Grammy award nomination for Birr opera star
A glittering career on the national and international stage has culminated this week with Birr-born opera singer John Molloy being nominated for a highly prestigious Grammy award.
He was listed with some of the biggest names in the music industry when the nominations for the 2026 Grammy awards were made public ahead of the ceremony in Los Angeles on February 1 next.
Widely considered as Ireland's leading bass singer, John Molloy received his Grammy nomination as one of the principal soloists in an opera double bill by acclaimed Athlone-born composer Emma O'Halloran.
The soundtrack for the new opera 'Mary Motorhead/Trade' is one of five nominations in the Best Opera Recording category for the 2026 Grammys. This category awards Grammys to the conductor; producer; composer, director, principal soloists and librettist of what is described in the nomination criteria as “a world premiere opera recording."
John Molloy received his Grammy nomination for his deeply poignant portrayal of the role of the Older Man in the operatic adaptation of an award-winnng play by Mark O'Halloran called 'Trade' which was subsequently made into a film 'Rialto.'
“I never thought in my wildest dreams that I'd ever be nominated for a Grammy,” said the delighted Birr singer this week, adding that “of course” he is planning to attend the prestigious award ceremony in Los Angeles next year.
Fresh from a string of sell-out performances of Puccini's 'Madame Butterfly' in Bord Gais Energy Theatre in Dublin, John Molloy said he thought it was “all a joke” when conductor Elaine Kelly video called him on Friday last and her first words were 'congratulations Grammy nominee'.” As a man who is not often stuck for words he said: “How do you follow that one?”
The cast and creative team of 'Mary Motorhead/Trade' organised an impromptu get-together to celebrate the fantastic news over the weekend, and to make plans for their trip to LA, where they will be brushing shoulders with such musical luminaries as Kendrick Lamar and Lady GaGa who, between them have amassed the bulk of the 2026 Grammy nominations.
Speaking of his role in 'Trade' John Molloy describes it as “a very emotive role” which had a lot of resonance with his own life story. “The opera double bill is just a fantastic body of work and when it was recorded live in Kilkenny I think we all knew there was just something very special about it,” he says.
As the son of one of Offaly’s most skilful hurlers of all time, the late Paddy Molloy from Coolderry, John Molloy's remarkably successful journey into the world of opera was “almost acccidental” as he grew up in a home where “the the girls played music and the boys played hurling.”
Local audiences will have two chances to see John Molloy on stage between now and Christmas when he returns to Birr Theatre & Arts Centre with the Irish National Opera on Saturday, November 29 next to play the role of Kecal in Smetana's comic opera 'The Bartered Bride' and he will also perform with the Cambiata Chamber Choir and Orchestra in a performance of Handel's Messiah on Sunday, December 7, in St. Brendan's Church on Wilmer Road.