Mary Coughlan marked her 60th birthday last year, but the singer didn’t celebrate the milestone. “I just felt very, very unwell and nervous. I thought I was dying, actually. I wrote it in my diary at the time. I said: ‘Is this what 60 is going to be like?’” she says.

In fact, months of feeling sick and chest pains, which were attributed to anxiety, were actually signs of blocked arteries – resulting in heart surgery.

“I had been to the hospital three times and they told me I was having panic attacks. I had stents put in my heart in September – and I went off on tour in October, believe it or not,” she says.

“I swear to God, a week after they put the stents in I was walking five to 10 minutes a day. In October, I walked 10km in Berlin one day. I’m at it ever since then, in the gym and everything. That’s my attitude now: I’m just going to take care of myself and do the things that I want to do.”

It’s fair to say that Mary has been through the mill, from substance abuse to marriage breakdowns. However, her warm and witty demeanour belies the struggles of her past, and after 24 years of sobriety the singer is in a good place. “I’ve been working on myself a lot over the years. It all helps,” she says.

And she has spent this year making up for lack of celebrations last year, including a party after her upcoming Vicar Street gig and travels in the US earlier this year.

“I booked myself a flight to see some old friends in America, who I hadn’t seen in donkey’s years. I went to New York, Miami, up to Chicago and had a great time. That passed December and January nicely for me,” she laughs.

She has also recently become a grandmother for the fourth time, with the birth of baby Beatrix in April. It’s a role she relishes.

“They’re just great fun and I’m lucky. I brought them to Disneyland a couple of years ago, and we’re planning another trip now. I’m a sucker for the fireworks and the big parade,” she laughs.

She recalls sneaking into the Coombe, after her daughter Aoife gave birth, to see her first grandchild. “They were very strict at the time,” she says. “They wouldn’t let me in, and I could see women coming in and out. I was very bold. I couldn’t contain myself. So I went home and got a dressing gown and put on my dressing gown and my slippers, and walked in past them.”

Coughlan, a mother of five, had her first daughter, Aoife, at the age of 20. She started singing publicly at the age of 30. “I was only 19 when I married and had three kids when I was 24: can you believe it?” she says.

Her long-time collaborator and friend Erik Visser, a Dutch native who in the 1980s was studying music in Galway, encouraged her into music

“I got knocked down by a car when I was six months pregnant, and I spent a week in hospital flat on my back. Erik used to bring his guitar to the hospital every day and play tunes, because I was miserable,” she says.

“He then went back to Holland and became a superstar with a band called Flairck and then, after some years, he came back to Galway and said: ‘I know you can sing, we should really do something.’ He paid for the first album, Tired and Emotional, and he wrote some of the songs on it.”

However, as her career in music took off, so too did a dependence on alcohol.

“When I had the three kids, I was like a nun. I was living a very healthy life. When I moved to Dublin in 1986 1987, I started. In 1989 I noticed I was drinking more than other people,” she says. “It was the first time away on the road, and we all partied, as they say. But I started bringing it home with me. I wanted to continue the party at home. Then I knew I was in trouble.”

After a stint in the Rutland Centre 24 years ago, Mary was finally able to stop abusing alcohol and drugs, but was also going to quit singing.

“I thought one of them couldn’t do without the other. After I came out of the Rutland Centre, I got a request to do the Woman’s Heart tour. We needed the money as a family – we had a mortgage to pay - so I did it, and I loved it, and then I decided I would go back on the road in a smaller way.

“When I was really successful, from 1986 to 1991, I was touring with 14 people – backing singers and roadies. I chose three people who I got along very well with, and we went off in a car, and we shared all the driving and did the gigs together.”

After living through so much, Mary is currently working on a play based on her life and what women in Ireland have experienced through recent decades.

“It’s called Woman Undone, and we just got some funding from the Arts Council to start working on the project,” she says. “I’m working with Erik Visser and a group called Brokentalkers. I did something with Ray Yeates and Dublin City Arts last year, and this will just be moving on from there.

“It will look at life for women in Ireland – like the Magdalene laundries and marriage. I was very active in the Divorce Action Group. I tried to open a family planning clinic in Galway in the 1970s and it was boycotted. People used to throw things at us and pray the rosary outside. We weren’t even doing anything, just giving women information leaflets.”

Honest and open about her struggles, Mary is an inspiration to many. “When I do things like [radio interviews], my Facebook is full of private messages from people. People ring me and I give them my phone number. It’s just, Jesus, so many people helped me along the way, you just have to give it back,” she says.

“It’s an honour to be able to think that you might be able to help and they would be able to take the next steps themselves.”

Mary Coughlan performs live in concert on Saturday 13 May at Vicar Street. Tickets are on sale now. Phone (01) 775 5800 or visit www.ticketmaster.ie.