Funeral service of Nicky Ryan, producer of Enya, to take place next week. President Higgins Pays Tribute

The life of Nicky Ryan, producer of Enya, will be celebrated at a Humanist Service in the National Maritime Museum in Dun Laoghaire on Monday next, it has been confirmed.

The service will begin at 11am.

The news of his death came yesterday morning, and was received with great sadness by members of the music community in Ireland and around the world. His passing was greeted with understandable grief by Enya fans worldwide, who are aware of the major part played by Ryan in the career of Ireland's biggest-selling ever female artist.

“May I join with all those who have expressed their sadness on learning of the death of Nicky Ryan," President Michael D. Higgins (pictured below with Enya) said in a statement this afternoon.

"Nicky Ryan, an accomplished music producer, recording engineer and manager, will be best remembered for his decades-long partnership with Enya.

"Nicky Ryan’s contribution to Enya’s music was immense. Together with the lyrical skill of his partner, Roma Ryan, Nicky’s production played a major role in Enya’s enormous global success, underpinning her work with a distinctive sound, which has made so much of Enya’s work unique.

"May I express my deepest condolences to Roma, to their daughters Persia and Ebony, to Enya and to all those with whom Nicky collaborated, and to his many friends and colleagues.”

Nicky Ryan had been manager and producer of Clannad, before embarking on the musical adventure with Enya that produced eight best-selling albums. While the film soundtrack material of Celts was Enya’s debut record, it was with Watermark – released by Warners in 1988 – that she was catapulted for the first time into the upper reaches of the charts.

Uniquely, as a hugely successful artist, Enya has never undertaken the gruelling touring that is often the most difficult part of being a musician. That, in part at least, was down to the perfectionism with which Nicky Ryan approached every aspect of his work. How would the Ryan “wall of sound” be recreated live? Ultimately, there was no need to push that particular boundary. Enya has sold well over 80 million albums, won countless awards, and had her work used in films, TV series and much more.

It is an extraordinary legacy for Nicky Ryan, his partner Roma Ryan and for Enya.

Nicky Ryan’s life will be celebrated at a Humanist service in the National Maritime Museum, at 11am on Monday, September 15.