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Connemara singer Caitriona Ní Cheannabháin has smiled through her appearances on Glór Tíre and many concert shows over the years. As she prepares to launch her new album in Peacock’s of Maam Cross on Friday 5 July, few people realise the heartache she has coped with during her life.
Caitriona was just 10 years of age when she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Up until then, she had an idlylic life in Ard East, a few miles out from Carna. “Mom and dad raised us with love and to be kind and caring to others and we always had Dada singing and lilting around the house and he loved playing the melodeon in the evening.
“We loved to be outside helping shake up the hay and putting it on the stone walls to dry. When the time came to go out on the bog we were excited going on the donkey cart. I loved going down on the strand picking winkles and cutting the seaweeds with dad. I was his peata. I have six brothers and four sisters and myself, that’s 11, God bless us.”
Back then, Caitriona had very little English. They were all brought up in the traditional native Irish of Connemara.
She remembers the pains were bad in her stomach and never let up. “The pain was unbearable until one morning I was rushed to Galway Regional Hospital in the ambulance where I was kept for two long weeks. That was the start of living with Crohn’s disease.”
Caitriona has been in and out of hospitals over the years. At the age of 25, she underwent a major operation and eight years later she was back in theatre again. Through it all she has shown remarkable courage to take life in all its ups and downs and still come smiling through.
She fondly recalls her abiding love for music and the first song she recorded with her father while in her early teenage years. “Dad travelled a lot singing and playing music. He was in America, France and England. I remember he came home one night after being out playing music and he said that he was asked by Cló Iar-Chonnachta to record a tape and he told them he would record it as long as I was on the tape with him.
“I was over the moon hugging him. I didn’t speak much English but the older gang listened to country artists like Don Williams and Margo and it was from Margo that I picked up the song, Two Little Orphans. My older sisters explained what story was in the song and I couldn’t stop listening to her until I learnt it. We went on to get our picture taken for the tape and then off to the studio to Eugene Kelly, God rest him.
“I recorded my first album and decided to call it Sólás which is solace and tranquillity and that is what my singing brings me. I come alive on stage. I forget the pain, the agony and the Crohn’s disease.
“I am now releasing another album, Songs From The Mist, and sharing my style of singing with the world. I love traditional, country, gospel and all styles of singing.
“I was given a singing voice to help me through my sickness and bring me joy, happiness and the chance to meet some amazing legends like Big Tom, Daniel O’Donnell, The Dubliners, Seán Keane, John Hogan, Derek Ryan, Gerry Guthrie, Mick Flavin and many others.
“Every song in my new show and CD, Songs from the Mist, has a story to tell and it is passed down to us to share them with the universe. Dreams do come true and every day when I open my eyes, I thank God I am alive.”
Caitriona is already planning another album that reflects her love for country music and hopes to have it ready some months down the road.
Joining Caitriona for the launch of Songs from the Mist in Maam Cross on the 5 July are Cillín, Gerry Guthrie, Breakfree, Michael Regan, Mick Mulhern and the Canavan Family. The show starts around 9pm.
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