The Coterie AKA Coterie Folk Four

• Margaret Maguire
• Kathleen Maguire
• Jacqueline McDarby
• Catherine Donnelly

Bio:

Little known but excellent melodic folk pop / light psych quartet from Drimnagh on Dublin's southside, where three of the band members lived on Mourne Road (where this author also spent his formative years!!). Comprised of Margaret Maguire, Kathleen Maguire, Jacqueline McDarby and Catherine Donnelly. Margaret and Kathleen were not related. They were managed by Agnes McDarby, sister of Jacqueline. I previously reported Kathleen Maguire's sister Nessa as a member, but this information was incorrect.

Their first performance gig was at Mourne Road church hall. This may have been under the name The Coterie Folk Four, a name they used at one point. As the Coterie Four, they're listed amont the artists at the 1967 Castlebar Song Contest. They performed there again in 1970 and 1971. The exposure at Castlebar led to a tour of the USA. Eventually they became simply The Coterie.

Their sole album was released on Emerald in 1969. It features all four girls singing in harmony accompanied by acoustic guitars with a perfect late 60s hippy feel. It's all covers apart from two trad.arr tracks, including The Beatles ("If I Fell"), Phil Ochs and Leonard Cohen. The arrangements are uniformly strong. The album was released in both mono and stereo editions.

The quartet performed an Irish language song "Tic Toc" (or "Tic-Tac-A-Toc") in the 1971 national song contest, finishing third. If a recording exists, it probably includes orchestral backing as per the rules at the time but it was never released.

Both Jacqueline and Catherine went on to be music teachers. Sadly, Margaret Maguire died unexpectedly in 1977 while undergoing routine surgery.

Catherine's brother was in another folk/ballad outfit The Liffey Folk.

side one:
Till It's Time To Go
Egypt
The Leaves That Are Green
Dawn
Gaslite Street
There But For Fortune

side two:
Scarborough Fair-Canticle
Why
If I Fell
I Know Where I'm Going
That's No Way To Say Goodbye

All covers apart from A2 and B4 which are trad arr The Coterie.
Produced by M.Allen
Arranged by J.Gunner

Help!: We need your help to complete this entry. If you can tell us more about this band then please do! We welcome any corrections, missing details, connections to other bands, where are they now, etc. We also need photos, scans, copies of releases or live or demo recordings, and any other memorabilia gathering dust in the attic. If you can help, then please get in touch.