Fionnuala Fagan-Thiébot is a songwriter and composer living in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
“A remarkable talent, creating evocative musical stories.”
Claire Savage, The Honest Ulsterman
Fionnuala grew up in Craigavon, County Armagh, with one foot in Belfast and the other in Cork, the cities of her ancestors.
Her work is greatly influenced by perspectives and stories handed down through generations, and her own experience of life. Her songwriting interlaces lush acoustics, smoky vocals and an indie sound heavily influenced by folk music.
New Album Coming in 2025!
Discography
Fionnuala’s previous releases include a verbatim song cycle series, creatively retelling oral histories of significant communities across Ireland and Bosnia.
This rich collection enables a discography of evocative musical storytelling, giving insight into subjective Irish histories and important cultural narratives.
Station Flight (2016)
These songs creatively retell stories of former employees of Shorts Brother plc, serving and retired members of the RAF, members of East Belfast Wise Men’s Shed and the Ulster Aviation Society. The lyrics for each song are edited together from a series of interviews with participants. The lyrics of Miss Bland of Carnmoney are based on excerpts from her letters to Flight Magazine and an article in the Belfast Evening Telegraph, in 1910.
LoveNotes (2014)
LoveNotes creatively retells love stories in Belfast in 2014. This project was the outcome of Fionnuala’s time as Artist-in-Residence at The Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast.
Dreaming Protected Me (2013)
Dreaming Protected Me creatively re-tells the experiences of Northern Irish and Bosnian interviewees through 10 part song cycle, sound installation, spoken word poetry and live performance.
Homebird (2010)
In Homebird Fionnuala creatively re-tells the story of her grandmother, Maire de Baroid, whose family emigrated to America in the late 1940s. As the eldest girl of ten children, aged 19, Maire decided to stay behind alone, in her home city of Cork, Ireland.
Stories of the City: Sailortown
Stories of the City: Sailortown (Fagan & Anderson, 2012) creatively documents the oral history of Belfast’s Sailortown community, through seven part verbatim song cycle, sound design, installation, and performance.
“Fascinating songs and stories that shine a light in the darkness.”
Colum Sands
BBC Radio Ulster Folk Club