14/06/2026

theSunday Special VII ON SUNDAY JUNE 14, 2026

N OEL Holmes lost his voice box to throat cancer two years ago and was told he might never speak again. Last month, he sang on stage at one of Ireland’s most prestigious music venues. After undergoing a total laryngectomy, Holmes had to relearn how to communicate using a small voice prosthesis fitted over the stoma in his throat. “The doctors said without my larynx, I may struggle to ever talk again. Learning to communicate again without a voice was very difficult, having to write down everything. Sometimes, you’re not a good speller or a fast writer. “But you adapt, and getting the voice valve in, oh my God, it’s a new lease of life all over again to be able to have fun with the grandkids again, and now sing!” the moustachioed 59-year-old told AFP backstage at the Cork Opera House. The twinkle-eyed Holmes is one of five members of Good Vibrations, a choir founded two years ago by voice rehabilitation specialist Trish Rooney for people who have undergone laryngectomies. The group’s journey demonstrates the “resilience of the human voice”, said Rooney, who was inspired after hearing a London-based laryngectomy choir called Shout at Cancer. “Singing can offer something meaningful to people living with the profound changes to voice and identity following total laryngectomy,” she said before the group went onstage. The all-male group, Ireland’s first ever laryngectomy choir, works closely with speech therapists in a Cork hospital and meets Rooney every weekend to work on voice training and singing techniques. Those include beatboxing, defining as they shattered the fairytale, exposing the raw, heavy costs of love and the scars left behind by it. Laufey opened Act IV with Mr. Eclectic . Her performance, filled with theatrical sarcasm and a rhythmic bounce, captured the stinging annoyance that comes with dealing with an erratic, unpredictable man – a feeling we all knew a little too well. She then dug her heels into a darker persona as she embodied a Madwoman standing up for herself in the face of manipulative love, as the quartet allured us with sharp, biting jazz chords. Sitting back at the piano, she bared her soul again to croon Promise , mourning her fractured vulnerability and opening a safe space for us who relapse into an emotional attachment that we just cannot shake. The artiste then took a moment for herself as she sang

Ireland’s first laryngectomy choir finds voice after cancer

Singers relearn to communicate, sing

using voice prosthesis

mimicking everyday sounds and improving breathing strategies, all to enhance intelligibility, volume and pitch range. Some choir members use speech valves over the stoma – an opening in the neck – pressing them to redirect air and produce speech while others use hands-free versions. Although their voices are deep and rumbly, their Irish accents can be clearly heard. From the outset, the get-togethers “became a space for vocal exploration and coordination and also for camaraderie, peer support and confidence-building. “It’s a life-changing experience to have a laryngectomy, not sounding like yourself ever again can be devastating for sense of identity and wellbeing, so we make the choir experience a bit of fun too,” said the 42-year-old Rooney. ‘Wonderful world’ Last October, they performed in London alongside the Shout at Cancer choir. Warming up before their performance in Cork, Rooney guided the men through body relaxation and stretching to activate their vocal Goddess , pleading Lauvers to strip away her “goddess” image and to see the real, flawed person once the curtains have dropped. This created a raw, intimate moment with her and Lauvers as we connected in a space in which we were just human. Then came a brilliant trifecta that carried us through whims of romance before the final emotional teardown. Laufey shook the weight of Goddess with Tough Luck . With her signature theatrical singing, she carried the song with a cynical shrug and an eye roll after a string of terrible romantic failures. The cynicism was quickly dissolved with Snow White . Holding up a mirror to herself and us, literally and figuratively, she forced us to confront the conditional love we give ourselves. Snow White set a poignant silence, which contrasted what was to come next – her iconic single that has exhausted radio

Rooney (left) standing next to Holmes with the rest of the group. – PIC FROM GOOD VIBRATIONS

who are getting such pure joy from their singing. They’re joyous to be alive and rehabilitating their voices through song. It’s gorgeous,” she said. Now, according to Rooney, Good Vibrations – always on the lookout for new members – has plans for further shows and television appearances, including an arrangement of poems by one of the members. “We’re just exploring what the possibilities are, it’s really uplifting,” she said.

O’Donoghue, 75, who used to play guitar and sing in pubs before his diagnosis. The group’s oldest member, Paddy Fray, 78, said he shied away from meeting people after losing his voice, but now feels “brave enough” to perform before a big crowd in Cork. After they received a standing ovation, the concert host Evelyn Grant said the choir’s appearance was “profoundly moving”. “To see these men in the choir

support muscles, all while rehearsing songs. In Cork, supported by musicians and backing vocalists, they performed What a Wonderful World and Baker Street in a moving programme that featured renowned opera singers. “The choir gave me back my confidence that I had lost after the surgery. “You take the voice for granted until you don’t have it,” said another member, Mike plays, From the Start . As the whimsical strums of the song rang through on the first note, the arena erupted, swaying to the bossa nova rhythms of unrequited modern love, deceptively setting the stage for the crescendo we had been crying for. Showing a mature facet of heartbreak, Laufey poured her soul through the microphone as she sang Sabotage , capturing the absolute anxiety of letting yourself be loved truly although your every single self-destructive nerve in your body wants to ruin it. Keeping the best for the last, she closed her whirlwind of romance with the evening’s biggest heartbreak and the most beautiful resolution. When she started strumming Castle in Hollywood , we bellowed in pure joy as it was our surprise song of the night. As she lamented the loss of her “worst, best friend”, we felt a little tug in our hearts, reflecting the profound heartbreak of a friendship.

Final act of love, romance Act IV & The Final Act The final acts were the most

From — page VI

A lover girl herself, Laufey brings us into her own wonderland of romance. – PIC BY NICOLE MAGO

her anxious, young self, she left Lauvers with a reminder: the romance that will prevail is the one we have with ourselves, and it is the most important love story we will ever write. Looking beyond the beautiful set and glittery, fun costumes, Laufey’s A Matter of Time was a gorgeous love letter written into a whimsical and euphoric musical that left us exasperated, hopeful and forever a lover girl... or boy.

Upbeat deeply doleful, her strums rang through as she guided us through the end of girlhood and a friendship. Finally, the room shimmered down for her closing speech, urging young creatives to embrace their eccentricities and pursue their deepest desires as she transitioned into Letter to My 13 Year Old Self . The performance and speech left us with hopeful dreams for the future. As Laufey coddled yet