Seóirse Bodley

Seóirse Bodley (; 4 April 1933 – 17 November 2023) was an Irish composer and associate professor of music at University College Dublin (UCD). He was the first composer to become a Saoi of Aosdána, in 2008. Bodley is widely regarded as one of the most important composers of twentieth-century art music in Ireland, having been “integral to Irish musical life since the second half of the twentieth century, not just as a composer, but also as a teacher, arranger, accompanist, adjudicator, broadcaster, and conductor”. Biography Bodley was born George Pascal Bodley in Dublin. His father was George James Bodley (1879–1956), an employee of the London Midland & Scottish Railway Company (Dublin office), and later of the Dublin Ports and Docks Board. His mother, Mary (née Gough, 1891–1977), worked for the Guinness brewery. He attended schools in the Dublin suburbs of Phibsboro and Glasnevin before he moved at the age of nine to Coláiste Mhuire at Parnell Square. He later studied at the School of Commerce in Rathmines, where he obtained his Leaving Certificate. Music was encouraged in his parents’ home, and he received initial lessons on the mandolin from his father and on the piano from his mo