TOMÁS Ó SÚILLEABHÁIN :TOMÁS Ó SÚILLEABHÁIN, who has died aged 92, made a lifelong contribution to Irish music as a baritone soloist, a member of the Radio Éireann Singers and as a skilled linguist.
He collaborated with and performed songs written for him by a rollcall of Ireland’s top composers during his musical height in the 1950s and 1960s. He was described as “one of the most important champions of Irish music at the time” by Alex Klein in the The Life and Music of Brian Boydell.
He gained all of his musical success while retaining his job at the department of customs and excise, where he worked until retirement.
Born in 1919 in Doneraile, Co Cork, Tomás Ó Súilleabháin moved to Dublin in 1938 to join the Civil Service. His education was both musical and linguistic, two elements he would fuse throughout his career.
He studied singing at the Royal Irish Academy and at the Municipal School of Music and also trained under choral conductor Dr Hans Waldemar Rosen and composer Brian Boydell among others.
To enable himself to sing in other languages and translate texts, he taught himself German, Italian and Spanish, and studied Russian and French. He joined Conradh na Gaeilge to improve his Irish language skills and he built up a large repertoire of Irish songs.
During what was arguably a golden age of music on Irish radio, he became well-known for his performances on Radio Éireann. His broadcasts began in 1943 with performances of mainly Irish folk songs. He was a member of several choral ensembles including the Cór Radio Éireann and Radio Éireann’s Men’s Octet.
During the 1950s and 1960s he premiered many songs which had been composed and arranged specifically for him. He appeared on the first album brought out by Gael Linn of songs in Irish, arranged and accompanied by composer Seán Ó Riada.
His talents took him beyond Ireland as he toured the USA and Canada in 1955 with a group of singers including Veronica Dunne. He also corresponded with one of the most celebrated composers of the last century, American Samuel Barber, becoming the first singer to perform his songs in Ireland.
For more than 40 years he was also a choral conductor and church musician.
Recently, he collaborated with his daughter Margaret O’Sullivan Farrell to create a new edition of Beethoven’s settings of Irish folk songs using texts by Thomas Moore and Robert Burns.
He was predeceased by his wife Nora, who died in 1994 after a nine-year illness during which he visited her in hospital every day. He is survived by his seven children, Martin, Margaret, Denis, Mary, Una, Tadhg and Carol as well as his brother David.
Tomás Ó Súilleabháin: born August 31st, 1919; died August 27th, 2012