Declan is a music teacher, lecturer and researcher, who specialises in teaching theory, aural skills, analysis, composition and secondary school music subjects (GCSE, Leaving Cert., and AS & A2 music). Born in Belfast, Declan’s enthusiasm for classical and Irish traditional music was strongly encouraged by his parents while studying at school and attending the Ulster College of Music for piano lessons. After successfully completing his Bachelor's degree in music at University College Cork in 2005, Declan continued his studies at Queen’s University Belfast, where he acquired a Master’s degree in music in 2006 and was awarded a PhD in musicology in 2011 producing a dissertation, under the supervision of Professor Jan Smaczny, that focused on the conducting career of Sir Hamilton Harty.

Declan has published articles on Harty in several academic journals, including The Musicology Review and the Journal of the Society of Musicology in Ireland. He also contributed to a chapter on Harty for the book, Irish Music History, 1790-1920: Documents, Sources, Perspectives, published by Four Courts Press in 2019. Along with the late Roy Johnston, he is also co-author of The Musical Life of Nineteenth-Century Belfast (Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2015), the first ever publication to give a detailed examination of the city’s musical history.

Since leaving university, Declan has spent years teaching music professionally and acquired significant experience working with a variety of people of different ages, abilities and backgrounds (including school children, university students and adult learners), in large classes and small tutorial groups, across a range of working environments.

Declan has been a tutor at the Ulster College of Music for many years: he teaches all units and components of the A-Level and GCSE music courses; offers tuition in aural skills and music theory (Grades 1-8 ABRSM, Trinity & RIAM boards); and has introduced new classes: notably the Advanced Music Theory class, the Music Appreciation class, and individual tuition for tin whistle, Irish flute, traditional guitar, Irish bouzouki, bodhrán and uilleann pipes. At the City of Belfast School of Music he teaches advanced theory and aural skills, and at the Piano Academy of Ireland he delivers lessons in theory and musicianship. Declan also works as a teaching assistant at the School of Arts, English & Languages in Queen’s University Belfast, where he delivers lectures and tutorials for undergraduate students who take modules in music theory and music history as part of their BMus and BA degrees.