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How great thou art

Father Eugene O'Hagan, Father Martin O'Hagan and Father David Delargy meet SHELLEY MARSDEN to talk about the Pope, Jedward... oh, and their new album... - 25/11/09

I’ve never been in the company of three famous priests before, so chatting with The Priests is quite a novelty. Not only are the three priests/classical stars happy to talk ‘seriously’ about their sophomore album ‘Harmony’ [follow-up to the eponymously-titled debut, for which they scooped the Guinness World Record for ‘Fastest-selling UK debut for a classical act’], but I discover to my delight that they each have a great sense of humour, as we joke about reality TV shows, stiff competition from the Vatican and share the odd phrase in Italian (we have all at one point lived in Rome, they at The Irish College!).

Fr Eugene and his brother Fr Martin O'Hagan are from the Claudy, Derry, while Fr David Delargy is from Ballymena, Antrim. The trio began singing while they were boarding together as students at St MacNissi's College, Garron Tower, Antrim, but since signing to SonyBMG in April 2008, these friendly, down-to-earth priests, all from the Diocese of Down & Connor, have become one of the biggest success stories of the classical music world…

‘Harmony’, your second album for Sony follows ‘The Priests’, a massive bestseller – were you surprised your debut did so well?

Fr Eugene: Very surprised; we weren’t expecting anywhere near the sales we got! It’s very fulfilling and gratifying to think that the music had such wide appeal, but with it of course there is a heightened expectation that the second album will be as good and as successful. We don’t have a crystal ball of course, we’ll have to wait and see!

There are some lovely song in ‘Harmony’… personal favourites?

Fr Martin: There is a lovely variety of music; there’s something in there for everyone, from classic to popular. There are a number of very uplifting pieces; they all have a particular story and are very meaningful to us all. If I were to choose some of the pieces that would impact on myself; I love Gaelic Blessing by John Rutter, the harmonies melt into the other.

I also love the Irish piece; it typifies our roots, and I love the track we wrote together, King of Kings; the piece is from Saint Columkille, a saint from our local area in Derry. That was a wonderful opportunity, to pull together our own skills – the first time we’ve ever done it. We hope it will speak volumes. The classical pieces are gorgeous – Stabat Mater, by Pergolesi is something we’ve always enjoyed… there’s so much there to choose from.

You sing in a variety of languages on ‘Harmony’- do you speak them too?

Father Eugene: We’re fortunate in that we all studied in Italy for a number of years, so we have Italian; David has German – he’s our German expert – and we all have a bit of French. But whenever it comes to singing pieces in different languages, we do get some professional help from those who are fluent and can help us with pronunciation. We have done ‘Ode To Joy’ in English and Spanish, for instance, while on ‘Silent Night’ we sing in French, Spanish, English and Italian. It’s been a wonderful learning curve for us.

How do you imagine people listening to ‘Harmony’?

Father David: Oh, everywhere I hope! Just anywhere where people listen to music I hope they pop our album on and enjoy it. Going back to the individual tracks, it was actually very hard to decide which songs made it into the album. There are 15 and we recorded 17 in total. We basically did a secret ballot, with our own favourites down to our least favourite, to decide which ones made it on. It turned out to be a meeting of minds, really as we all felt the same about most of

the tracks.

For the full article (and to enter the competition for album copies below) buy this week's Irish World at your local newsagents, or pick up a copy HERE from onluy 50p!

The Priests album ‘Harmony’ is available now on Epic Records. For more, visit www.thepriests.com.

COMPETITION!!!

WE HAVE 12 COPIES OF ‘HARMONY’ UP FOR GRABS!

Twelve lucky readers will each receive a copy of The Priests new album (two are signed copies!). Just answer this question...

Q. which major record label are the priests signed to?

Send your answers, along with a cut out of the coupon in this week's paper (print-outs from the digital version also accepted) with your name, telephone number(s) and address to:

The Priests DVD Comp, The Irish World, 934 North Circular Rd, London NW2 7JR. Closing date for entries is midnight, Mon 7 December 2009.