Background
Eileen Donaghy was born Mary Josephine McNally in Brackaville, Coalisland, County Tyrone.
Eileen Donaghy was born Mary Josephine McNally in Brackaville, Coalisland, County Tyrone.
Donaghy was well known for her recordings of ballads such as The Oul Lammas Fair and My Lagan Love and was known as the "First Lady of the Moy". Her family always called her "Maisie". She was the second of three children and the elder daughter of Hugh Patrick and Brigid (née Corey) McNally.
She left school at 14 and worked as a darner in Derryvale weaving factory.
Donaghy married Tyrone football player Pat Donaghy in 1956. The couple lived for a while in Coalisland, before moving to Moy.
Her big breakthrough was the 1958 Ulster Football Final at Clones, where she sang The Boys From the County Armagh to a packed stadium. She toured the world as part of the traditional folk scene in the early 1960s and was successful in Ireland, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Canada.
One of her albums, "Let"s Sing With The Irish" was issued on Fontana (Philips) Records in the United Kingdom and Epic Records in the United States simultaneously.
This album was reissued on Civil Defense by Outlet Recording Company before they went defunct in the 1990s. Pat Donaghy died in 1991. The couple had nine children.
She was a member of a variety group that performed in local halls.