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There tends to be a special bond between sisters, one that dances the fine line separating unbreakable friendship and the urge to physically hurt each other. This is true even more so in the case of the O’Neill Sisters from Kerry, a singing trio who both live and work together.
Fiona, Naomi and Eve – known professionally as the O’Neill Sisters – have collectively travelled the world as part of Celtic music tours, had a viral hit and, most recently, sung at the Papal Mass in the Phoenix Park. They are also featured on the popular new album An Irish Welcome: Pope Francis, Ireland 2018 alongside artists such as Donna Taggart, Robert Mizzell and Lisa Lamb.
Sitting down to chat with Irish Country Living, it is clear the girls are extremely close, constantly finishing each other’s sentences, but at the end of the day they are like most sets of sisters out there.
“It could blow up out of nowhere,” says Eve, the youngest, “and two minutes later we are linking arms out the door.”
Naomi, the middle sibling, chimes in that, as they got older, they became better at resolving issues quickly. They had to, because singing comes first. However, that doesn’t mean things don’t get heated from time to time – especially while on tour, laughs Eve.
“Fiona and I had a huge fight in the dressing room over a fake tan mitt, whose tan mitt was whose. Literally it was serious. Anyways, we never reconciled before going on stage. At the opening of the show I would walk from one side, Fiona would walk from the other and we would smile at each other.
“Literally, we walked out and the audience was right there. You can’t exactly be scowling, so the two of us just had to beam at each other. You could see that both of us, in our heads, were like, ‘I hate you,’” jokes Eve.
American influence
The girls grew up in the village of Causeway, Co Kerry, but have strong American roots. Their mother was raised in California, and Fiona, the eldest of the sisters, lived Stateside until she was four, before moving to Kerry.
Naomi and Eve were both born in the Kingdom, but all the girls have a hint of an American twang as a result of their mother’s influence and moving to America for a number of years in their late teens/early 20s.
Their mother had an effect on more than just their accents, however. She was once in a very similar situation to where the girls are now, explains Naomi. “Mom, she had two sisters as well, and they sang together: Irish folk songs, American folk songs and church songs.
“They grew up in California, so they would sing all around the folk masses. In the 1970s that was the thing to do. I guess from the moment we could walk she threw us up on stage. We were doing drama, playing instruments and Irish dancing.”
The girls joke that their mother would be the fourth sister in the group if they would let her, and whenever they are practising at home there is always an extra, even louder harmony coming from the kitchen.
Obviously, the trio’s mother played a huge role in inspiring their success, but Eve adds that there was another catalyst: Causeway must be one of the only villages in Ireland that has a recording studio.
“There is a producer in our local village,” remarks Eve, “which is very unusual. He actually has a recording studio. I was six the first day he called to the house – he had worked years ago with mom and her two sisters. He wanted us to record, take pictures and develop everything – randomly out of nowhere. That is kind of what spurred on our whole career.”
Doctors or popstars
Things are going great for the O’Neill Sisters at the moment. They have always had an international following, but it took their cover of Red is the Rose going viral in April to get a larger foothold in Ireland.
They are very much enjoying the journey, but not all of the sisters were dead set on a career in the entertainment industry, except Naomi, who is currently writing a children’s book and says if she wasn’t a singer, she would be an actor or a writer.
Nursing, like her mother, very much took Eve’s fancy for a while and is not something she would rule out completely in the future. At one stage, Fiona also had other plans. “I was good at school, so I toyed with the idea of being a doctor, because I did well at science and all that kind of stuff.
“But then I went into transition year and my friend said to me: ‘Fiona, you’re a popstar, you’re a singer, you need to be a performer.’ So I was like: ‘You know what? You’re right. Forget this doctor business.’”
And, good thing she did forego medicine, as the three sisters complement each other very well, having sung for so long together, they almost have an innate feel for each other’s voices.
“It’s funny,” smiles Eve, “when we are singing harmonies, all of us will go louder at one part and softer at another. Even if we’ve not practised it. We don’t discuss doing that, we just somehow do it. Maybe it’s years of singing together.”
The O’Neill Sisters can be heard at Killarney Racecourse every Saturday night until the end of September and will also play the Family Christmas Show at the INEC Killarney on 13 December.
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