Before Enya came along, one of the few acts to perform in the specific milieu of traditional Celtic pop-meets-New Age music was Clannad, an Irish family band whose name literally means “family” in Gaelic. Clannad released five albums between 1973 and 1980, the latter being the same year that Eithne Bhraonain — who would later be known as Enya — joined her immediate family in the group. It was also around that time when Clannad started to sell a lot of records around Europe — particularly the U.K.
Read Related Also: Letecia Stauch Trial: Psychologist Says Accused Killer Stepmom Does NOT Have ‘Severe’ Mental Illness
But by 1982, when Clannad scored a top-five chart hit with its theme song for the British TV show “Harry’s Game,” Enya had already left the group. Clannad’s manager, Nicky Ryan, had persuaded her to join the band, and in 1982, Ryan dropped Clannad as a client. “We had a fall-out, it was one guy who was going too far with the drink,” Ryan told The Quietus. “I said, ‘it’s either him or me,’ and they said, ‘it’s you, you’re out, because he’s a brother.'” During the confrontation, the rest of Clannad made Enya decide where her loyalties lay. She opted to depart with Ryan, along with his wife and collaborator, lyricist Roma Ryan.
