Una Healy has said motherhood always came first for her and she didn't want to be apart from her children as she explained her break away from touring.
The singer is mum to 12-year-old Aoife and Tadhg, who is nine, and she stepped back from life on the road to focus on parenting them at home in Thurles.
However, now she is ready to get back on stage more and she will join her country music star uncle Declan Nerney for some joint shows at big festivals and events next year.
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Una said: “I’d love to get back out on the road again.
“I’m so in awe of Declan, the way he’s still going. I’d love to think that one day I’ll still be on the road like him.
She told the Sunday World: “But I’ve obviously taken quite a bit of time out of my life to be at home with my children. I didn’t want to be apart from them.
"They are in their very important years and being a mammy is my number one job.
“Whenever anyone asks me, ‘What do you do?’, I always say, ‘I’m a mother’…that’s my number one, first and foremost."
Una will be able to make more time for her music career now that Aoife and Tadhg are getting older and things get easier at home.
She added: “But luckily they are getting to that age now… Aoife is 12 going on 13 and will be going into secondary school next year, and Tadhg is nine.
"They are great buddies, the two of them.
“I said to someone recently, ‘It gets easier, doesn’t it?’ They’ve got teenagers and they looked at me and said, ‘Oh, no!’ But I find it’s certainly easier as they get older.”
Una is excited to go back to her roots by performing on stage, and it will be even more special working alongside Declan once again.
She said: "I’ve been performing with him here and there, jumping up on stage doing a song or two, over the years since I was a teenager.
“That’s where I started. My mother (Declan’s sister) would go to most gigs anywhere within an hour radius of Tipperary. She’s always been there supporting him.
“And I used to open for Declan. He’d hand me the electric guitar and I’d sing a few songs, my own songs, as people were walking in. People were barely listening, but it was a great chance for me to get up on stage.”
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