A half-century into giving the Celtic genre a global voice, Clannad is bidding goodbye, but not before the April 3 release of an extensive anthology, “In A Lifetime,” and one last round on the road.

Named after the group’s landmark collaboration with Bono, the box set, double disc, single streamlined installment and digital editions ensure listeners of any interest level have just the right amount of material from siblings Moya, Ciarán and Pól Brennan, their uncles Noel and Pádraig Duggan (who passed away in 2016), plus the early 1980s addition of youngest sister Enya Brennan prior to spreading her solo wings.

On the phone from his home in Ireland, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Pól gave Chicago Concert Reviews an overview of Clannad’s evolution, the process of assembling such a comprehensive project, other key collaborations and coming to America.

How did you go about compiling the selections for “In A Lifetime?”

Pól Brennan: We started working on it early last year. It was just a process of elimination really. I can’t remember ever sitting down and listening to all our albums. What I did was listen in chronological order and the obvious tracks stood out. Everyone did it their own way [and afterwards], we got to a critical sort of 65-70 tracks and then we shared those. We came back again and whittled them back down. It was a really interesting exercise to go through the different albums when we started in 1972 to the last one we recorded in 2013.

What was the biggest realization you learned about the band during that process?

Brennan: We [started as] a college band. We worked in the summer, did shows and tried to do anything we could. That [first] record [came] because we entered a competition in 1970 and won [the chance to] make an album on Phillips [released in 1973]. That sort of started the whole ball rolling for us. We were experimental and you could see that from very early on. The next album we did was in 1975 with an independent company in Ireland. From the first album to the second album, you could see Moya finding her voice, [the group] getting more assured in our arrangements and our choice of material, [plus] the rich vein of music that we had surrounding us. We were all sort of classically trained and we had access to a lot of different influences, from classical to jazz, and obviously as young teenagers, we were listening to all the pop music of the day. You could see that it was having an effect on how we progressed as musicians and then we had Nicky Ryan join us and produce the third album. That felt like the first real intentional [project] where we went professional and you could see it also in how we approached the music and how [much] more proficient we were as musicians.

The project is named after your duet with Bono, which really broke the band in America. Tell us a bit about that classic collaboration.

Brennan: Well that was amazing. We had toured in the States before that song broke. I remember traveling. We did an interview with “Rolling Stone” that had a huge influence on our shows…That was back in the late ‘70s. I suppose when we were wrote “Theme From Harry’s Game,” that’s the link really to “In A Lifetime.” We wrote that piece of music to a TV film and that opened all sorts of doors because we got signed by a major label and it was also the track that U2 opened some of their shows in the States with around the early ‘80s. When Bono heard it, he was profoundly moved by the piece of music. We were in a place of mutual respect. [Around] ‘84/‘85, it was all about timing then. He happened to be in Dublin, we were recording between Switzerland and Dublin, and low and behold, the whole track just took off.

Were you surprised or specifically striving to cross over to the American pop charts, not only with that song, but on so many occasions thereafter?

Brennan: I don’t think we were specifically targeting anything. Everything that happened to us was very much an opportunity that presented itself. We didn’t know what this meant really on a global, certainly on an American scale, and it was only afterwards that we realized the influence. But again, the first thing we wanted to do was make a great song and it was brilliant working with him in the studio. We became very close friends and hung out many times after that and during that whole period, even in the States when we were both on tour or doing different projects. I mean, we didn’t know, but I think when the song was recorded, we knew it was quite a special song. Obviously with his involvement as well, we knew it would have a huge bearing on our futures too.

Out of all the other artists you’ve worked with, who have been your favorites and why?

Brennan: Bono was probably the first of them. We [also] worked with Bruce Hornsby [on “Something To Believe In”] and he was very generous and amazing to work with. We were huge fans of his music as well, coming from the folk/country music place that he came from and it was brilliant to work with him. In the UK, we recorded a song with Paul Young [“Both Sides Now”], which was interesting. It was for a film project [“Switch”].

My own personal one I’m very proud of [came] during the “Sirius” album. We reached out to Steve Perry [through] the producer we were working with. Hanging with Steve Perry for the time that we did and having him sing in Gaelic on [“White Fool”] was huge! I don’t think he’s ever sung on any other album with any other artist. I think that we stand out as one. He and I connected because he’s got Portuguese ancestry and we were toying with all sorts of lyrical content and he then turned around and said he wanted to sing in Gaelic. So I phonetically taught Steve Perry how to sing on our album in Gaelic! That’s a huge one, you know?

How was it to watch Enya have so much success in parallel with Clannad and can you share what you remember most about her early contributions to the group?

Brennan: Absolutely! We’re very proud of what Enya’s done. She joined the band with two albums: “Crann Úll” and “Fuaim.” She was there for about three years and she was literally out of college. She was 18 and an accomplished keyboard player and we just took her on the road with us. It was interesting because she always had an amazing, incredible voice. When we parted with our manager Nicky Ryan at that point, in early ‘82, she stayed with him and [his wife, poet and lyricist] Roma [Ryan] and they forged an amazing story. I mean, it was extraordinary what we started hearing coming from her. But we were flying with “Harry’s Game” and “Robin (The Hooded Man)” and stuff like that at that stage and we weren’t at all surprised when we heard she started with “Orinoco Flow,” which was huge, and we’re so proud of her.

We’re slated to see the “In A Lifetime: 50th Anniversary Farewell” Tour later this year. How would you describe what’s in store?

Brennan: We’ve already brought some of it onto the stage and we didn’t know how it would be because we had to cut down the amount of material we would use live. We made a conscious decision not to have any support acts and to do it in two halves so that we would get as much music and try and tell the story. It’s worked out really well because it begins with us four original members and develops into all the songs that we did and all the albums. We’re really happy with the way it is going. We’re on hold at the moment, but it was working great. We were getting great feedback and two standing ovations [encores] every night, so we want to continue that when we get over there, hopefully in September. Hopefully September 15 [is still] going to be our date in Chicago…In the late ‘80s, it was just bananas. At that stage we were selling millions of albums. We had very big audiences there, both American and Irish, so I hope it will be the same.

What made the group decide this will be its farewell season?

Brennan: When I came back in 2012 and we made an album, during that discussion we had talked about it maybe being time we do a final tour. It was put to one side because we had a great world tour that we undertook, but very quickly after that, we lost a former member and we sort of didn’t do anything until early last year. We did a couple unplugged shows in Germany and we had a discussion after and said “you know what, it would be good to finish on a high instead of just keeping going and going.” We just reached out to BMG and Live Nation and that really confirmed it very quickly that it would be the right move for us…Everyone keeps saying “but if you do this and it’s successful, you’ll come back.” We’re saying to everybody, “we won’t tour again after this.” We will not tour. We may do a charity show, a one-off, this or that, or a different project, because we all have our own different projects that we did, but as a band, we will never tour again after this. This is the final, final time.

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Clannad performs at the Irish American Heritage Center on Sept. 15. For additional details, visit Clannad.ie and LiveNation.com.