Noel Duggan, who has died aged 73, was a founding member of the band Clannad, who became famous far beyond Irish folk music circles after they wrote the theme music for Harry’s Game, a 1982 Yorkshire Television miniseries set in Belfast during the Troubles. The hymn-like quality of the song contrasted with the violence of the programme’s theme.
The song had an immediate impact, and when it was first played on BBC Radio 1 by the DJ Noel Edmonds, the station was inundated with calls, and he had to play it again. It won Clannad an Ivor Novello award as well as chart success and a television appearance on Top of the Pops: Clannad were the first band to sing in the Irish language on the show.
