Theme from Harry's Game

‘Theme from Harry’s Game’ catapulted Clannad to international superstardom, scooping an Ivor Novello Award in the process, with a Grammy and a Billboard Music Award to follow. Peaking at No.2 in Ireland and No.5 in the UK, it remains the only hit single in the UK ever to be sung entirely in the Irish language. The track featured on the pre-show playlist during U2’s War Tour and helped pave the way for a variety of future folk fusions. From the British small screen to the Hollywood silver screen, the song has continued to pack a cinematic punch, far outliving the TV series it was conceived for. It later featured in 1992’s Patriot Games starring Harrison Ford and in a US TV commercial for the Volkswagen Passat – reportedly jamming Volkswagen’s customer service line with enquiries about the song. Clannad’s reputation for composing powerful television scores was later reinforced with their BAFTA-winning soundtrack to Robin of Sherwood. But 'Theme for Harry’s Game’ remains their ultimate achievement.

The Story Behind The Song

Clannad originally hit the road in 1970. Comprising siblings Ciarán, Pól, Moya Brennan and their twin uncles Noel and the late Pádraig Duggan, they had five increasingly sophisticated albums of Irish chamber-folk, and a huge number of successful UK and European tours, under their belt by the time they were commissioned to write the music for the British ITV series, Harry’s Game, based on the novel Crossfire, by Gerald Seymour.

The band – along with their then-manager and producer Nicky Ryan – had always been rule breakers, as they weaved their own musical style out of a mix of Celtic folk, trad tunes, jazz influences and modern pop. They had also sung dozens of songs in the native tongue of the Irish-speaking part of Donegal where they grew up, including the likes of the beautifully upbeat ‘Dúlamán’ – the title track of their third album, released in 1976. The following two albums were also titled in Irish: Crann Úll (1980) meaning apple tree; and Fuaim (1982) meaning sound.

“Gaelic songs were sung unaccompanied,” Moya Brennan said in a recent interview, “So what we were doing was sacrilege. The only time you were really allowed to add instruments to singing in Gaelic way back, was the harp, and I wasn’t playing the harp like that. So, we were kind of regarded as being traitors.”

At the same time, their often meditative sound, rooted in Irish music, was regarded as too rarified for the contemporary charts. “People thought it was a bit mad that we were singing Gaelic songs,” Moya recalled. “People used to say to us, ‘Listen, you’ll not get anywhere doing that’.”

In the early 80s, the band – for a short time a six-piece, following the addition of their younger sister Enya – began to experiment more with electric pianos, horns and synthesisers. Their hard work came to fruition when the band signed to the RCA label in London, giving them a shot at making it in a different league. It was a chance they grasped with both hands.

They caught the attention of Gerald Seymour, author of the best-selling book Crossfire, which was about to be adapted for British TV as Harry’s Game. The series centred on a British spy working undercover in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. Seymour initially asked to feature Clannad’s Scots-Gaelic track ‘Mhorag’s Na Horo Gheallaidh’ from their 1982 album Fuaim as the TV theme, but they convinced him that Irish language lyrics would be more appropriate and agreed to write an original song from scratch.

The influence of Gregorian chant was an important strand in the musical mix. The lyrics laced the verse of a Connacht Irish Proverb with a chorus of ancient mouth music, conjuring the wilds of Ireland. The hymn-like song famously took just hours to write, but the sound had been years in the making.

“The Irish Gaelic lyrics,” Moya told The Guardian, “derived from a saying in a book of old Irish proverbs that our grandfather had given Ciarán: ‘Everything that is and will be, will cease to be. The moon and the stars, youth and beauty’. There’s no solution to war, just people killing each other. We were never a political band, but the sentiment that all things must pass inspired the lyrics. The chorus, ‘Fol lol the doh, fol the day, fol the doh, fol the day,’ comes from ancient Irish ‘mouth-music’. It was common in the reels and jigs world, but Ciarán thought it would be good to slow it down.”

Brennan has also compared the chorus to an aural fiddle: “Fol de liddle, taddle do, diddley idle oh.” Nonsense sounds like these are often inserted into Irish folk songs, as a free-form play or an expression of verbal dexterity.

“We wrote it in a couple of hours and thought, great, it’s a nice tune and everything,” she added, "but we didn’t realise the sound we created had developed over the six albums before, with all the experimentations we did with words and voices and harmonies.”

They had struck gold. Early signs of the unique power of the track came when the band were invited to a London screening of Harry’s Game and – while the final credits rolled – theatre-goers sat motionless, visibly moved by the music. Within weeks of the show airing, the band were performing on Top of The Pops in the UK. Indisputably, it was a historic moment.

“Appearing on TOTP singing a Gaelic song – you knew something was happening!” Moya said in a previous interview. “People are asking you, ‘What’s it like writing a hit song?’ We’re looking at them, ‘We didn’t write it as a hit song!’”

But a hit song it was. It garnered them an Ivor Novello Award. That was followed by a Grammy and a Billboard Music Award. U2 quickly started using the track as their outro music during their War Tour in 1982 and 1983. Bono later appeared on the band’s track ‘In a Lifetime’, duetting gorgeously with Moya.

The enormity of the ‘Harry’s Game’ moment was not lost on Moya, who told The Guardian. “It was unreal for a small Irish folk band from Donegal. I was the first female Irish folk singer to break abroad. People started calling me the First Lady of Celtic Music, a title I’m really proud of.”

The sound would become Clannad’s signature. The band delayed the release of their 1983 album Magical Ring to include the song, with the album reaching the UK top 40. The divide between Irish folk and mainstream pop had been bridged – laying the breadcrumbs for an entire subset of the Celtic music genre. In all, Clannad sold over 20 million albums and Moya Brennan has also enjoyed a successful solo career.

Instrumental versions of the song were recorded by Phil Coulter; by James Galway and Phil Coulter; and by the London Studio Orchestra, featuring Nicky North. It was covered by Celtic Woman; the award-winning American-Swedish folk artist – originally from Vasteras, Sweden – Deborah Henriksson; and Voces8, winners of the Limelight International Artist of the Year: People’s Choice Award 2021. It also formed the basis for the wonderfully atmospheric techno-trance classic ‘Saltwater’, recorded by Chicane, on which Moya’s vocals featured. For Moya Brennan, it was a hit second time around too, reaching No.5 in Belgium, as well as No.6 in the UK, No.14 in Ireland and No.16 in Germany. It was a No.1 hit in the dance charts in the UK and Belgium, where it went Gold. The track was also used in major ad campaigns for Tourism Ireland and by Belfast City Council.

‘Theme from Harry’s Game’ remains indisputably one of the great success stories of modern Irish music. Now sing after me: "Fol lol the doh, fol the day…"