Clannad

Clannad started in 1970 as a family affair in Gweedore, County Donegal: siblings Ciarán, Pól and Máire Brennan with their twin uncles Noel and Pádraig Duggan. They first went by An Clann as Dobhar, the Family from Dore, trimmed it to Clannad in 1973, and spent the early years reworking traditional Irish songs, sung in Irish on acoustic instruments. By 1979 they had three albums out and had toured Europe and the US.

Then the sound began to open up. From 1980 to 1982 their sister and niece Eithne, better known as Enya, made it a six-piece, and in 1982 "Theme from Harry's Game" broke them internationally: an eerie, hushed hymn of layered voices and keyboard mist that seems to drift in off the Atlantic. Original songs in English, electronic keyboards, rock, new age and even Gregorian chant all got folded in, and "In a Lifetime" followed in 1987.

They broke off in 1997 after 15 albums, regrouped in 2007, welcomed Pól back in 2013 and lost Pádraig in 2016, then set out on a farewell tour in 2020. Along the way came a Grammy, a BAFTA, an Ivor Novello Award and a Billboard Music Award, eight top-10 albums in the UK, and a reputation for carrying Irish music and the Irish language far beyond Donegal.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.