They have also set up their own family production company, Méav Productions, to invest in creative projects: ‘We will mostly be investing on a commercial basis, but with a few philanthropic projects’. Initial investments include the summer music festival, Beyond the Pale, in Glendalough, and CóR, a new professional choir set up by Méav’s colleague and friend, the composer Conor O’Reilly. Méav points out that ‘In other countries, choirs take great pride in singing their own music. There has been a great recent upsurge of talented Irish composers. We want to make this contemporary choral music more accessible through live performance and recordings, and by collaborating with the amateur choir network here so that they can perform it too.’ She brings a lot of experience to this, having been appointed, in recent years, the vocal director for Celtic Woman, a role which involves composing arrangements of traditional and contemporary songs. From the very start of her career, she has been insistent that groups she sings with include Irish-language songs in their repertoire: ‘There was a perception among some people in the industry that Irish-language would put people off and limit global sales but, obviously, when you look at the success of Celtic Woman, that hasn’t been the case.’ She is a native speaker herself and sent their two daughters to a Gaelscoil for their primary schooling. It was ‘a note home in the schoolbag’ as Méav describes it, concerning auditions for a new Irish-language film, that led to the next generation of creative achievement in the family. Their younger daughter, Catherine, landed the lead role in An Cailín Ciúin (2022) the most successful Irish-language film ever made, and one of the most successful Irish films in any language. A multiple award winner at festivals worldwide, the film was nominated for two BAFTAs and an Oscar. Catherine, the eponymous ‘quiet girl’, is rarely off the screen and her performance attracted rave reviews, winning her the IFTA Best Lead Actress award at the age of 12. Her parents say that she is interested in an acting career but this has to fit in around school and family life – she won’t be taking up offers to film for months on end just yet. Her older sister, Anna, is doing her Leaving Cert this year and is torn between studying art in NCAD or becoming part of the fifth generation of Clinches to go to Trinity, where she is considering studying Irish and/or English Literature. Méav is grateful to her time in Trinity for broadening her outlook and meeting so many different kinds of people. ‘And on a completely practical level, when I go in to sign a contract, it really helps that I have a law degree. I’m no expert on contract law, but even them knowing I have a law background makes a difference. And it has helped me manage my career. Too many recording artists think that managing the finance isn’t for them.’ For Tom, he believes his Drama degree has given him ‘a creative mindset’ which helps him approach business in a different way: ‘Studying drama and literature is about understanding human nature. And, if you think about it, that is what wealth management is about too. If you approach financial advice from a purely numbers perspective, you miss something vital because ultimately you are offering a service to people, which means your main job is to understand what people want and how you can help them achieve it. I know this doesn’t seem an obvious job for someone with my degree to end up in, but then Méav did law. life takes you on strange journeys.’
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