival, half as a joke and half just for fun - and to everyone's surprise, they won. The prize for the winner was the chance to record an album. No sooner said than done: in 1973 their first album came out, simply titled Clannad, though it failed to win over a wide audience, partly because it sounded like a somewhat too rough-hewn work, and partly because the genre - Irish folk - wasn't well known at the time outside the island's borders. Almost all the tracks, in fact, were sung in Irish, and musically there was a clear predominance of traditional instruments such as the Celtic harp, mandolin, harmonica, flute and the tin whistle, an instrument only the Irish seem able to give such a distinctive intonation, and whose use demands particular skill.

The group took a clear step forward in 1974 with the release of their second album, Clannad 2, a work notable for the clarity of Maire Brennan's voice, masterfully supported by Donal Lunny's instrumental work and production. The Irish language still features heavily, as shown by the hypnotic "Coinleach Ghlas An Fhómhair" (later also covered by Michael O'Domhnaill and Mick Hanly on "Celtic Folkwave"), but it's now paired with English-language songs that are not purely folk but lean toward a breezier pop sound, such as the single "Rince Philib a'Cheoil". African percussion and synthesizers help broaden the band's range of instruments and sounds.

At this point the members of Clannad realized that by sticking solely within Irish borders they would remain largely unknown to a wider audience, so they decided to try their luck: in 1975 they played the card of touring outside their homeland. They went to play in Germany, and the audience response was extremely positive. Clannad had finally landed in Europe.

Two years after the release of Clannad 2, the band released Dùlaman, perhaps the best album they had produced up to that point. Standouts include the epic title track, dominated by a majestic choir and delivered in an even more traditional fashion than Altan's version, and the poignant "Two Sisters", a new rendition of Pentangle's Pentangle's "Cruel Sister".

In 1978 their first live album also came out, titled In Concert: this record represents the high point of Clannad's early career and is considered one of the finest live albums in all of Irish folk. Worth noting are the tracks "Down by the Sally Gardens", with lyrics by Irish poet William Butler Yeats, and the version of "Nil Sen La", with a truly rousing instrumental finale.

In 1979 the group was joined by vocalist Maire's sister, Eitne, better known by her stage name Enya. The arrival of this new, strikingly talented member contributed significantly to the recording of numerous soundtracks and to the release of the albums Cran Ull (featuring the beautiful "The Last Rose of Summer") and Fuaim, on which Enya herself played keyboards.

In 1982, however, Enya left the group to pursue a solo career, achieving considerable fame and international recognition. Her departure, in any case, did nothing to harm the group's musical path.

Clannad's output from the Seventies is certainly the least known internationally, as it was perhaps a little too focused on folkloric conventions tied exclusively to Irish culture and tradition. It was in the following decade, instead, that the group managed to establish itself first in Europe and then around the world, even breaking into the British sales charts - first in 1982 with the single "Harry's Game", the theme for the film of the same name, and then in 1983 with the album Magical Ring, which stayed on the charts for six months and even earned a gold record, despite being sung entirely in Irish.

From this point on, Clannad's rise in fame and success was unstoppable: in 1984 the band released Legend, the soundtrack to the TV series "Robin Of Sherwood" (Robin Hood); in 1985 came Macalla, the album that cemented their international breakthrough, marking a shift in the group's sound toward British pop and the use of less traditional instruments, without ever abandoning the folk foundation that had always defined them. The record also boasts a collaboration between Clannad and Bono, frontman of U2, realized through the poignant duet between Maire Brennan and Bono on the single "In A Lifetime". Also turned into a stunning video, the track achieved enormous international success, quickly becoming one of the classics of the group's entire output.

In 1987, following the huge success of Macalla, Sirius was released, on which the group's members gave in to the allure of pop and decided to have the album produced by figures well versed in American West Coast folk, resulting in a record that sits halfway between English pop-folk and Californian folk-rock. A work decidedly more muted compared to Clannad's earlier output, though it's worth mentioning Maire's duet with Bruce Hornsby on the track "Something To Believe In".

The Eighties closed out with the album Anam (1990), on which Clannad, needing to recover from the misstep of Sirius, returned to their roots and reclaimed their Celtic heritage, emphasizing its spirituality through the use of choral harmonies and a return to traditional instruments. Though an improvement on its predecessor, the album didn't recapture the success of Macalla, proving rather uneven, alternating between deeply evocative pieces and others of less convincing craftsmanship.

Clannad celebrated their twentieth anniversary (1973-1993) with the release of the album Banba, a title drawn from an ancient name for Ireland. Over those twenty years the group had amassed a wealth of musical, cultural and personal experience, as well as the financial means to produce a beautifully crafted album with meticulous arrangements. It's perhaps the record on which all the group's members reached full artistic maturity, resulting in a highly refined, sophisticated and in some ways even mystical work. That artistic maturity, however, had its downside: the group became more attentive to the demands of the record market and lost sight of the folk roots that had always been Clannad's trademark.

Banba was followed by a compilation, Themes (1995, featuring the splendid "A Dream In The Night"), and two albums, Lore (1996) and Landmarks (1998) - works that were never repetitive or dull, but which played somewhat to the demands of the record market, content simply to carry on the musical tradition and reputation Clannad had earned over the years.

After the last studio album, the band's members chose to go their separate ways and pursue their own personal ambitions. On the musical front, only singer Maire Brennan achieved any real success, recording under the name Moya Brennan and releasing two albums, Whisper To The Wild Water (1999) and Two Horizons (2003).

The great strength of this Donegal group lay in their ability to blend the most traditional Irish music with a range of influences spanning jazz, rock and, in their later albums, mainstream pop. Through their delicate compositions, the Irish band told the saga of Celtic myth with great tenderness, bringing out its mystical, poetic side without ever losing sight of its more warlike spirit. Clannad can rightly be considered the world's ambassadors for traditional Celtic music, a genre they managed to revive and reinterpret in a modern key with tremendous imagination and originality.

In 2026 sad news reached all the Irish band's fans: Moya Brennan, the legendary voice of Clannad, passed away at 73.

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