Leo Brennan no relation Pádraigín
Early life
Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin was born in the Dore area of Gweedore on 17 May 1961, the sixth of nine children born to Catholic parents who were part of the Brennan family of musicians. Her father, Leo Brennan, was the leader of an Irish showband called the Slieve Foy Band and ran Leo's Tavern in Meenaleck. Her mother, Máire (née Duggan), had distant Spanish roots with ancestors who settled on Tory Island, and was an amateur musician who played in the Slieve Foy Band. She also taught music at Gweedore Community School. Enya grew up in Gweedore, a region where Irish is the primary language. Her name is anglicised as Enya Patricia Brennan, with "Enya" being the phonetic spelling of how "Eithne" is pronounced in her native Ulster dialect. "Ní Bhraonáin" translates to "daughter of Brennan".Enya's maternal grandfather, Aodh, was the headmaster of the primary school in Dore where her grandmother was a teacher. Aodh was also the founder of the Gweedore Theatre company. Enya described her upbringing as "very quiet and happy". At age three, she took part in her first singing competition at the annual Feis Ceoil music festival. She took part in pantomimes at Gweedore Theatre and sang with her siblings in her mother's choir at St. Mary's church in Derrybeg. She learned English in primary school and began piano lessons at age four. She later said, "I had to do school work and then travel to a neighboring town for piano lessons, and then more school work. I remember my brothers and sisters playing outside and I would be inside playing the piano, this one big book of scales, practising them over and over." From the age of 11, Enya attended a convent boarding school in Milford run by the Sisters of Loreto, and her education there was paid for by her grandfather. The boarding school was where Enya developed a taste for classical music, art, Latin, and watercolor painting. She said, "It was devastating to be torn away from such a large family but it was good for my music." Enya left the school at age 17 and studied classical music in college for one year, intending to become a piano teacher because she "never thought of [herself] composing or being on stage".
no relation