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Maire Brennan
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Early on Monday morning we headed off to Dun Laoghaire to visit Maire Brennan (pronounced Moy-a) at her home overlooking the Irish Sea. Her home is one of those great Georgian terrace houses, so popular in Dublin; three stories high, with very large rooms. Maire and her husband, Tim, share a very happy family life, with two adorable children, daughter Aisling (Ash-leen) and son Paul. Down in the basement, they were in the proccess of building a dark room for Tim, who is a photographer, and a recording studio for Maire. You can see all the signs of their long and successful careers in the wonderful collection of artifacts and furnishings displayed throughout the house. We enjoyed a cup of tea in the kitchen as Paul showed us how fast he could get around the yard on his new scooter, and the crew set up in the living room. During the interview, Maire told us about her journey as a musician, first with her Grammy award-winning group, Clannad, and now as a solo artist, pursuing her soul-searching which has brought her inner peace and a heightened sense of mission to share her love.
Her music closely expresses her spirit. Maire took us down to her favorite nature spot, second only to her home in Donegal, Sandy Cove beach at "the forty foot", where the swimmers gather every day to swim in the freezing water. I asked a group of men who were 'sun-bathing' in the freezing wind, (admittedly the sun was shining), why they like to swim in this cold wind and water and I was given several enthusiastic responses related to health and vitality. The upshot is that it is part of a great tradition and they all love it. Every New Year's Day, hundreds of people come here to swim in support of charitable causes. It's like a marathon. We filmed several swimmers, men and women, doing their long, graceful laps across the sea. The closest I ever get to that is walking barelegged through rushing cold mountain streams, preferably after heavy rains, on my irregular mountain hikes. There is nothing quite like that tingling feeling which can last for hours. |
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