Eimear Quinn is an Irish singer who won the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland in 1996 with The Voice. She will be performing in the Festival of Voice at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, in June.
How agreeable are you?
On a scale of one to 10, I’d probably be a nine. I suffer from that default of well-bred Catholic school girls, where we’re people pleasers. But I’ll hold on to one point, just to reserve the right to stand my ground when I need to.
What’s your middle name and what do you think of it?
Like virtually every other woman in the country, my middle name is Mary. So, there’s no shock there. It was after Our Lady. I took Therese, after the little flower, for my Confirmation.
Where is your favourite place in Ireland?
My own home county, where I live now. I’m from Dublin, but my home county of Monaghan, where I live, is where I feel most at peace. I think we’re just literally spoilt for choice. We live on the most breathtakingly, beautiful island. It’s just gorgeous. I love Wicklow and Glendalough. I feel very serene and peaceful there. And west Cork and Kerry, the wildness of it. It helps you abandon your neurosis and your thoughts. You can just lose yourself in the wildness of the place.
Describe yourself in three words.
Pathological optimist, fun-lover, calm.
[ Emma Doran: When I think of Tallaght, I think of Italia ‘90Opens in new window ]
When did you last get angry?
I don’t tend to anger very easily, see question number one! When I do feel anger coming up in me, genuinely I see it as a lesson. I generally try to take a beat and see why is this bugging me. Is there something I can do to change this dynamic here? I see anger as something that really only hurts the person feeling it, because usually the other person is utterly oblivious. On a global level I tend to get angry when I see the news and the injustices in the world. And the increasing lack of regard for truth, that also angers me. The disparities between the haves and have-nots have just gone so extreme. And the disparity of the balance of power, where more and more people have no stake in their own lives. Be it in Palestine or in any other war-torn country, it’s just the powerlessness of people and the increasing concentration of power in very few.
What have you lost that you would like to have back?
People who I miss, if it was at all possible. Not even back permanently, but I’d love to have the chat. That last conversation where you could ask the questions that you’re left with. There’s my mother-in-law, my brother-in-law, a really good friend musician Gavin Ralston. Things? Not really. My wallet was stolen last November, I wouldn’t mind having it back.
What’s your strongest childhood memory?
I think togetherness, really. My mother was a stay-at-home mother, while we were small. She didn’t go back to work until we were in our teens. I grew up in a housing estate in Tallaght, in Dublin. It was just growing up on the street, with all the pals, in and out of each other’s houses. It was just a real sense of community. In many ways I was probably the kid who was looking for space, for solitude at times. The artist in me was probably looking for solitude. But my memory is, and not at all in an oppressive way, one of togetherness and community. A very simple childhood. Very safe.
Where do you come in your family’s birth order, and has this defined you?
I’m second of four. My younger brother was probably seven when my baby sister was born. So, we were a family of three for a good while. I was a middle child for my formative years. I don’t know how that impacted me, one way or the other. I think the second child tends to get off quite lightly. I think the parents tend to lose the head over the rebellion of the first kid, and then by the time they come to the second they go, “oh God, could we be bothered?”. That said I was the model child. I never gave any trouble.
What do you expect to happen when you die?
Obviously we were all reared in a very Christian country, so heaven is how it’s defined for us. I don’t think I believe in heaven in a classic sense. But I do believe in a blissful happiness. I do believe in returning to a state of bliss. I believe that our life is a kind of physical manifestation of something, of a pure love, call it God. And that is the essence to which we return. I feel very confident that we all go there. It’s not a space of judgment. Everyone has the potential to live and think both good and evil thoughts. Ultimately, we all come from the same place, and we all return to the same place.
When were you happiest?
I’m delighted right now, talking to you. Every day is my happiest day. I understand that it’s a blessing to be born with that as your default marker, but I have a default compass setting of happiness. I am a happy person.
Which actor would play you in a biopic about your life?
It would have to be somebody who could have a laugh. And certainly, have a laugh at themselves. Somebody who could be quite emotional, because I’m a bit of a weeper. I do cry, and show emotion freely. And somebody who’s passionate as well. Somebody like Kate Winslet.
[ ‘I was a Billie Barry kid. I’d like to be able to do the splits again’Opens in new window ]
What’s your biggest career or personal regret?
I don’t have any. After Eurovision I was offered the opportunity to do different things in pop. It was the age of the boy band, girl band, very manufactured thing. It just didn’t resonate with me at all. I guess I could have had more commercial success had I done that kind of thing, but less authenticity towards myself. I don’t regret that, but it depends on what metric you use.
Have you any psychological quirks?
I do like to have the last word. I’m trying. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to train myself out of it, and I’m getting better.
In conversation with Jen Hogan.
