Ballinasloe’s own Emma O’Reilly had a busy summer, with the release of a new EP, Sailing Home, and a tour with her new group, The Céadaoin Collective.
Emma’s upbringing in Ballinasloe meant she was engaged in the arts from a young age. Her time at Gaelscoil Uí Cheithearnaigh through to her secondary education at Ardscoil Mhuire provided regular opportunities to perform. Beechlawn resident Emma also studied piano with Marie Power, as well as performing with the Ballinasloe Musical Society. She went on to study Music at Trinity College Dublin, before releasing her first EP in 2009.
Over the following years, Emma released two further records as an independent artist. Following the release of SHAKE (2017) – and with her landlord in Dublin increasing the rent by 52% – Emma relocated to Norwich and started working as a busker. She also launched a Patreon page and began experimenting with live-streaming.
Since that time, Emma has been preparing her most recent releases – Maris, Stella (2025), and the forthcoming EP, Sailing Home. Maris, Stella came out last year as a suite of artworks – a song, a music video, and an interactive online exhibition. Emma wanted to create a digital experience where fans could explore the world of a single song. Sailing Home released recently.
The EP delves much more into folk than Emma’s previous releases, inspired by her own heritage and the more experimental approaches of contemporary artists like Bon Iver.
(Photo: Emma with her new group, The Céadaoin Collective. L-R: Robert Harvey, Emma O’Reilly, Andrew Kin Yip Yau, Carmel Wheelan and Niall Mannion. Photo credit: Simon Wilkie.)
This sound inspired Emma to seek a new approach for performance, and The Céadaoin Collective was created. The group deals in Irish traditional/ contemporary folk and includes: Robert Harvey, a champion flautist and Irish traditional music royalty; Carmel Whelan, a highly sought-after vocalist, composer, and choral director; Andrew Kin Yip Yau, an accomplished performer and orchestral musician, and Niall Mannion, a widely respected violinist and pianist. Each member of the group is a multi-instrumentalist.
You can follow Emma and the group on social media: @ceadaoincollective, or see their official website: https://ceadaoincollective.my.canva.site/
