Greg Hughes (GH): Ragairne was that band then that you did with Frankie then, isn't it?
Mairรฉad Nรญ Mhaonaigh (MNM): Yeah, Ragairne, yeah.
GH: Wasn't Enya in that for a time as well?
MNM: No, she came later when we were actually making our first album for Gael Linn [Irish record company specializing in Irish language music], and Nicky Ryan, who died just last year. He was Enya's manager and producer, so I had met him through Clannad many, many years before that and he says "If you are ever making an album, I want to engineer it and produce it."
So when we were asked by Gael Linn to make the album, soon after we [referring to Mairรฉad and her late husband Frankie Kennedy] were married, I think, must have been '81 [NOTE: She was a bit fuzzy with her dates here. The album was released 1983, so recording must have been around 1982 or whereabouts]. Don't ever ask me the dates of these. [...] So anyway, so Nicky came in and we were making this album and...it was mostly kind of unaccompanied and I had my brother [Gearรณid ร Maonaigh, Mairรฉad's older brother, who played guitar] and then Ciarรกn Curran, who ended up in Altan, and it was going really well and I had a song and I said, "I'd really love a nice low drone under this and he says, "Sure, I'll get Eithne." I said, "Oh, would you mind coming in?"
So Eithne came in, she wasn't well known at all at this stage, but she was working on her music and I was saying, I was really thanking her, and we wanted to pay her. She wouldn't take a penny because we're neighbours. "We're neighbours! Why would I do that?" Like we were so delighted that she...and she did a great job with it. So she played on that, Ceol Audaidh, which is The Music of the North. So we're delighted and it's great that it comes up as all this kind of, uh, when people are seeking "unusual Enya tracks," it comes up? [laughs]
GH: Yeah, of course. Enya is a very interesting person career-wise. I don't have any knowledge of her personally, but it feels so enigmatic like, you know, someone so popular, so famous, so influential, sold so many albums, etc. and yet sort of retains this borderline anonymity.
MNM: She's the luckiest musician alive. She doesn't have to tour. She's a...well, maybe she wanted to tour but, you know, it all worked out for her and she's a great person. Obviously, she's from the Brennan family. Um, she's very, very musical. I have to say, her melodies are very strong, and that comes from the same background as myself, in a way. It comes from the tradition, but she has, you know, brought it forward into her imagination and just created beautiful melodies and songs.
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of Enya 
I did not have to find it; I was sent this message directly. โก
) Enya is mentioned 
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(ironically Enya didn't do any course to graduate from (except her career of course) 
