European Medical Students' Orchestra and Choir: Charity Concert for Offaly Hospice

What to Expect

More than 100 members of the European Medical Students’ Orchestra and Choir bring Birr’s August concert series to a close with a charity concert at St Brendan’s R.C. Church on Wilmer Road. EMSOC is made up of medical students and young doctors from across Europe who meet each year in a different European city for around ten days of intensive rehearsal before performing. The Birr date is one of three concerts on their Irish tour, all of them raising money for hospice services, and the proceeds from this one go to Offaly Hospice.

The programme mixes classical and contemporary orchestral and choral works with lighter selections, including music from Riverdance. The conductors are Dr Ciarán Crilly and Dr Róisín Blunnie, with Dr Olivia Howdle as concert master. A church nave is a good room for a group this size, and an ensemble of a hundred plus voices and instruments in a parish church is a considerable amount of sound for a €20 ticket.

Good to Know

• Date and time: Tuesday 18 August 2026, 8pm, with doors from 7.30pm.
• Venue: St Brendan’s R.C. Church, Wilmer Road, Birr.
• Tickets: €20 plus booking fee, sold through Birr Festival of Music on Ticketsolve.
• Beneficiary: Offaly Hospice.
• This is the closing concert of the Birr Festival of Music August series, which also included an art song recital at St Brendan’s Church of Ireland on 16 August.
• Church seating is pews, so it is worth booking early for a good sightline of the orchestra.

Getting There

Birr is on the N52 between Nenagh and Tullamore and on the N62 from Roscrea, roughly two hours from Dublin and about an hour from Limerick. Wilmer Road runs off the south side of the town centre, a few minutes’ walk from Emmet Square and the Birr Castle gates. There is on-street parking on Wilmer Road and in the town centre car parks, which are quiet by evening. There is no rail service to Birr, so drive or use the regional bus links through Roscrea or Tullamore.