Clannad are a group from Ireland who fused traditional folk music with a pop sound and introduced Irish folk music and language to the world.
Members of the Brennan and Duggan families make up the band, taking their name from the Irish Gaelic for ‘family from Dore’ or ‘Clann As Dobhar’. The group started out playing on the folk festival circuit. A prize at one of the events was a record contract; Clannad won and released their debut album, on Phillips, in 1973. The album didn’t receive much mainstream attention outside Ireland, which came several albums later. In the meantime they were joined by Eithnie, one of the Brennan sisters who stopped off briefly on the road to her own successful solo career as Enya.
Clannad got their big break during the recording of the Magical Ring album, when they were approached to write music for a UK TV series about the troubles in Ireland. “The Theme from Harry’s Game” took a Top 5 place in the UK charts and pushed the album to gold sales. They received another boost from TV, with a commission to soundtrack a series about Robin Hood. The resulting album, Legend, won a BAFTA Award for the group and began the run of popular albums.
Single success, in the form of a collaboration with Bono on “In a Lifetime”, helped sales of the Macalla album. The Banba album gave them their first Grammy nomination; it also included a track written for the film The Last of the Mohicans and went on to top the World Music charts.
In 1998 they earned the Best New Age Album Grammy for Landmarks, though this was to be their last studio album as they disbanded shortly after. They reformed for a one off gig at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections Festival in 2007.
