Cork Singer Gina Reflects on Family, Music and 50 Years on Stage

Some families pass down stories and memories through old photographs, in Gina’s family, they have always been carried in song.

Music runs quietly through every chapter of her life.  Growing up in Loretto Park Gina sang in school, family gatherings, at socials and at Mass. Her father sang and the family sang together . Later she married a musician. Her son built a career in music, her daughter inherited the same beautiful voice, and today her grandchildren instinctively gather whenever the guitar comes out.

For more than fifty years audiences across Ireland have known her simply as Gina, one of the country’s most enduring performers. But the music was never really the destination, it has simply been the thread that has stitched together all the chapters of her life, family, heartbreak, resilience, joy home and of course career.

And home, despite living happily in Ballycotton for almost fifty years, still is Cork city for Gina.

“I’ve been in Ballycotton since Pat and I got married in 1976.  When I arrived here first, my dad was saying, ‘What are you doing down there?’ He didn’t want me to leave home. Even though it was only forty-five minutes away he thought it was very far.

“We built the house and the plan was that I’d give it four years because being a city girl I wasn’t sure it would work out. I said if it didn’t, I’d come back to Cork. Well, we’re still here and I absolutely love it.”

Yet when Gina speaks about going home, she isn’t talking about Ballycotton.

“Whenever I come back into the city to my family, I feel like I’m really home. We sit around reminiscing about growing up, talking about Dad, remembering Mam and all of us growing up together. We had a great time. It was just a natural, normal life and it was gorgeous.”

Her roots are firmly planted in Loretto Park, just off Friars Walk/Ballyphehane, where she attended Maria Assumpta School.

“My cousin and I used to sing at socials and little bits and pieces in the school hall and at Mass too.”  

Her carefree life changed in an instant though.

In 1970, when Gina was just seventeen, her mother died suddenly after suffering a stroke.

“It was a horrific thing. I said goodnight to Mam at ten to twelve and she was gone by ten past. She was only fifty years of age.

“We were all so young then. The youngest was only six and there were eight, ten and twelve year olds. It was devastating for the whole family and for Dad.”

There was no choice but to keep going, she says.

“My dad had to take early retirement from Shell and between all of us we worked it out. What else could we do? We just charged on.

“I almost became the mammy at home and I was quite happy to do that because we all felt safe when we were together. We all had to give a dig out and we didn’t do too bad at all.”

Even now, more than half a century later, there are memories that still catch her unexpectedly, like remembering her youngest brother Eddie.

“He had dislocated hips and every night he had to sleep with a bar between his legs to get everything back into place. Thank God he’s fine today but God love him, he was two years like that. When the plasters came off he had terrible bed sores because there was no air getting to him.

“When it came time for his First Holy Communion, Dad and I had to go and buy his clothes. We couldn’t get short trousers anywhere so we ended up having a suit made specially for him. I remember thinking mam should be doing this”

“I think Mam was looking down on us because we all played our part in the family after she died. We really were a beautiful family.”

If Gina inherited her love of music from anyone, it was her father Paddy.

“He had a lovely tenor voice and he knew how much I loved singing.”

One day he spotted an ad in the Echo. A local band was looking for a female singer.

“He said to me, ‘That would be a lovely hobby for you.’ I told him I wasn’t interested. I’d never sang with a band before and I had no intention of trying it.”

Without saying anything, Paddy replied to the advertisement himself.

“He never even told me. He was a very quiet man, but he answered it anyway. That’s how I started with the band.”

It was an act of faith from a father who saw talent in his daughter long before anyone else did.

More than fifty years later, standing in Cork City Hall as the Lord Mayor honoured her for half a century in music, Gina began thinking not about the music and the crowds she had entertained, but about the two people who were no longer here to share it with her.

“When I was honoured in City Hall for fifty years in music, it meant so much to me. My parents are gone now and if they were living they would have loved that.”

Before audiences across Ireland knew her as Gina, she was Mary Hurley from Loretto Park.

“When I met the lads in the band  first they said, ‘Mary won’t really work in a pop band, it would in a folk group or a ballad group ‘They asked me what I thought of Gina and I said, ‘That’s grand.’

“I never imagined that name would take me where it has. Most people call me Gina now, but my family and the people I grew up with still call me Mary. 

“When I met the lads first they asked me to give it three months and see if I liked it. Well, the three months came and went and I never left.”

The other singer, Gordie Mackey, also adopted a stage name and became Dale Haze. Together they fronted one of Ireland’s best-loved bands.

It was an amazing time. When you’re young, you never imagine music will become your life. To end up being part of something so special was incredible.”

That bond stretched far beyond the stage.

“My husband Pat is on lead guitar, his brother Mossy Welch is on keyboards, Eddie Fitzgerald is on bass and Tony Hornibrook is on drums. We’ve been really close from day one.”

It made the loss of Dale Haze during Covid all the more heartbreaking.

“It was horrendous when Dale passed away because we really are family. He died suddenly from a heart attack and we were devastated. Because of the restrictions we weren’t allowed attend the funeral properly. We were allowed to sing from the balcony of the church and I sang a few hymns for him.

“He sang himself out of the church and all we could do was run down the stairs and put our hands on his coffin as he was being brought out. Afterwards the band and a few close friends stood outside a garage with cups of coffee because there was nowhere else we could go. It was such a sad time.

“Dale was the joker of the band. He kept us all going. Every concert now we’ll be talking about him and reminiscing. We recorded some beautiful songs together and we miss him.”

For all the joy music brought her, there came a time when family had to come first.

“I took a break in 1993 because I have two children, Cian and Grace. After Cian I suffered with postnatal depression but I didn’t realise it then, I just kept going. After Grace it really got on top of me. I knew I couldn’t cope with the pressure of touring, performing and looking after a small boy and a baby. I got help and I stepped away from it for a while, and went back again when I could.”

Today, music continues to flow naturally through the generations.

“Our first born, Cian, lives in Berlin and he’s in the industry in a very modern way. He’s an arranger and producer and writes music for ads and other artists. He studied at the Cork School of Music.  Whenever he comes home he falls straight back in with the band and plays lead guitar with us. That’s lovely.”

Five years after Cian came Grace.

“Grace is a speech therapist and she has three children, Fiadh, Isla and Ada. It’s lovely to have the grandchildren.

“We call to see her every week and before we go we’ll often get out Grace’s guitar. One day she was feeding the baby while the other two were sitting beside her. The minute the guitar came out they came over straight away. They just love music.”

One recent performance created a memory Gina will treasure forever.

“I asked Grace if she’d sing with me in the Opera House and she said she’d love to. It was the first time we’d sung together. She has a beautiful voice and plays the piano, but life took her in another direction.”

The family all performed on stage on one occasion.

“Cian organised a charity concert in Ballycotton and sent the arrangements over to Grace. Pat and I were singing, Cian was playing guitar and Grace was on piano. The four of us were together on stage and that was very special.

“I’ve often thought I’d love the four of us to perform together again. It’s not too late yet. When families sing together there’s something very special about it.”

Ask Gina what has been the greatest achievement of a remarkable career spanning more than fifty years and the answer comes without hesitation.

“I’ve done everything I could have dreamed of in music. The lovely thing is that people are still coming to see us in concert and I still love doing what I do.

“But the highlight of my life is my family. When I look at Grace with her children I think back to when I had two small children myself and wonder where those years have gone. I’m so proud of both Cian and Grace. Thank God we’re all healthy and happy because when we’re all together nothing means as much to me as that.”

Music has given Gina a lifetime of memories, but there is one song that will always bring her back to where it all began.

“My dad had a lovely tenor voice and he used to sing Bonnie Mary of Argyle at family occasions. As he got older his voice wasn’t what it had been and whenever we’d be together he’d say a few words and then ask me to sing his song for him.

“I love travelling to see Cian in Berlin and someday I will record it there with him.” 

“That’s our family song. It reminds me of the love of our dad, who looked after us all so well after Mam died so tragically.”

Gina and the Champions are playing the Sea Church in Ballycotton, Sunday, July 19, 2026.  See:  Sea Church Events and the Gleneagle Arena Killarney on 9th and 29th August  see: gleneaglearena.ie