Una Healy - Early Life

Early Life

Healy was born in Thurles, Ireland, to Anne, a nurse, and John Healy, a GP. She has a sister who is named Deirdre. Healy comes from a musical background and is the niece of country singer Declan Nerney. She is also a cousin of Irish athlete Paul Hession. At the age of 13, she gave up swimming (she was an All-Ireland champion swimmer at nine) and decided to teach herself to play using her mother's guitar and from then on began to write songs of her own.

After finishing school at 18, she decided to take a year out and became a medical secretary, and from then went on to study nursing and then primary teaching, but decided finally to go ahead and pursue her music passion at 23 years old. She began her music career playing guitar and singing in pubs and clubs around Ireland, solo and in bands. Whilst she was slowly finding success in her native Ireland as an indie solo artist, she felt she didn't have a firm direction in her career. Therefore, in the summer of 2007 she flew over to London to gain more exposure and experience and landed an audition for The Saturdays, which was her first audition for a major label and abroad.