Daniel and Majella at Christmas

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Daniel O'Donnell

"He's telling me that I'm saying too much", says the voice on the other end of the line. "He's always telling me that." With that, Majella O'Donnell shushes her husband, Daniel. The couple are in Branson, Missouri, where the country and Irish crooner has performed every November since 1997. It is mid-morning and both are in rare form. Occasionally, Daniel O'D attempts to rein in his wife's conversation. He might as well try and stop a runaway train. "We're like chalk and cheese", says Majella, with a bright laugh. "That in a way is why we get on well."

They sure do. Ever since they married in Kincasslagh in 2002, a fairytale wedding that broke a million hearts, Daniel O'Donnell and his wife have been a surprising package. No one, perhaps not even the Donegal singer himself, could have imagined the 42-year-old bachelor tying the knot with a divorced mother of two. But then O'Donnell can prove a surprising package - just ask veteran feminist Germaine Greer who got put in her box by the Donegal man during an RTÉ chat show in 2006 ("I wouldn't stand back and be trampled on").

And that wedding on November 4, 2002, transformed the singer's life. "It has made a world of difference to me to have somebody there all the time", he says. "Prior to meeting Majella, I didn't have that in my life at all. It's just a fulfilment that I wouldn't have thought possible. I wouldn't say that I was not happy or anything, but having somebody to share my life and success is tremendous."

This month, to mark that success and celebrate 30 years in the business, as well as his 50th birthday on December 12, TV will be wall-to-wall O'Donnell. The singer will be the subject of a documentary on RTÉ (Daniel at 50), he will be singing seasonal hymns on Christmas Eve (also RTÉ) as well as hosting TG4's Ceol Daniel, appearing on TV3's Midweek and getting a special tribute on The Late Late Show.

"I don't know what 50 feels like so I don't know whether I feel 50 or not", he says of his imminent birthday. "But the thing is that my father died so young, two or so months before his 50th. So that's significant - outliving your father. Of course it's a milestone turning 50 but I wouldn't want yesterday back. I'm not one who tries to look back at all."

But we must. So he runs through a whistle-stop tour of the past three decades: Donegal Person of the Year in 1989 ("the greatest honour"), his appearance on Top of the Pops (1992), surprised by the big red book on This is Your Life (2000), receiving an honorary MBE in 2002 and how "every year since 1998 we have had an album in the UK charts".

His latest album, The Ultimate Collection, tracks a career - whatever you think of O'Donnell's music - that makes him one of the hardest-working performers in Irish showbiz. I've seen this man first-hand, meeting his fans before a show in Newcastle, County Down, waltzing though an epic set and then hanging about afterwards to press the flesh. It was close to midnight before he left the building. By then, every chipper in town had run out of burgers and I went to bed with an empty stomach, but a fuller appreciation of O'Donnell.

In recent times, Majella O'Donnell's star has also shone. She has released two country music albums and was sprung from the bench for RTÉ's Celebrity Bainisteoir to replace Dana Rosemary Scallon. But it was a compelling portrait on RTÉ One's Would You Believe? in which the 51-year-old spoke about living with depression and her life with O'Donnell, that offered a rare insight into not just her life but her husband's.

An impressive woman in thought and deed, the Tipperary woman has been a boon to O'Donnell, recasting his public image in a different light. "Ah Daniel has a great sense of humour", she says, recounting a story of how one night in Tenerife, O'Donnell sawed up a tree trunk and threw it into the back of his car to feed their stove at home. When the police stopped him at 3 o'clock in the morning, the singer had some explaining to do - and in Spanish. "I couldn't be with someone who's boring", she says. "Now I'm sure that a lot of people think that Daniel is boring but he's definitely not that. We are very different. Our music taste is very different (before she met O'Donnell she'd never listened to his music). I love food and wine and Daniel doesn't drink at all and doesn't really care for food. But that doesn't seem to matter."

In the WYB documentary, O'Donnell said that she was 'thankful' for her life - even with all its ups and downs. "Absolutely", she says. "I'm very thankful that I didn't spend my life blaming situations or blaming my ex-husband or whoever. I now know that we all do our best in life and I'm a much happier person for it. And I'm so lucky being with Daniel because he's such a good person. I know that people say that he comes across as a 'goody-goody two-shoes' but he is and what's wrong with that? He's a really good person: far better than I could ever be." There is a rumbling from the far side of the room. "He's giving out to me for saying that!" she says. "But he's very unique. I do believe that Daniel has his place in heaven already. He lets me be who I am."

Majella O'Donnell concedes her life has taken an unexpected path. "When I first met Daniel, my perception was that he was a goody two-shoes and there was no way he's going to go out with a divorced woman with two children", she says. "So it never occurred to me that anything romantic would come of it. Now there are still days when I sit down and think: 'Mother of God almighty, am I actually married to Daniel O'Donnell?' If you had said it before we met I'd have laughed at you. Daniel O'Donnell? He doesn't drink. He wears funny jumpers. No sense of humour. And all the rest of the stuff that people say. So it's an extremely unusual path that my life has taken. But I believe in fate."

One month after they first met - and at their second ever meeting - Majella told Daniel about a curious feeling that she had. "Something said to me that I was going to marry this man. It wasn't that I was going to set out a plan to marry him or anything like that. It was almost like a premonition. I said it to Daniel - something that I would never say in a million years to a man that I had just met. He did tell me years later that he thought then that this woman is off her head."

About a year into the relationship they did split up. "Daniel finished with me and I was very upset", she says. "We still met but as friends and then he said this is ridiculous: that he enjoyed my company, missed me when we were apart and that whatever we have to do, we should do it together."

For the first time since they married, they will spend Christmas apart: Majella with her parents in Tenerife, Daniel with his mother, Julia, in Kincasslagh. He will then fly out to Los Cristianos, where the couple own a home in the hills overlooking the town, and ring in the New Year. And 2012 will be different, not least because O'Donnell plans to cut back on his touring schedule. He recalls his first ever show, supporting his sister Margo in Thurles in January 1981. "I was nervous then but you're always a bit nervous, even now", he says. "But that keeps you on your toes."

I suspect Majella does as well.

Daniel O'Donnell: The Ultimate Collection and the DVD Live From Nashville: Part One are released by Rosette Records

Donal O'Donoghue