'Eibhlís Farrell Collected Carols 2010 - 2025' launched at the Contemporary Music Centre

Pianist Aileen Cahill and CMC Composer Eibhlís Farrell at the Contemporary Music Centre, November 2025.

For four decades, CMC Composer Eibhlís Farrell has been composing an annual Christmas carol to share with family, friends and colleagues, describing this gesture as “an offering far removed from the commercial card in shop displays.” The Contemporary Music Centre was delighted to publish the first anthology of these collected carols in November 2025.

Eibhlís Farrell Collected Carols 2010 - 2025 places 17 of Eibhlís’ original handwritten Christmas carols alongside newly typeset counterparts, with title pages in the composer’s own calligraphy. The collection was launched at an intimate event at CMC’s Creative Space. The composer spoke about this enduring personal project in conversation with CMC’s Jonathan Grimes, before soprano Orla Shannon and pianist Aileen Cahill gave performances of some of the carols.

(Left to right): Pianist Aileen Cahill, soprano Orla Shannon and CMC’s Jonathan Grimes.

CMC was delighted to welcome a number of Eibhlís’s family and friends for this event, including former President of Ireland Mary McAleese, who officially opened the Centre at its current address on 19 Fishamble Street in 2001.

(Left to right): Martin McAleese, Aileen Cahill, Orla Shannon, Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese, Eibhlís Farrell, Jonathan Grimes, pictured at the launch of Eibhlís Farrell Collected Carols 2010 - 2025 at the Contemporary Music Centre.

The Contemporary Music Centre is grateful to CMC Scholar-in-Residence 2025-26 Laura Sheils and CMC Music Information Coordinator Aileen Cahill for their typesetting work to bring this collection together. A special thanks also to Mark Bollard for his significant contribution of typesettings to the project. We would like to express our gratitude to Eibhlís for sharing these heartwarming compositions with us throughout the years. In publishing this collection CMC hopes to facilitate further engagement with Eibhlís Farrell’s carols, bringing comfort and joy to gatherings of friends and family over the Christmas period.

I look on these small carols as an expression of the intensity of simplicity, in the same way that every little snowflake no matter how small has its own unique pattern and design.

- Eibhlís Farrell

Eibhlís Farrell Collected Christmas Carols 2010 - 2025 is available to order online now from the Contemporary Music Centre.