CLANNAD star Moya Brennan has revealed how she began taking drugs and almost became an alcoholic at the height of the Donegal band’s fame.
Gweedore-born Moya won a BAFTA Award and had recorded the hit In A Lifetime with Bono when she went off the rails.
The singer even got married but split with her then husband after just two years.
“When you had a few bob, the bad habits started. I’d say I was close to being an alcoholic. I’d wake up the next morning and couldn’t remember what I’d done the night before.
“I didn’t like that but I’d lost all respect for myself. With the champagne, the charlie (cocaine) comes hand in hand.
“I’d never get into a car, looking to buy some but there was always someone who would say ‘do you want to go to the bathroom?’ And you’d go.
“I spent six weeks in LA and everyone was doing cocaine and it scared me. I thought ‘Is this how I want to end up, snorting that much cocaine on a night? I had been living life very loosely, going to nightclubs, drinking a lot and having a line,” she revealed.
The drugs and the drink were a long way since 1970 when her brothers Ciaran and Pol, and uncles Noel and Padraig Duggan formed Clannad and would sing in her dad Leo’s Tavern.
After many drunken nights and even a miscarriage after a one-night stand with a Frencman, Moya found happiness again.
A photographer from music magazine NME came to picture the band in Gweedore and Moya immediately fell for Tim Jarvis.
The couple now have two children Aisling, 19 and Paul, 17 and they say they couldn’t be happier.
“We had our 20th anniversary last January and I’m absolutely nuts about him. We have a fantastic relationship,” said Moya.
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