Thomas Drennan (1941 or 1942 – 11 July 2024) was an Irish singer.

Life and career

Drennan was born in 1941 or 1942, in the Janesboro area of

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

and was educated at Presentation Convent before moving to Limerick CBS. He was first introduced to singing when he joined the local church choir as an 11-year-old

boy soprano A boy soprano (British and especially North American English) or boy treble (only British English) is a young male singer with an unchanged voice in the soprano range, a range that is often still called the treble voice range (in North America ...

. Drennan's 1953 rendition of ''

O Holy Night "O Holy Night" (original title: ) is a well-known sacred song for Christmas performance. Originally based on a French-language poem by poet Placide Cappeau, written in 1843, with the first line (Midnight, Christian, is the solemn hour) that co ...

'' brought him to prominence. He later studied voice at the

Royal Irish Academy of Music The Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) in Dublin, Ireland, is one of Europe's oldest music conservatoires, specialising in classical music and the Irish harp. It is located in a Georgian building on Westland Row in Dublin. An institution which ...

. During this time Drennan was first prize winner at the

Feis Ceoil Feis Ceoil ( ; "Festival of Music") is an Irish music organisation which holds an annual competitive festival of classical music. It was first organised in Dublin in 1897 by Dr. Annie Patterson and Edward Martyn for the purpose of stimulating musi ...

, appeared on several half-hour programmes of classical songs for

Radio Éireann Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitt ...

, and also appeared regularly on

Ulster Television UTV (formerly Ulster Television, branded on air as ITV1) is the ITV region covering Northern Ireland, ITV subsidiary and the former on-air name of the free-to-air public broadcast television channel serving the area. It is run by ITV plc an ...

in ''Teatime With Tommy''. Drennan toured as

lead singer The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

with ''The Freshmen'' before later becoming lead singer with the Limerick-based

showband The Irish showband was a dance band format popular in Ireland from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s. The showband was based on the internationally popular six- or seven-piece dance band. The band's basic repertoire included standard dance numbers and ...

''The Monarchs''. The band released several albums under the

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

label and had numerous hit singles which reached number one in the

Irish Charts The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) is a non-profit association set up in 1999 to promote certain interests of the music industry in Ireland. It is particularly active in addressing copyright issues, and it compiles the official music ...

, including a 1972 version of ''O Holy Night'' which merged his original 1953 recording with a contemporary version. Drennan also reached the semi-finals of the 1968 National Contest. Drennan died at Milford Care Centre on 11 July 2024.

References

External Links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Drennan, Tommy 1940s births Year of birth uncertain 2024 deaths Irish male singers People from Limerick (city)