FAMILY pop group The Corrs have announced dates for a tour after returning to the stage following a 10-year hiatus.
The Dundalk natives played London's Hyde Park on Sunday promoting their new album and have quickly followed it up with plans to play eight concerts next year across the UK and Ireland.
Promoters revealed lead singer Andrea, sisters Sharon and Caroline and brother Jim will kick off the revival in Birmingham on January 19 followed by shows in Cardiff, Liverpool, London and Manchester before heading to Glasgow and then home to Ireland for a show in Dublin's 3 Arena on Thursday, January 28 on and the last night in Belfast's SSE Arena on Friday, January 29.
The quartet also announced the release of album White Light - their first major release since Borrowed Heaven in 2004.
Speaking after a short set in Ronnie Scott's in London's Soho, where they played a mix of old and new tracks, Sharon said: "We never sort of decided to stop or quit as a band. We've had eight children between us in the mean time so that kind of takes up 10 years so I think we were sort of entitled to it after sort of 15 years of being on the road."
She added: "But music is part of the fabric of us. It is absolutely who we are. This is what we do, so it's not really a revelation from that point of view if you know what I mean. This is what we do so we're just doing it."
Speaking about their Hyde Park appearance, Andrea said: "I was absolutely terrified for about two weeks before it. But then once we got on and did it, it felt like we'd never been away to be honest and we'd never had a bit of time free and definitely ignited our excitement about touring again and now we're really excited about playing our new songs. So it kind of has kicked us off in a very good way."
Sharon said one of the biggest inspirations for them at Hyde Park was that their children would see The Corrs perform "for the first time ever".
She added: "It's so weird because you'd have eight children - the most important part of our lives - and they've never ever seen us perform together."
She said it was "super exciting" and described it as "intensely emotional" and a "beautiful experience" when the crowd joined in with Runaway.
"And I think for us if the children had never seen this, what a shame," she said.
Asked about how special it will be to play to a home crowd in Ireland, Sharon said: "I remember we did Lansdowne Road which is now the Aviva Stadium and that was like this mega moment for us. It was so nerve-racking and then just so utterly beautiful. And mum and dad were there too which was really, really amazing.
"We'll be looking forward to going back and playing Dublin and playing Belfast. It's a very important part of what we do.
"I have to say that the UK have completely taken us on as family and always have and so here also feels like home."
Known for their beauty as well as their music, the group was asked about how they do not look like they have aged in the last decade.
Andrea joked that they all go home at night and "put our faces in a little jar" while Sharon joked that they had been "cryogenically frozen" for the last 10 years.
Sharon added: "It's really nice and it's a beautiful compliment and thank you and it is nice to have people say that you look good.
"I think that we've always felt that if the music wasn't good you wouldn't have a clue how we looked."
Jim, the only member of the band who lives in Ireland, said they are "thrilled" with the album.
The group have sold over 30 million albums since their 1995 debut Forgiven Not Forgotten.
Tickets for the Dublin and Belfast shows go on sale on Thursday, September 24. White Light is out on November 27.
