Women of Ireland Cast

Gemma Sugrue

Soprano, Gemma Sugrue is a native of Killarney, Co. Kerry. She is studying for her masters in vocal performance at the Cork School of Music, where she has received her honours degree in music. She has been training her voice since the age of sixteen and was awarded twice by president Mary McAleese with the “High Achiever” award. She has studied under the tenor, Robert Craig at the Cork School of Music and Babara Alden, London and is currently studying with international soprano, Mary Hegarty.

Gemma has been working as a professional vocalist for weddings, events and shows for nearly a decade. She has toured Australia and Europe with irish music productions; “The Spirit of Ireland”, “To Dance on the Moon” and “Dance of Desire”.

Her local solo appearances include Cork Jazz festival 2010, The East Cork Choral Society, Madrigal ’75, and the premier irish performance of Stephen Oliver’s “The Garden” .

She also fronts Ireland’s all female, live band “She’s Electric”.

Pauline Hartigan

Pauline Hartigan grew up in a musical family in County Limerick, Ireland. At the age of 6 she took up the piano and has been playing ever since.
After school, she attended the prestigious ‘Rock School’ at Ballyfermot College of Further Education in Dublin to study music, after which, an audition led her to Las Vegas where her singing career took off.

She subsequently toured the world for 4 years with a well known Irish Dance show as the lead singer.

Tours included New Zealand, Europe, China, Australia & USA.
Having sang in front of an audience of more than 1 million, she now brings her experience home to make your day extra special.

Pauline has also recorded much studio material with producers such as Paul Thomas (U2′s sound engineer).

Pauline often represented the show on such television programmes as ‘Good Morning New Zealand’ and is no stranger to the camera.

Loaise O’Hanlon

Cork born Laoise O’ Hanlon has been singing all her life‚Ķ She was brought up in a musical household and was influenced as a child by her parents love for an eclectic blend of classical, jazz, musical theatre, pop, rock and folk music.

Laoise began to sing in professional Opera and Musical Theatre chorus roles at the age of 15 with the Irish Operatic Repertory Company under the direction of John O’ Flynn. She worked avidly as a first soprano with the IORC throughout her teenage years, appearing in ‘La Traviata’, ‘La Boheme’, ‘Carmen’, ‘The Sound of Music’, ‘The Boyfriend’ , ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and many other cabaret/choral engagements.

This provided a solid base in performance technique and vocal training. She began to formally train her voice at the Cork School of Music in 1999, undertaking the individual tuition of Helen Hassett and Fiona O’ Reilly.

Michelle O’Callaghan

Michelle began singing at the age of 4 and competed at Fleadh and Feis Competitions for many years.

Major success was achieved when she became the All Ireland Solo Singing Champion in Junior Scor in 2006.

Over the Years she has played Leading Roles in Stage School & Musical Shows and at the age of 15, was honoured to be chosen as the Female Vocalist with World renowned Irish Dance Production “To Dance On the Moon”.

Following on from her success in the show, she continued Voice Training with Well Known Tenor Bryan Carr, and achieved a fantastic opportunity to
tour the Uk and Europe with the “Spirit of Ireland” Irish Dance and Traditional Music Production.

Michelle is no stranger to the stage and makes many guest appearances at major functions, the most recent having sang as support artist to Sharon Shannon and band in Irelands National Event Centre Killarney, on New Years Eve to a sell out audience.

As a soloist with many well known Choirs and Vocal groups , Michelle loves performing and is excited to be part of this fantastic show.