At the age of three and a half, Triona Ni Dhomhnaill was perched high on the teacher's table and made to sing Sean Dun na nGall for the rest of the class. Not surprisingly, the nun was entirely charmed and immediately carried her new pupil from room to room where the song was delivered over and over again. Everyone was delighted. It was Triona's very first day at school, and she was already in the middle of her first successful tour.
The little singer's novelty was further enhanced by the fact that she hadn't a word of English. In fact, none of the O Domhnaill children spoke much English back then - evidence that, although they were living in Kells, Co Meath, their young souls were very much in the far north-west. Triona's father, Aodh, a Rannafast man, worked for the Irish Folklore Commission and collected songs and stories all over Donegal, a county (and a state of mind) which was to become the family's second home. So much so in fact, that siblings Triona, Maighread and Micheal might be mistaken for Donegal people very easily indeed.
Idir an Da Sholas, the new album from Triona and Maighread is a collection of songs which marks Triona's return to Ireland and also provides a timely reminder of the sisters' early days with the group, Skara Brae. Triona was still at school when the three O Domhnaills plus Daithi Sproule formed the group and recorded an album of songs for Gael Linn. Their approach prefigured many of the later developments in Irish music and, although it was a short-lived adventure, Skara Brae's impact was quite considerable.
"During all those summers in Rannafast, Micheal and Daithi had a partnership playing everything from the Beatles to John Renbourne and Bert Jansch. And all of that immediately translated into what we were doing. I only had the clavinet a couple of weeks when we went into the Marionella Hall and, within several hours, recorded the album with just one microphone.
"We had to stop for birds twittering and jumbo jets going by! But, by the stage the album came out, Maighread had gone into nursing and the rest of us were at university. So there were just a handful of gigs and it's tragic really that we didn't get to tour."
But Skara Brae had started something and a rather longer-lived outfit was to follow. As the result of a Gael Linn publicity campaign, the notion developed of staging lunchtime music sessions in Grafton Street. It was an inspired move, and soon some of the country's most exciting young musicians were playing together and thinking seriously of turning professional.
Triona and Micheal were also meeting up with other musicians through Tony Mac Mahon's programmes on RTE and, in time, the possibilities became evident. People such as Triona, Micheal, Donal Lunny, Paddy Glackin, Peter Browne, Matt Molloy and Paddy Keenan were making an extraordinary noise indeed - and all of it was leading to the formation of The Bothy Band.
For many, The Bothy Band was a genuine revelation. No traditional group had ever played with such energy before - and few have come close to matching them since. The drive of Lunny's left hand is well acknowledged, but it's worth remembering that it was the quiet looking girl behind the keyboards who was actually blowing up the speakers - the heavy bass of Triona's clavinet giving the band that extra kick into the stratosphere. She sums up the whole experience of playing with the band in one word - "awesome!" When they finally spilt, she knew that nothing would ever be quite as good again.
"The last gig was Ballisodare in September 1979. We all kind of scattered after that. I went to the States and soon afterwards Micheal and Kevin Burke arrived out. We did a few gigs but I then went skiting across America and ended up in Tennessee and later in Chapel Hill where I met new musicians and played with them.
"The music was new to me and exciting and different, but, yes, I knew that the charge from playing with The Bothy Band was gone. There was always the hope and the possibility that the Bothy Band would rear its head again. I still haven't given up hope on that - and we might even be getting close to it happening."
In the US, Triona formed a group called Touchstone and toured for about four years. She later worked again with her brother Micheal in both Nightnoise and Relativity and spent a further 12 years on the road. What had begun as a little jaunt to the States (inspired totally by the film, The Last Waltz) had now become something more permanent with Triona based in Portland, Oregon. But then in 1996 she finally came home and, with the release of Idir an Da Sholas, she feels that she really is home for sure - and in a way which perhaps might only be articulated through song.
"I really have been thinking a lot about it and little things have been coming to me. I was thinking how one of the songs on the album, Foireann an Bhaid, has been in my mind since childhood. I remember my father singing it and my aunt Neili. And what I sing is an amalgamation of something in between those two versions and whatever else happened when the song invaded my body.
`I feel that this is what happens - the song gets inside you somehow. My father always said that you had to `put the song across' and, to do that, you had to expose yourself to the emotion that it calls up, as well as trying to put the story of the song across.
"Sometimes it's so personal that it's almost frightening. A song like Foireann an Bhaid is very heavy and I was almost in tears singing it. I felt like my father's spirit was with me at the time and I thought, well that's it Daddy, I gave it my best!"
At a time when any sort of allegedly Celtic material sells with considerable ease, it has become quite difficult for an Irish musician to sound sincere when he or she talks, about their art. Words like "tradition", "heart" and "magic" have been robbed of their meaning and nowadays tend to put already wary listeners on immediate alert. But Triona Ni Dhomhnaill, who is undoubtedly the real deal, talks with refreshing clarity about the genuinely supernatural qualities of music - and of song in particular. And this actual magical quality is something she takes very seriously indeed.
"If you think back to the person who first sang the song, and the hundreds and thousands who have sung it since in different settings, a song links you to all of the world. The spirits do linger on in a song. I believe that. It doesn't matter what language it's in, what culture you're from - it's a human link with one another. It's our way of telling each other important stories, even if it doesn't go any further than making you smart a bit or feel a little twinge of something. That a song creates an emotional reaction shows you the power it has. And that has been in our family all the way through, from we were kids."
Produced by Donal Lunny, with English translations by Moya Cannon and a cover by Janet Pierce, the CD itself is an impressive package indeed. There are new versions and new treatments - but the essence of these songs is just as it should be. At the beguiling core of it is the fact that Triona is once more singing songs with her sister Maighread. And, given her beliefs in music and the spirits that linger within it, the recording of Idir an Da Sholas was, for Triona Ni Dhomhnaill, an experience that truly lifted the heart.
"It's hard to describe, but there's an unconscious moment when you're looking at one another and you know there are thoughts and feelings there. You communicate in a way that you wouldn't with a total stranger or even with a close friend. There's just something that goes really deep and it's a joy for me. I've been missing her all these years. It's been 17 years and I only went for a holiday! Making this record is like saying, right I'm back - I'm home."