THE SKY is the limit for West Cork country music star Effie Neill, whose journey in entertainment was featured last month on national television

The Ardgroom native spoke to The Southern Star to discuss all things music, performing and her recent appearance on RTÉ’s Nationwide.

Although just 23 years old, Effie has been performing music for over a decade.

At 14 years of age, she played in local bars around West Cork and Kerry.

Effie’s love for music is hereditary: ‘My mom would have played at funerals and weddings and things like that,’ she said. ‘And then my grandmother, she taught me my first song, You are my Sunshine.’

The week-long Nationwide series focused on the Irish country music scene with Effie featuring in the first episode where she was highlighted as one of country’s up and coming stars.  Programme host Colm Flynn visited the singer at her family home in Ardgroom on the Beara Peninsula.

Effie credits Hugh O’Brien, host of Europe’s longest-running country music TV show Hot Country TV, as helping set up her Nationwide feature.

‘He’s been doing a lot of work lately with RTÉ behind the scenes, and he put my name forward for Colm Flynn, and then that’s how that happened!’

The show was filmed both at her family home in Ardgroom, where Colm chatted to her parents Declan and Catherine O’Neill, and at the Kenmare Mart, where Effie worked before she began to pursue music full time.

Prior to the filming Effie said she was ‘on edge’, but the host made her feel more comfortable in front of the cameras: ‘Colm was very good and he would make you feel relaxed. He was good craic too, good fun.’

The show has opened Effie up to a wider audience, and she said the reception afterwards has been amazing.

In a show in Carrick-On-Shannon after the episode aired, Effie introduced her latest single, Living My Dream, which was written by her manager Barry Doyle about her journey to music.

‘It basically tells my story…where I come from and what I was doing before I was singing full time,’ Effie said.

‘I asked the audience, ‘Does anybody know what I was doing before I was singing full time?’ and nearly the whole place erupted saying ‘You worked at the mart!’

‘They obviously all were watching Nationwide, as you could imagine, so there has been a great, great reaction to it.’

Effie could play up to six shows a week across the country, so naturally her job involves a lot of long car journeys between venues.

‘I love the road,’ Effie said. “The band I play with, they’re nice to be around and it makes a difference. My parents help out as well, they travel a lot with me.’

Effie is no stranger to accolades.

In 2024, she made it to the final of TG4’s Glór Tíre, and at Hot Country TV Awards in March, she took home the Country Music Excellence Prize.

The country music singer says she has learned a lot from these experiences, especially from all the people she has encountered along the way: ‘I’m a people person myself, so I like chatting to people and I like being with people, so I suppose that helps as well.’

Looking to the future, Effie said she would like to perform at more festivals and concerts, while continuing to release original music.

For Effie, folk music is ‘her first love’, she would love to incorporate more folk songs into her repertoire.

Her album, Living My Dream, is due to be released soon. The album features a duet with well-known artist Derek Ryan, someone Effie has looked up to for years.

‘To be on the same stage as the likes of Philomena [Begley] and Derek Ryan, they’re people that I’ve looked up to down through the years and it’s great to be performing next to them.’