He studied composition at University College Cork (with Gerald Barry) and at The Manhattan School of Music in New York with the assistance of a Fulbright Award. Operas for the Royal Opera House include: Demon Juice, a hip-hop opera in 2007; Babette’s Feast, a chamber opera in 2002 (revived there in 2004); Separation (The Story of Bullman and the Moonsisters), created with children to open the new Linbury Theatre in 1999. For English National Opera he composed Midnight’s Children in 1998 and a trilogy of operas The Early Earth Operas in 2004.