Tallaght Choral Society was formed in 1967, when Tallaght was still a small village at the foot of the Dublin mountains. A group of singers came together under the direction of Fr. Donal Sweeney OP to form a church choir based in the Dominican Priory. Under a succession of music directors, the small church choir gradually took on the mantle of a choral society and before Covid we had a membership of over 80 and we are planning to reach these numbers again.
Tallaght Choral Society has a reputation as one of Ireland’s strongest choral societies. Our current Music Director Lynsey Callaghan was appointed in September 2015 and the members are excited to be working with Lynsey who has already established herself as one of the most successful Irish choral conductors of her generation.
Tallaght Choral Society has participated in many RTÉ productions and its successful collaborations have included works with the National Symphony Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra, Belfast Philharmonic Choir, RIAM Orchestra, Liverpool Welsh Choral Union, Edinburgh Royal Choral Union and a US choir, Bel Canto Chorus. In 2017, Tallaght Choral Society celebrated its 50thanniversary and is delighted that its founder, Fr. Donal, is still actively involved and is the current President. This anniversary was marked by a successful performance of Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ in the National Concert Hall in June, followed by a trip to Rome in October where we sang in St. Peter’s Basilica, in San Clemente and at an Evensong service in All Saints.
Over the following three years, we have performed at the National Concert Hall, the Ulster Hall, Handel Concert Hall in Halle, Germany and in more intimate venues including Whitefriars St. Church; St Jude the Apostle Church, Templeogue; and in our alma mater St Mary's Dominican Priory, Tallaght. Works performed varied from popular and traditional choral pieces such as Messiah and Orff's Carmina Burana to more modern pieces by Britten, Holst, Poulenc, Gjello, Durufle and Vaughan Williams.
We were lucky that we were able to perform the ''Glories of the Baroque'' in January 2020 before the outbreak of Covid 19. This delightful full bodied performance of Vivaldi and Handel favourites delighted the audience. The following two years kept us together through zoom rehearsals and also by organising a number of enjoyable ''Big Sings'' in which we were joined by singers from across the country.
Finally, in May 2022, we beat Covid, performed live in a ''Concert to lift the Spirit'' in The Holy Spirit church in Greenhills and were also involved in a collaboration with the Irish National Opera on an exciting bilingual virtual community opera 'As an nGnách'. We are definitely going from strength to strength
Sign up to our newsletter