After several sell-out tours across the UK and Ireland and with a huge following in the USA’s mid-west, Donna Taggart is currently gaining a reputation as one of Ireland’s top live female performers.
In line with Scariff Harbour Festival’s commitment to including acts from Northern Ireland in its programme of events, this year sees the Omagh woman sing at the popular Church concert on Thursday August 3rd
‘We are delighted to have the Church event back on the Festival programme,’ said Mike Rodgers, Chair of the Festival Committee. ‘Because we were unable to organise the festival and Church concert during Covid, we are especially pleased that Donna Taggart is joining us from Co. Tyrone and we welcome her for the first time to east Clare, he said.
Prior to her fame as a singer, in the style of Eva Cassidy, Alison Krauss and Sinéad O’Connor, Donna Taggart worked in child services, refuge co-ordination and as a youth worker for young people at risk of homelessness, before becoming a behavioural therapist to children with autism. The challenges she experienced working in these fields have had a huge influence both on her song-writing and her singing interpretation.
Her debut album Celtic Lady was quickly noticed by BBC Radio Ulster’s, the late Gerry Anderson and wider acclaim came with the release of her hit song Jealous of the Angels, taken from her second full length album, Celtic Lady (Volume 2). She first heard the opening bars of the song in a shop in Omagh in 2014, little knowing that her version of this song would go on to give her huge American recognition.
Jealous of the Angels was written by the Canadian singer song-writer Jenn Bostic after the tragic death of her father. The song holds a special resonance for Donna and her husband, Colm, who lost their second baby in August 2014. Their child was due to be born in December but when Donna went for a scan, she was given the devastating news that there was no heartbeat.
Although she was a member of the local school choir, Donna didn’t really start singing until she was 22. She has been influenced and supported by Phil Coulter, who also performed at the Church in Scariff in the early years of the festival. She toured with him and also recorded a special version of his iconic song The Town I Loved so Well.
She sang to an audience of 35,000 police officers in Washington DC at the National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service, honouring in particular 230 police officers, 70 of whom it is claimed died from cancer related deaths due to exposure to toxins in the 9/11 attack.