Choral Festival announced with dawn chorus

It was a dawn chorus with a difference as a city welcomed summer — and the start of an international five-day festival of choral music.

Members of the Voci Nuove Chamber Choir, who are participating in the Cork International Choral Festival, climbed to the top of the city’s landmark Shandon steeple just before dawn broke.

And as the first rays of light spread across the city at 6.02am, the choir sang out — with help from Cathal Ó Baoill and his son Cathal Óg — who travelled from Co Down for the experience.