Eileen Donaghy (16 July 1930 – 26 October 2008) was an Irish traditional singer. Donaghy was well known for her recordings of

ballads A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

such as ''The Oul Lammas Fair'' and ''My Lagan Love'' and was known as the "First Lady of the Moy". Eileen Donaghy was born Mary Josephine McNally in

Brackaville Brackaville or Bracaville (possibly ) is a village and townland near Coalisland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated in the historic barony of Dungannon Middle and the civil parish of Donaghenry and covers an area of 235 acres ...

Coalisland Coalisland () is a small town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, with a population of 5,682 in the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census. Four miles from Lough Neagh, it was formerly a centre for coal mining. History Origins In the late 1 ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. Its county town is Omagh. Adjoined to the south-west shore of Lough Neagh, the cou ...

. Her family always called her "Maisie". She was the second of three children and the elder daughter of Hugh Patrick and Brigid (née Corey) McNally. She left school at 14 and worked as a darner in Derryvale weaving factory. She was a member of a variety group that performed in local halls. Donaghy married Tyrone footballer Pat Donaghy in 1956. The couple lived for a while in

, before moving to Moy. Her big breakthrough was the 1958 Ulster Football Final at Clones, where she sang "The Boys from the County Armagh" to a packed stadium. She toured the world as part of the traditional folk scene in the early 1960s and was successful in Ireland, the UK, New Zealand, Australia, the US and Canada. One of her albums, ''Let's Sing with the Irish'' was issued on Fontana (Philips) Records in the UK and Epic Records in the US simultaneously. In 1971, during "

the Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

", she recorded an album of rebel songs which was released under the name of her grandmother, Brigid Corey. This album was reissued on CD by Outlet Recording Company, before they went defunct in the 1990s.

Family

Pat Donaghy died in 1991; the couple had nine children, including County Tyrone footballers Colm and Plunkett.

References

External links

Eileen and Clancy Brothers in Moy
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Donaghy, Eileen 1930 births 2008 deaths People from Coalisland 20th-century women singers from Northern Ireland Women folk singers from Northern Ireland Musicians from County Tyrone People from Moy, County Tyrone 20th-century folk musicians from Northern Ireland