Mary Coughlan

Irish torch singer Mary Coughlan was born in Galway in 1956; after enduring a painful adolescence that included bouts with drugs and alcohol as well as a stay in a mental hospital, she relocated to London at the age of 19, living in a hippie squat. After several lean years of waitressing and sweeping streets, Coughlan returned to Ireland in 1974, where a chance encounter with Dutch musician Erik Visser helped point her towards a singing career; specializing in jazz and blues, she began slowly earning a reputation on the pub circuit, which resulted in a handful of television ap...