Photo: Colin Bell Photography
Drogheda based composer and pianist Michael Holohan is marking a milestone year as he celebrates his 70th birthday.
A well known figure in the town’s cultural life for over four decades, Holohan has made a lasting contribution to music in Drogheda, with many of his most notable works created and performed locally.
His work has been heard not just across Ireland but internationally, with compositions performed by leading musicians and broadcast on RTÉ and beyond. From major local events to national commemorations, his music has helped shape some of Drogheda’s most memorable cultural moments.
The composer and pianist Michael Holohan has resided in Drogheda since 1983. He has won numerous prizes as well as Arts Council awards. His compositions have been performed and broadcast both at home and internationally. Career highlights in Drogheda include Cromwell 1994 for the ‘Drogheda 800’ (RTE Concert Orchestra, Lourdes Church); The Mass of Fire in 1995, for the ‘Augustinian 700’ (RTÉ TV live broadcast).
The No Sanctuary concert in 1997 with Nobel Laureate and poet Seamus Heaney (Augustinian Church); Remembrance Sunday and The Drogheda Unification ‘600’ (RTE TV live broadcast) from St Peter’s Church of Ireland, in November 2012; In 2016 Gallipoli, The GPO and Flanders in The National Concert Hall and The Droichead Arts Centre for the centenary of 1916 ; The Hills are Crying Francis Ledwidge song cycle for the poet’s centenary in The National Gallery Dublin and Slane, Co.Meath 2017.
His other major concerts have featured the renowned uilleann piper and TG4 Gradam Ceol winner Mick O’Brien, The Con Tempo String Quartet, and The Boyne Valley Chamber Orchestra at Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in 2018 ( The Road to Lough Swilly ) and in 2019 (The Airs of Old Drogheda).
In 1999 he was elected to Aosdána, Ireland’s state-sponsored academy of creative artists, and served for a period as chair of the Toscaireacht,
Aosdána’s governing body. He received a Drogheda Civic Award from the late Mayor Oliver Tully in 2017.
He has released two CDs: Fields of Blue and White, compositions for piano recorded by the Irish pianist Thérese Fahy, and The Road to Lough Swilly with Mick O’Brien, uilleann pipes, The Con Tempo String Quartet, and The Boyne Valley Chamber Orchestra.
In November 2025 RTE/Kairos TV broadcast live from St Peter’s Church, West St, his Mass of the Bells for soloists, female chorus and orchestra. This new work was composed in honour of St Oliver Plunkett’s and Mother Mary Martin’s 400th and 50th anniversaries.
So far, the mass has attracted over 100,000 viewers. During the past year his music has been performed in Ireland, Latvia, France and the Netherlands. He is currently working on a piano cycle, Walking with Hamilton, and a new orchestral CD The Songs and Dances of Old Drogheda 1650-1900. He hopes to present a number of 70th birthday celebration concerts in Drogheda and Dublin later in the year.
