©All rights reserved April 2006 Interview of the Week Singer Finbar Wright is back in Ireland for his first solo tour in six years. He spoke to Maria Moynihan about success in the United States with The Irish Tenors, his struggle to leave the priesthood for music and family and how he really wanted to be a farmer.
	FINBAR Wright is slightly concerned about the threat of bird flu. Well, he wouldn't like to see any harm come to the mallard ducks that populate the pond at home. Or the hens that provide the Wright family with fresh eggs every morning. They are just some of the animals that share Finbar's farm in Cork. Not that the popular tenor has much time to engage in actual agriculture, what with a hectic schedule in the US with The Irish Tenors, an upcoming solo tour around Ireland and a new "Best of" recording due for release. "We live on a farm, but we're not farming as such," he explains in rich, rolling Cork tones. "It's funny really. I've met quite a few farmers over the years who wanted to be singers, but I'm the opposite. I'm a singer who always wanted to be a farmer. I always read The Farmers Journal and I've always had a great interest in farming. I probably don't know enough about Limousines and Belgian Blues and all the rest, but when you grow up with farming, it's kind of in your blood; a lot of my relatives and friends are farmers and we live in a farming community."
•YOUNGEST PRIEST IN THE WORLD Still, it's never too late for a change in vocation. Which is something Finbar knows only too well, having left the priesthood at the age of 30 to go on to carve out a platinum successful singing career and happy family life. Not that the music wasn't always there. The youngest of eight children, Finbar was raised on a small mixed farm in Ballinaspittle, Co Cork. His father loved Mario Lanza and sang with a tenor voice, while his mother was also musical. "My mother was a very good singer and would still sing you a song; she's 92," Finbar says. But it was the priesthood that called him - at the age of 16. Having completed his Leaving Cert, Finbar decided that his future was in the Church and was sent by the Bishop to study in Spain. He was just 22 when he was ordained: an accomplishment that had him feted as the youngest priest in the world. "They maintained at the time that I was the youngest because I think officially you're meant to be 24 to be ordained, and the Bishop can dispensate back to 23 and it has to go to Rome if you're any younger than that. I don't know if it did go to Rome. I was probably illegal," Finbar laughs. • SOCIAL CONSCIENCE "I was young doing the Leaving Cert and it was a very young age to opt for the priesthood, but I did and I was happy at that time. It was probably more a social conscience than anything else. I had this kind of ambition to help people. I suppose I liked the idea of social service. Maybe I wasn't as concentrated on the religious side of it and maybe I should have been a social worker rather than an actual priest, but that's the way it went." Finbar was still a deacon when he was chosen to read the Gospel at the mass in the Phoenix Park during Pope John Paul 11's visit to Ireland in 1979. He went on to study in Maynooth, where he was charged with looking after the liturgical music for the college as senior cantor, and met friends of the calibre of current Minister for Education Mary Hanafin and writers Pat O'Brien and John O'Donoghue. He also worked as a Spanish and Latin secondary school teacher at his old alma mater, Farranferris College in Cork, for seven years. • NOT CONVINCED Although Finbar's priesthood appeared successful on the surface, however, his heart just wasn't in it. "I just knew as time went by that it wasn't the right thing for me. You need to be fully convinced, believe me," he explains. And when his brother Hugh died from a brain tumour at just 40 years of age, he seriously began to consider leaving. "I was still in the priesthood that time, but I think what that taught me was life isn't forever and I think it motivated me to make the decision," Finbar ' says. "You only have a certain amount of time on this planet and you need to look for happiness. I mean, that's one of the things you should do is look for happiness in yourself and satisfaction; live the life that you want to live." • LET PRIESTS MARRY Another factor that drove Finbar's decision was the painful isolation of his vocation. Given the current debate on celibacy in Ireland, he believes that priests should be allowed marry. "I have always been an advocate of that and it's one of the reasons I would have left the priesthood. The loneliness of the whole thing. The whole thing of not having somebody you can share your life with and be your partner and all the different ramifications of that," Finbar says. "It's very difficult to walk inyour door at night and close in and just be on your own. Particularly because, as priest, you spend a day listening to people's problems are experiencing their difficulty in life, whether it's a suicide or a marriage break-up, domestic violence. It's very hard to carry that all on your shoulders on your own without anyone to talk to. "I think the arguments that are advanced in favour of celibacy are fairly weak at the end of the day. It started historically because of proper and financial reasons and all that, and it's never really something that had a firm basis beyond what was practical financially for the Church at the time and holding onto property or whatever. It went horribly wrong somewhere along the way." • LEAVING THE PRIESTHOOD Convinced that the priesthood wasn't right for him, Finbar left in 1987. But it wasn't a painless break to make. "Ireland was still quite traditional and it wasn't an easy task to actually leave," he says. "The Church was still regarded as very important. It was very difficult for a while with my mother and my father because they would be traditional Irish Catholics, straightforward farming people, who regarded the Church highly and were very proud of the fact that they had a son who was a priest. "It was difficult, but funnily enough in later years my mother always says that the first time she saw me with my son in my arms as a baby, she knew that I had made the right decision." At the age of 30, Finbar had to decide again what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He thought about continuing teaching and toyed with the prospect of law. But a Feis Cheoil win (he had been involved in music throughout his priesthood) and subsequent appearance on The Late Late Show directed him almost unbeknownst towards the entertainment industry. • SHOW MUST GO ON The show brought him to the attention of manager Maurice Cassidy, and soon he was working with Phil Coulter as a guest singer in his concerts. His first recording Because was well received, but the 1992 follow-up Whatever You Believe went triple platinum and became the Christmas number one that year. Finbar Wright, tenor, had arrived. He went on to release a total of six solo albums and built up a loyal following throughout the country. Highlights of those years include performing on stage in The Point with legendary Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballe and dueting with Jerry Lee Lewis on White Christmas in The Cork Opera House. When Bill and Hillary Clinton were in Ireland on a State visit, it was Finbar who was chosen to entertain in Dublin Castle. '"Twas fascinating for me because it was like a who's who of Irish society; all the previous Taoisigh were there: Charlie Haughey, Liam Cosgrave and John Bruton, who was the Taoiseach at the time," Finbar recalls. "I did about 40 minutes or so after the dinner and he was fabulous. They were such a good audience, himself and his wife Hillary. They sat there in total attention for the entire thing and at the end he was the first up. So it was great. I just got to say hello to him and it was one of those unique occasions." • THE IRISH TENORS While pursuing his solo career, Finbar was approached to take part in a new project called The Irish Tenors. However, contractual commitments meant he had to pass on the invitation. But in January 2000, the offer was renewed: one of the members of the group, John McDermott, had left to work on his solo career and there was a concert in Belfast in three weeks time. Was there any chance he could fill in? A quick crash course later in The Irish Tenors set list and Finbar took to the stage with fellow singers Anthony Kearns and Ronan Tynan. And he continues to work with the act today, although the lineup has changed since, with John McDermott returning to replace Ronan Tynan. The Irish Tenors - whose repertoire spans from traditional Irish favourites such as Danny Boy to modern classics like My Heart Will Go On - have built up an incredible fan base in the United States. After U2, they are the second most successful Irish touring act in the country and are so popular that they were even asked to perform during the coverage of former President Ronald Regan's funeral for flagship programme Good Morning America. • AMERICAN CONNECTION Finbar attributes The Irish Tenors' unbelievable success to the deep affection the Irish-American community has for its roots. "In the United States there are 40 million people who claim Irish descent of some sort, and being Irish for them is quite an emotional thing for them - much more so than the people maybe who are here," he says. "A lot of those people had the history of their parents or grandparents or great-grandparents emigrating from Ireland, very often under very difficult circumstances. A lot of them left in poverty, went to this new land and carried their culture and their music with them. And a lot of these people grew up hearing these songs being sung by their parents, grandparents or whoever. "And men, when The Irish Tenors arrived, we tried to give the music the respect it deserves in the sense that we always perform with a full orchestra, we try and do it to a high standard. And I think people appreciated that they were hearing these things given the kind of respect they felt emotionally that they should get. I suppose that's the attraction." With all the hype surrounding The Irish Tenors, there has been little spare time for Finbar to even sing a solo note. But demand from his old fans and an opportune break from touring with the act has allowed Finbar to embark on his first solo tour around Ireland in six years in April. And with Sony Records releasing a "Best of" collection, The Essential Finbar Wright, we should be hearing a lot more of him on the airwaves. Working at home will allow Finbar to spend valuable time with his wife Angela and two children Fergus (14) and Ileana (12). The couple originally met through music when Finbar was still a priest, but only got to know each other after he had left. They have been married since 1990. "She had the music lesson after mine; I used to see this beautiful blond girl coming in so I kind of knew her then but that was it," he explains. "Then when I left the priesthood, I came across her again through the music business and I think I invited her out to dinner one night. "She was in the university at the time and I asked her to get something out of the library or some trick like that, drew Mozart into it somewhere, so then I had to thank her. So I took her out for dinner and that was the first time we met formally and we've never been apart since." Apart from spending time with his family, Finbar enjoys photography and tennis and is an incessant reader. He is a keen gardener, cultivating tomatoes and courgettes in his polytunnel at home, and is now busy setting trees (he is particularly fond of the Italian alder). And he is hoping to enjoy plenty of time in his garden and home over the next few weeks, as he makes his long-overdue return to the Irish stage. "I'm looking forward to being around Ireland, I genuinely am. I'm looking forward to seeing the normal life, which is Ireland, because it's my home and my country and I know where everything is and how everything is done and that makes you totally relaxed. It's always the great sigh of relief when you arrive home to normal living; or what passes as anyway," Finbar says. "It was so busy with The Irish Tenors from day one; I really didn't get an opportunity to do anything else. "When I came home I tried to be at home, so that's why I hadn't the opportunity to do solo work over those past six years because I believe in getting your priorities right. You have to have time with your family and you have to live your life as well. ------This article is reproduced with the permission of Maria Moynihan and The Farmer's Journal------ Top | Home | Photographs | Concert Schedule | Recordings | Archives | Press Articles | Links Contributions or comments please write to the Webmaster "The Little Yellow Bus" Tenors Tour Site! © Marie L.Collins 2003. All Rights Reserved.