Moya Brennan, the founding member, lead singer and harpist with the Irish folk band Clannad, died on April 13, 2026, at age 73.
In 1993, the vehicle for Clannad’s huge exposure in the US was literally that—an automobile. “Harry’s Game,” a 10-year-old piece by the Irish folk group, was originally written for a British TV documentary on the conflict in Northern Ireland. The song was included in the soundtrack for the 1992 film Patriot Games. Someone at an ad agency saw the espionage thriller and decided that Clannad’s moody Celtic new-age tune (sung in Gaelic) would work in a major television advertising campaign for Volkswagen’s top-of-the-line Passat.
When the commercials started airing, thousands of people called the 800 number that appeared in the ad—not to inquire about where to test-drive the Passat but how they could buy the ethereal music. The spot soon provided Clannad with a credit at the end, like in an MTV video. The band and its record company got a lot of mileage out of the VW connection, as the US edition of the parent album Anam sold more than 250,000 copies.
Clannad’s captivating sound blended elements of traditional Irish and contemporary pop music, and the band had scored a few hits in Europe (including 1986’s “In a Lifetime,” a duet with U2’s Bono also included on Anam). But Clannad didn’t expect so much to happen with “Harry’s Game,” which catapulted the band to international stardom. The boon rewarded years of hard work. The tight-knit family from County Donegal included lead singer Moya Brennan (then known as Máire), her brother Ciarán, and their twin uncles, Noel and Pádraig Duggan. Her sister Enya, whose Shepherd Moons was the No. 1 new-age album, had sung with the band prior to the recording of “Harry’s Game.”
“It was straight out of school into Clannad—just playing cover versions in my father’s pub, relieving him during our summer holidays,” Máire explained prior to a concert at the Boulder Theater. “We started exploring old Gaelic sounds in the late Seventies. It was great fun, heading to Europe and doing a lot of folk festivals and tours. But it felt like we were only doing it for ourselves. It was only when we were asked to write ‘Harry’s Game’ that we actually got a record deal.”
Moya Brennan later pursued a successful solo career, collaborating and recording with an impressive number of performers across the musical spectrum.
