Irish In Britain

Our aim to promote the music of the forgotten Irish composer Ina Boyle (1889– 1967) and other neglected Irish composers, particularly women composers, whose music deserves to be heard more widely. 

We work closely with Irish academic and cultural organisations to deliver Anglo Irish partnerships. 

Ina Boyle, as a result of our work, is recognised as one of Ireland’s most prolific and important women composers of the early 20th Century. Her huge body of work is preserved in manuscript form in the Library of Trinity College Dublin awaiting rediscovery. 

One forthcoming project is the first CD devoted to her songs to be recorded at Wigmore Hall in October , and her Opera will receive its premiere at the 2021 Blackwater Valley Opera Festival.

About Ina Boyle

Ina Boyle was a pupil of the British composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958). She lived quietly with her family in in Co. Wicklow and would travel regularly to London for lessons with Vaughan Williams, who thought highly of his Irish student. 

Despite his encouragement, Boyle would not relocate to London and instead lived all of her life in the family home caring for her parents and sister who needed her, while still composing every day, drawing inspiration from the beautiful countryside around the family home. 

As a result of her isolation from musical life in London, early success was not followed through and performances of her music dwindled. Her huge body of work including, symphonies, choral, vocal and chamber music, in addition to an opera and various stage works, remain largely unperformed and are preserved in manuscript form in the Library of Trinity College Dublin awaiting rediscovery. 

It is particularly poignant that Ina Boyle heard so little of her music performed in her lifetime. Modern audiences now have the opportunity of hearing and enjoying her music being performed for the first time.