Lorna McLaughlin of The Henry Girls spoke to David Hennessy ahead of their St Brigid’s Day show at The Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith.
The Henry Girls play The Irish Cultural Centre on Saturday 31 January.
The Donegal sibling duo will form half of a double bill with Na Leanaí that is part of the centre’s St Brigid’s weekend entertainment.
They have just launched their children’s album, Tracks in the Snow and come fresh from TradFest in Dublin.
The Henry Girls is made up of Lorna, Karen and Joleen McLaughlin.
They often sing in harmony and their sound has been described as a mix of Irish and Americana styles.
They released their debut album Between Us in 2003.
They were nominated for Best Original Score at the IFTA awards in 2010 when songs from their album Dawn featured in the film A Shine of Rainbows starring Aidan Quinn.
The group has also toured internationally and collaborated with big names like Clannad, Mary Black and Donal Lunny.
Lorna McLaughlin took time to chat to the Irish World ahead of their coming to the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith.
Are you looking forward to coming to the London?
“We were at The Irish Cultural Centre before.
“I think it could be four or five years ago and we had a lovely time.
“Gerry Logue set us up with Na Leanai so we’re doing a double bill with them and it’s all part of St Brigid’s weekend.
“It’s nice because there’s much more emphasis put on Brigid’s Day now.
“You’ve got the worldwide news about St Patrick but equally, we have our female saint Brigid so it’s great to be able to be part of that.
“Obviously as female performers, we feel strongly about that.
“Often times in the past, music has been dominated by men which is nobody’s fault but it’s just the way it has been.
“Women were maybe not so much encouraged but now there’s so many female performers out there.
“It’s nice to do it for female representation.”
You’re speaking to us from TradFest, how are you enjoying it?
“It’s great.
“I think we’ve been coming here for over a decade.
“We just love TradFest because it’s so varied and it’s like a coming together of all the people around the country that are out there gigging all year and it’s a chance to catch up with people.
“I suppose they maybe have kind of modelled the thing on the fact that Celtic Connections was such a success.
“Who would have thought a winter festival could be such a success but it just goes to show with the dark nights and people kind of clambering out of Christmas, we’re ready to kind of go out again and also to kind of beat off the winter blues, it’s something uplifting in the calendar.
“I think TradFest really works in that sense.
“We’re really grateful whenever we get the call to come.
“It’s a nice festival to play because you’re part of the community.
“We actually had a bit of a full circle moment because the gig that we’re doing is where it all began for us at Tradfest.
“We’re in a place called The Ark, it’s a cultural centre for children here in Dublin and they programmed us in 2013 or 2012 maybe.
“That was our first time performing at it and then we’ve just been back every year in some capacity since.
“This year’s TradFest show is actually back in The Ark to do a children’s show.”
And that’s suitable because the new record Tracks in the Snow is geared towards children, isn’t it?
“Yeah, we were commissioned to write that in 2015.
“We got a grant to write a musical show for children based on the wonders of winter.
“We were delighted because we kind of always wanted to do something like that and it was just nice to be able to get stuck in and come up with ideas for songs that were about the wonders of winter, maybe focusing more on the natural things about winter: Animals, weather and all that kind of stuff and as sort of an antidote to the commercialism of Christmas and everything as well.
“It was really a lovely thing to get the chance to do.”
It has been a long time in he making if these songs have been around since 2015..
“We wrote the songs in 2015 and at that time, we only had enough in the budget to record an EP so we wrote 12 songs and we had to choose four of them for the EP so we always felt like it was an incomplete project because we hadn’t recorded the other eight songs.
“Because 2025 was the 10 year anniversary of the show, we thought, ‘Well, this is a good excuse to record the remaining eight songs and turn it into a full length album, use the anniversary as kind of a marker because we did it in 2015 and it was very successful and then we did it again many times since but we never had the recordings of the other songs.
“This year it felt really nice to have the other songs recorded and it’s been great because it’s given us a boost for the band because it’s got us back on the radio. DJs always like to have something new from a band to play rather than just playing the old stuff.
“Some of our adult audience, people who like us as a band might be like, ‘Oh, what’s all these songs about snowmen and hot chocolate..’ but actually it’s still our sound.
“It’s not like we’ve suddenly started to sound like the Teletubbies or something, we still are doing the three part harmony, we’re playing the same instruments.
“We’re very proud of these songs and they’re very enjoyable to play.”
It’s not that it’s exclusively for children, isn’t it more that it’s for all the family?
“Yeah, exactly.
“I really love it whenever we do the show and you see I think the adults come in- sometimes adults come in even without children. That’s fine, too. It doesn’t have to be that you need to bring children along- But sometimes you see the families coming in and they’re sort of reluctantly singing along and then by the end of it, they’re nearly out dancing the kids.
“It’s nice to see that, people just kind of letting go and just going with the flow because it is very interactive as well and it’s just a great feeling.”
You clearly grew up in a very musical house to go on to form a band as sisters, did you?
“Yeah, we come from a very musical area and there were inspiring local musicians who kind of encouraged us.
“Also there were good teachers.
“It takes a village and all that.
“Yes, there was definitely enthusiasm in the house but there was a good, strong musical community in Inishowen so we got a lot of encouragement.
“We had fun together growing up.
“We weren’t really competitive.
“Obviously you can do music at so many different levels but we were just doing it for fun.
“We enjoyed it.
“We enjoyed playing together for fun not even for performance.
“We weren’t really performers.
“We just liked having the craic and playing music together so then as time went on myself, Karen and Joleen had already kind of developed our interest in music beyond the house.
“We went off and we did music degrees as well.
“Karen went to Cork University first and then I went to Belfast, to Queen’s University and Jolene went to Jordanstown which is just outside Belfast.
“Growing up in Donegal, there was music around us.”
Did something change for you around 2010?
“Yeah, we had done bits and pieces (before that).
“We had done some things but we weren’t really focused.
“I think around 2010, that’s when we got a really good idea of what we wanted.
“We said, ‘Okay, we want to record, we want to write more’.
“A lot of the stuff we had done before was kind of covers and things like that, quite random bits of music.
“But then from 2010 when we started working with a producer from Scotland called Calum Malcolm, who we’ve since recorded four albums with including this children’s album, I suppose that’s when it became more serious.
“That’s when we started touring internationally as well.
“Before that we were doing lots of local pub gigs and we’d do sessions and things like that.
“We didn’t even know touring was an option.
“The touring kind of came about organically as well.
“We just got asked if we would like to go to Germany on tour.
“We said yes and then that was sort of the beginning of that.
“We’ve been going back to Germany now for 15 years and that’s just been brilliant because it’s a great place to play and it’s just a real pleasure.”
You must have had amazing times on the road, what leaps out as a highlight?
“I remember one time when we were in Austria.
“Obviously two thirds of Austria is the Alps so even just driving around Austria was stunning.
“We were up in the Alps a lot so we got to places that we would never have seen otherwise.
“There was one time in The Alps we played in a cattle mart.
“It was a place that was normally used for selling cows.
“Sometimes you come across a renovated barn or something like that but this was actually very much a functional cattle mart that was just at the weekends turned into a venue.
“You could still smell the cows,” Lorna laughs.
“They were very clean and everything but they had it all set up for showing the cows.
“I just remember thinking, ‘When else are you going to get a chance to do something like this?’
“It was just a really amazing, unique thing to do.
“There’s so many things like that.
“It’s just been brilliant, especially with Austria and Germany.
“And there’s been other places.
“We played in Morocco at the international Nomad Music Festival in M’hamid in the Sahara Desert.
“It wasn’t a very huge festival.
“It was quite local so we got to meet lots of local people and really engaged with them and experienced the culture there.
“We stayed in tents and everything.
“We got to jam with some of the local musicians.
“We were talking to people who didn’t have English so we were able to communicate by jamming so that was brilliant.
“It was great.”
You have worked with incredible people like Moya Brennan, Mary Black and Donal Lunny..
“Yeah, it’s funny.
“Myself and Joleen were just talking about that last week.
“We were watching a show and we were going, ‘God, we really know so many well known Irish musicians, people we would have really looked up to growing up and now they’re people that we have in our phone books that we’re in touch with’.
“We just feel it’s nice to be part of a musical community in Ireland.
“And you’ll find that people like Moya Brennan and Mary Black are legends of their genre but when you meet them, they’re very normal down to earth people.
“They’re not inaccessible by any means.
“They’re just very nice to chat to and very nurturing.
“Moya Brennan is always very much helping other musicians coming along,
“She’s just a very supportive person.
“To get to tour with Clannad was amazing, especially now when you consider that two members of Clannad are no longer with us so to get that opportunity to stand side of stage every night and listen to them doing their magic…
“You don’t know where it ends.
“You think, ‘Okay, we’ve reached it now. We’re at the summit’.
“But it’s nice when you realise that there’s so much more that you can do.
“There’s so many more people you can meet and collaborate with and it’s exciting.
“There’s the legends before us but then there’s the legends that are coming all the time.
“It’s just an amazing time for Irish music.
“There’s so much good music happening and it’s just thriving here.
“When you look at The Mary Wallopers and Lankum and Lisa O’Neill and all these ones that are kind of on the global stage, they’re legends in the making.
“But again, they’re all just lovely people who are out there doing it. It’s great times. It’s lovely to see it.”
You also did Daniel O’Donnell’s Opry le Daniel quite recently..
“Yeah, we did and that actually came about through Moya Brennan.
“Moya has a night in Leo’s Tavern.
“She does a thing called Club Beo which is a night of music in the bar.
“They have a headline act and then they have ten local song writers that come up and it gives them a chance to showcase what they’re up to and then it finishes with a more well established act.
“We were the headline act that night but Daniel O’Donnell was there.
“We were like, ‘Oh my God, Daniel O’Donnell is really getting into our music’.
“And then shortly after that, then the call came for us to go on Opry le Daniel.
“It was a lovely experience because we had met Daniel O’Donnell a couple of times before briefly but just to be in his company.
“He has the reputation of being such a nice person and he didn’t disappoint.
“He was just so nice, down to earth, very approachable.
“There was a really lovely feeling doing that show and then even the impact of doing that show, it gave us a bit of kudos.
“People were like, ‘Oh, you were on the Daniel O’Donnell show’.
“For people who maybe wouldn’t have listened to our music otherwise, getting the nod from Daniel O’Donnell was sort of a way in for people to go, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll check them out’.
“Now we’re meeting people who saw that show and it was great that we got to sing our own songs.”
As we said you’re at TradFest at the moment, are you playing tonight?
“We’re planning to go and see Altan tonight.
“They’re fantastic.
“They’re so iconic at this stage.
“Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh: What a woman.
“She’s just another mother earth.
“She’s always kind of helping other people as well.
“She’s an inspiration.
“We had Altan posters on our walls when we were teenagers.”
Is she someone else who has been encouraging on your journey,
“Absolutely, she’s been always so good to us.
“She’s always been there kind of encouraging us and recommending us and things like that.
“She’s definitely somebody who helps her.
“She’s very much an ambassador for Donegal and all things Donegal, not just music. She’s a great woman.
“She’s like the queen of Donegal for me,” Lorna laughs.
The Henry Girls play The Irish Cultural Centre with Na Leanai on Saturday 31 January for St Brigid’s weekend.
For tickets and more information, click here.
For more information about The Henry Girls, click here.
