Tony Cummings met up with long time Daniel O'Donnell associate, MARY DUFF

Mary: Yeh. Discos took over in Ireland. They had the flashing lights, maybe there was more money put in. The old dancehall people didn't put the money back in. They'd made loads of money from the show bands but they didn't actually put it back in the business. They took it all and kept it themselves.

Tony: Did you make any recordings during that era?

Mary: I only made one. There were eight of us in the band and most of the lads all sang as well so I just featured on one. It was a Chris Montez song called 'Let's Dance' - I can't remember what was on the B-side. It could have been an original track I think. I entered some talent competitions again and was heard by Sean Riley who was managing Daniel O'Donnell and that's how I got the break with Daniel.

Tony: Now of course Daniel was already an established star by that time.

Mary: He was just kind of making waves at that time. There were a lot of illegal radio stations in Ireland and they were playing him and he would have been well known to the older style housewives, grandmothers would listen to him. I didn't know him, my mother told me about him. She said have you heard this fella I said no so I went to see him one night and place was packed. And I thought gosh he's got something. So then I got the chance to work with him. I've never really looked back. I'm singing which is great and in between working with Daniel on his tours I tour on my own with my own five-piece band. Which is great because you can put more of yourself across when you do your own music, your own show. I do a selection of different styles, inspirational, bit of country, bit of Irish, bit of power of love songs - a mixture. So hopefully appeal to more people, but I love doing my own shows.

Tony: And you've been recording steadily for a good few years?

Mary: Over 20 years now. I don't know where the time has gone.

Tony: Do you try and do an album every year?

Mary: The last album was about two years ago; we did an album with Daniel. Then I did a country album myself - called 'Country Girl'. Now 'Voice Of An Angel'. It's kind of hard touring all the time as well as bring albums out that often. Last year Daniel took a six month break [from touring] but I toured myself, I went to Australia.

Tony: So in a strange way Daniel's breal was an opportunity for you?

Mary: Yes, I was delighted he took it! Some of his band weren't too happy but I was delighted. I was able to do my own thing. I went to Australia for two months, about three weeks to America - first time I'd done America on my own. I did Ireland for two weeks which I hadn't done for years, hadn't had the opportunity before, then I did some dates here as well. I had a great time, toured up until June then went straight into Daniel's tour - the day after I came back from Australia I joined him on tour in the UK. It was hard but life's not a bed of roses. Make hay while the sun shines. But if you enjoy it it's not hard work.

Tony: Are there lyrics where you think: I'm not going to touch that, because of the lyrics?

Mary: Some of them. I perform to an older audience and some of the words wouldn't be something they would like to hear me saying. It's funny, I remember doing a song in America one time and to me it didn't relate as it did to the people who heard it. This woman came up to me and said oh you're swearing in one of those songs. I said swearing? I don't think so. Oh yes you are. I said what song? And she said it was a song about a housewife - 'Suffering In Silence' was the name of the song. It's about a battered housewife and one of the phrases was about sons of bitches. To me that's not swearing, it's a term. I said I'm sorry if you take it that way but it's not meant that way and it wouldn't have been written that way.

Tony: That's as far as I would want to take it. To me that's reasonable. But we're living in a pop rock culture where people are using the F word every few minutes and...