CATHAL O'CALLAGHAN (1905-82)

Professor of Music and Chant 1951-67

Born Charles Hugh O'Callaghan in 1905 in Rathmullan, Co. Donegal, he was the second child and second son in the family of three boys and three girls of Patrick O'Callaghan, a prominent businessman in the town, and his wife Elizabeth. He was educated at St. Eunan's College, Letterkenny and at Maynooth, where he graduated in English Language and Literature in 1925 and was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Raphoe in 1929. For the next decade he served on the English mission in the Archdiocese of Southwark, being engaged principally in pastoral work in the early years, but with an abiding interest and involvement in music, which led to his appointment in 1934 as organist and choirmaster at Southwark Cathedral. He was also involved in secular music circles in London, both as instructor and student. In 1938 he was recalled to his native diocese, where he was appointed to the English teaching staff of St. Eunan's, also taking responsibility for instruction of the students in music and forming a notable boys' choir in the county capital. In 1951 he was appointed to the chair of Music and Chant at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, succeeding Fr. Tracy who had been involved with music education in the college for almost forty years and who lived on there in retirement for a further three. In the sixteen years he was to spend as professor and conductor of the Maynooth College Choir Cathal O'Callaghan introduced an arrangement whereby sung High Masses were broadcast on national radio from Maynooth in the Easter period, and (in return) secured an annual visit to Maynooth by the RTE Symphony Orchestra. He also maintained contact with music circles in Ireland and Germany (his sister had married a German national, and the church music teaching tradition in Maynooth had been pioneered by the German cleric Heinrich Bewerunge). His main teaching duties were confined to supervising a highly select number of individual students for the degree B.Mus. One of these, Francis Borgia Corcoran, became an internationally-recognised composer of 'new music,' locating in  his later years in Germany. At Maynooth he composed several vocal, choral and organ works  of fine calibre in the Vaughan-Williams/Howell/Kitson styles he had so finely studied. In 1967 Fr. O'Callaghan returned to pastoral service in his native diocese, becoming parish priest of Templecrone and Lettermacaward, with its main centre in Dungloe. There he continued to perform and compose, often accompanying his former student Seamus Rafferty (baritone) in recitals, and once again producing a star protege - for a year he tutored a young singer from a notable local traditional music family, the O’Braonáins. She would later achieve international fame as the artiste Enya. Fr. O'Callaghan died in 1982 at the age of 77.