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

Mary: I don't agree with that. I think it's horrible.

Tony: And really that is awful.

Mary: And putting it into songs as well. Young kids are coming out saying these words and it just sounds horrible. I have to agree with you. It's horrible. Young lads using all these swear words. What do you need that for? If you need that to sell records. And a lot of comedians as well - I don't agree with that either. Every second word is the F word. What's that all about? You don't need it.

Tony: Getting back to your latest album, you've said already this is a thrilling departure for you. I was amazed when I heard it for the first time how classically orientated it was, you've got a full symphony orchestra. Tell me about how you came to record with a symphony orchestra.

Mary: My MD Steve Millan, he plays piano and keyboard in my band, arranges all my songs - he was friendly with this guy at home who arranges songs for a priest, called Liam Lawton. I've got two of his songs on the album, the title track and another song called 'There Is A Place' - the two songs people probably won't be as familiar with. I heard them a couple of years ago and thought they were lovely songs and wanted to record them. Steve knew Mark, who is Liam's producer, and asked him where he produced the songs because he liked his sound, his production, his orchestra. And he said, oh, I do them all in Prague with an orchestra there. So Mark gave Steve the contacts. Steve orchestrated the whole album, wrote all the parts for all the various instruments for the orchestra and we went out to Prague. He met the conductor and went through the music with him and then he met the orchestra and they ran through it about three times and in two takes they'd everything done. Amazing people to work with, just unbelievable. The sounds they can get, the music. I was sitting in the control room and there was a glass partition and you could see the conductor and he was getting so into every song. It was like it was the first time he'd heard them but obviously he'd played them with different artists because the songs I'd picked were all well known, and he would have known them all. He was just so into it. You could feel the songs just looking at him and hearing them it was magic.

Tony: Was it a greater musical challenge for you than normal to record them to your highest expectations?

Mary: I've always loved those songs and I've been singing them for years, the majority of them, and they've all different meanings. 'Amazing Grace' I first sang when I was 12 and 'Holy Night' singing in church at Christmas time. I just love singing those songs. I didn't find it hard to do it because I had wanted to do it for so long. Country songs I sing as well but I often think maybe anyone can sing a country song, they're simpler songs, the range isn't that big usually. Some of them, Garth Brooks he's got a massive range and he does different octaves and stuff but the majority are very simple and very easy to sing. Songs that are a bit more of a challenge but my voice is maybe suited to them, I didn't have any problem doing them, I loved doing them.

Tony: Singing these songs, and because of their spiritual meanings, is there a desire for you to impart something more than just the enjoyment of music to people?

Mary: I think if people hear those songs and it gives them a lift. For example, I launched this album in Ireland on 25th October 2009 in a church. I did all the songs on the album and I had a few guests. Liam Lawton was one of the guests. I had a full orchestra, an Irish orchestra. And I had a male voice choir and a girls choir, a sort of mixed choir for certain songs. We were all set up at 7.30 to start the show and I had lots of candles as well because I think candles are such a beautiful feel - candles all around the altar and around the church. But just when the show was about to start all the electricity went, which was amazing, scary. Oh, my God, what are we going to do? So eventually they got enough power just to get one spotlight working, they got a generator or something and the candles then came into their own. This church had stained glass windows - it's a modern church, kind of circular church and stained glass windows all around it and the candles were all lit and it was just the most gorgeous feeling. I was talking to a woman some time afterwards and she said to me I was at your show and I loved it. I've never heard you sing those kinds of songs before. She said she and her husband were in their 70s and when they walked home they held hands for the first time in years.

Tony: That's beautiful.

Mary: You know, if that gives someone a good feeling like that, isn't it worth doing it? And I got such a buzz doing it and it's the first time I did a whole show like that and I can't say enough good about it. That music is so uplifting and I just feel great singing it. If I felt that good and someone could get that from me it makes them feel better as well and is that not good? Especially in this day and age when people are in bad form with recession and ill health, so many people sick and if music can lift them, isn't that what it's about?