Anthony was born on
August 17th 1971 in the beautiful town of Kiltealy in County Wexford,
Ireland. He is one of a family of two boys and four girls, all of whom
are musical. Though he now has a home in Dublin, he is a Wexford man through
and through.
It was in 1990 that Anthony took probably the most important step in his
life. He entered a singing competition in Dublin. He sang 'The Impossible
Dream' and then 'Danny Boy' for an encore, and ended up winning the competition.
An appearance on 'The Late Late Show' followed, before Veronica Dunne,
one of the adjudicators in the competition and the person generally seen
as Ireland's top singing teacher, approached him. Basically, she said
"get yourself over here now, we have work to do".
Anthony says "I ended up spending three years working with her, and she
really brought me on a lot. She's a powerful woman who instilled a lot
of drive and initiative in me". His big break finally came in October
1993 when the Gay Byrne radio show held a contest 'Ireland's Search for
a Tenor' in conjunction with the launch of the new ten pound note.
Anthony won the competition with one of his most outstanding performances.
In 1995 and 1996 Anthony won the Dermot Troy Trophy for oratorio and was
voted the best male singer at the Waterford International Festival of
light opera for his portrayal of Frederic in Gilbert and Sullivan's 'Pirates
of Penzance'
In 1998 producers TV Matters and Radius Television were searching for
3 Tenors to create a new performing trio to appear in a US television
special and Anthony was on top of the list.
The rest is history. Anthony's silky, pure and poetic vocal quality has
made him hugely popular, especially with the female fans. In March 1999
the triumphant trio stepped out onto the stage of Madison Square Gardens
in front of a 15,000 strong audience. The boy from Wexford had truly found
the platform he had been searching for.