4 In A Bar quartet bring 'Animal Crackers' to Multyfarnham

4 In A Bar, the award winning Irish vocal quartet are performing at the Franciscan Friary in Multyfarnham on Sunday June 21. ‘Animal Crackers’ is the name of the concert and it promises an afternoon of animal themed vocal and choral music.

The gig is part of their Summer Sundays Tour, and they will be joined by Mullingar Cathedral Choristers, directed by Dervilla Conlon.

This collaboration will be special for one member of 4 In a Bar, Paul McGough, a Westmeath man who began his singing career with the Choristers in the late 1980s, when they were under the direction of Shane Brennan and Bro Frank Crummey.

Paul said: “I remember being eight years old and sitting in my school classroom when some visitors came to tell us a new choir was being established in Mullingar Cathedral and that children were invited to audition for it.

“Having returned home from London, where he was organ scholar at Westminster Cathedral, Shane Brennan was inspired to create a children’s choir on a par with the best in the country, appointing a busy rehearsal schedule and ambitious repertoire.

“This is where my life, my career in music began, and I look back on it with fond memories.

“Today, the cathedral choral tradition continues in the expert hands of Dervilla Conlon, and it will be heart-warming to hear the blended voices of the boy choristers, girl choristers and 4 in a Bar in performance at Multyfarnham Friary. “

The quartet have been singing together since 2008, and have released two albums. They are a part of the Irish Association of Barbershop Singers and were awarded its Gold medal for quartet singing. Now the four men are entertaining overseas audiences and have secured concerts and performed across Switzerland.

In 2024, they commissioned a new work from Rhona Clarke with the support of the Arts Council to celebrate the centenary year of Dublin born composer Charles Villiers Stanford.

Tickets for the Multyfarnham event are available at ticketstop.ie at €21.25, U16s free.

The concert starts at 5pm on June 21.