ritish tabloids are - surprise, surprise - wrong again.
There isn't, and never has been or will be, a rivalry between Clannad lead singer Maire Brennan and younger sister, Enya, or their other siblings.
For proof, all they need to do is show up during the holidays at their parents' home in Gweedore Donegal, Ireland.
"The tabloids here, they're awful," Brennan said recently from her Dublin home. "They say that since Enya used to sing with Clannad and now that she's left and made it big, that we're jealous and all this.
"All I would say to them is come over around Christmas and watch the five of us sisters sing at my father's pub and tell me that again."
If anything, Brennan says, she can't enough of Enya.
"She's mad about my two little ones and so good to them," she says. "We're constantly wanting to be together, but we're all so busy. My sisters are my best friends ... that's the only way I can explain it."
The eldest of nine, Brennan says they grew up in a perfect environment, filled with love, music and laughter.
"We come from the country, where there was loads of space," she says. "You didn't have to fight for anything ... You were always chasing the other person to see what they were up to. You wanted to share in everything they were doing, more than wanting your own patch."
No doubt, as Brennan and her siblings are proud of Enya's international success, they are equally impressed with Brennan's new solo album, "Misty Eyed Adventures" (Atlantic), produced by Calum Malcolm (of The Blue Nile) and Donal Lunny.
"Misty Eyed Adventures," featuring a lilting version of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi," is a more mature and confident step up from her '92 debut "Maire."
"The only reason I've been doing albums on my own, after 20-odd years with Clannad," Brennan says, "is that I wanted a change as good as the rest of them. It wasn't that I was getting bored or anything, but at the same time it was very easy-going and laid back."
Her entrancing voice has been in demand ever since the acclaimed Irish group Clannad saw long-overdue acceptance in the U.S. market in 1992 with the decade-old track "Harry's Game," featured in a Volkswagen commercial and later in the "Patriot Games" soundtrack. In the past year, she has performed on Joe Jackson's "Night Music" and Robert Plant's "Fate of Nations" LPs.
"I never, in my wildest dreams, when I started singing did I think I'd be doing this and being busier now and getting to know more people," Brennan says. "Just to be asked is such a thrill. You can't buy those things."