Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin

Poet, Musician, Creativity consultant, Positive provocateur
Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology
Bachelor of Music

I learned to love my own voice,
making a friend of it, fashioning
a fountain pen to master
the phantom language

– excerpt from 'Early Music' by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin

Mícheál ‘Moley’ Ó Súilleabháin is a renowned singer, poet, and speaker from Limerick, Ireland. His artistic identity lives on the threshold between things. He is a master of several worlds of music and poetic performance and composition. His way in the world exists between laughter and poignancy. 

From a family steeped in Irish traditional music and academia, he gravitated to performance early, beginning as a drummer, he studied music at Univeristy College Cork. He graduated to an MA in Ethnomusicology at Irish World Academy of Music and Dance before teaching as a freelance music educator with a specialization in rap and human beatboxing (vocal percussion). 

In his 20’s he and his brother performed widely under their original acoustic pop song writing duo ‘Size2shoes’. This quirky virtuosic musical relationship brought them all over the world recording and performing.  Though mainstream opportunity beckoned, there surfaced a deeper stream of inherited musical and poetic traditions that had been passed down. It was inherited from his parents, the late composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist Prof. Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and his mother Rev. Nóirín Ní Riain. Both are icons of Irish traditional culture.

Beginning in his early 20’s Mícheál apprenticed himself to the repertoire of his mother, Rev. Nóirín. He collected a store of Irish traditional and interfaith religious song. They created an a capella trio, with his brother Owen, performing across Europe and America. They have a series of albums together of sacred song. 

Around this time he and his brother met the poet David Whyte. So began a mentorship in the art of poetry and public speaking that has influenced him deeply to this day. Mícheál and his brother have worked closely with David Whyte for over a decade singing and speaking with him all over the world. Mícheál published his first book of poetry, EARLY MUSIC (available here), on David Whyte’s Many Rivers Press (Seattle) in late 2020. Also in 2020 he founded the Dámh Imeall - (H)Edge School with his brother and mother. (h)Edge School is an online community of enquiry and ritual with online workshops and events on a range of interfaith and multi-disciplinary topics.

Mícheál has shared stages and been invited to work with Russell Crowe, Alan Doyle, Samantha Barks, Nigel Kennedy, The Chieftains, Steven Spielberg, Bobby McFerrin, Scott Grimes, STING, Rhiannon Giddens, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Quartet, BAD ROBOT studios, Kripalu Yoga Centre, The Art of Living, Sounds True, Centre for Spiritual Living, Boston College, to name but a few…

Mícheál provides coaching and conversation in a range of fields. He deepens the narrative around creativity and the artists sense of belonging. Permission and virtuosity are deep themes in his poetry, music, and his conversational interest. Music and poetry are both areas where he is brave enough to inspire others.