Nóirín Ní Riain

Irish singer and theologian, born in Caherconlish, County Limerick, in 1951, who lived sixteen years beside the Benedictine monks of Glenstal Abbey and is an authority on Gregorian chant and Irish spiritual song. In 2003 she became the first person ever to take a doctorate in theology at Mary Immaculate College, for what she calls theosony, the sound of God: listening itself as a way to religious experience, with the voice and sound taken seriously as theology rather than as its decoration.

She recorded three albums with the monks of Glenstal, Vox Clamantis in Deserto, Vox Populi and Vox de Nube, and her own records include Mystical Ireland (2004) and Hearth Sound (2013). She wrote Listen with the Ear of the Heart and Theosony.

Her roots are Celtic and Christian and contemplative, and her practice has widened from there: she has been an ordained interfaith minister since 2017, sings Indian song alongside plainchant, and has introduced the Dalai Lama on stage. She performs with her sons as A.M.E.N.