Liam Ó Maonlaí

Liam Ó Maonlaí

Liam Ó Maonlaí is an Irish musician from Monkstown, Ireland, best known as a member of Hothouse Flowers. He is a fluent Irish speaker and works in Irish Gaelic as well as English.

Career

Ó Maonlaí forms Hothouse Flowers in 1985 with his schoolmate Fiachna Ó Braonáin. He attends Scoil Lorcáin and Coláiste Eoin, a Gaelscoil on Dublin’s southside, and says his father is his main influence in the Irish language.

He wins an under-18 all-Ireland award for bodhrán playing and, in 1985, shares the Irish music award Gradam Shlogadh with his Hothouse Flowers bandmates.

In 2005 he releases a solo album titled Rian, a collection of tunes and songs in Irish Gaelic.

Other projects and activities

Ó Maonlaí also forms The Complex in the early days with childhood friend Kevin Shields and drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig. After he leaves to form Hothouse Flowers in 1984, Shields and Ó Cíosóig are joined by vocalist Dave Conway and keyboardist Tina, and the group is renamed My Bloody Valentine.

He is also involved with the Nuclear Free Future movement and contributes to events in Carnsore and Wexford Town in 2001. In 2004 he visits Barefoot College in Rajasthan, India, and performs at a university in Jaipur with local musicians.