O'Hooley comes from a long line of
County Sligo musicians and performed alongside her first cousin
Tommy Fleming, a singer who was formerly with
De Danann.
Rachel Unthank and the Winterset From 2004 until 2008 she was a member of Rachel Unthank and the Winterset (now The Unthanks). Nic Oliver, reviewing their 2007 album
The Bairns for
musicOMH, described O'Hooley as "the ace in the pack throughout The Bairns. Her background in cabaret (intriguingly, she had once appeared on Stars In Their Eyes impersonating Annie Lennox) adds a left-field edge to the music, with her jazzy piano chords lending a sing-along feel to the live favourite Blue's Gaen Oot O'The Fashion. O'Hooley also contributes the two original tracks to the album, although the casual listener could quite easily mistake both Blackbird and Whitehorn for traditional songs".
Solo albums In 2005 O'Hooley released a
solo album,
Music is My Silence, described by reviewer David Kidman of Netrhythms.co.uk as "a commanding and defiant set of thoroughly contemporary-sounding songs" In 2019 she released a second solo album,
Inversions, described by
Jude Rogers in
The Guardian as "a set of beautiful piano and spoken-word pieces".
O'Hooley & Tidow She has issued eight albums with Heidi Tidow, performing as O'Hooley & Tidow. Their 2016 album,
Shadows, was given a five-starred review by
Robin Denselow in
The Guardian and four of their other albums have received four-starred reviews in the British national press.
Coven With Heidi Tidow she performs in the all-female group Coven, whose members also include
Hannah James,
Rowan Rheingans,
Hazel Askew and
Grace Petrie. In 2017, Coven released an EP,
Unholy Choir.
Other musical contributions O'Hooley played piano on
Jackie Oates' albums
Jackie Oates (2006),
The Violet Hour (2008),
Hyperboreans (2009),
Saturnine (2011) and
Lullabies (2013). With Heidi Tidow, she was also featured on
Chumbawamba's album
ABCDEFG (2010) and DVD
Going, Going – Live at Leeds City Varieties (2012),
Lucy Ward's debut album
Adelphi Has to Fly (2011) and Patsy Matheson's
Domino Girls (2014). O'Hooley & Tidow were amongst the musicians on the album ''The Ballads of Child Migration: Songs for Britain's Child Migrants'', released by Delphonic Records in October 2015. They contributed the music for one song on the album, "Why Did I Leave Thee?" O'Hooley also accompanied
Nic Jones at London's
Queen Elizabeth Hall on his 2011
comeback tour and on further tours in 2012 and 2013. In 2015 O'Hooley accompanied
Jim Boyes on his
Sensations of a Wound tour, telling a little-known story of the
First World War. An album of this music,
Sensations of a Wound: The Long, Long Trail of Robert Riby Boyes, was released on the
No Masters label in February 2015. She appeared on Ray Hearne's album
Umpteen in 2016. ==Other==