Origins (2012-2013): Generation I & II The group was founded by two senior sophister music education (BMusEd) students, Patrick Barrett and Lynsey Callaghan. According to Barrett, himself and Callaghan had discussed the idea when on an
exchange programme in Hungary. Upon their return to Ireland, they carried out auditions, and a 14-member Trinitones had its inaugural rehearsal in late January 2012. "Gen 1" highlights include the group's first performance as part of Trinity Arts Festival, the maiden performance of the would-be viral hit, Teenage Dirtbag, and the beginning of a relationship with
The King's Singers. Barrett and Callaghan continued as directors as Trinitones entered its second year. In the same year, the group released a cover of Wheatus' Teenage Dirtbag, with the YouTube video garnering 80,000 YouTube views in the 48 hours following its release. This led to several appearances on national TV and radio, and the group's first performance at Trinity Ball. Two months after taking charge, the pair had led the group to national headlines once more in performing with
Scrubs star
Sam Lloyd. Over the next two years, Jacob and Kneeshaw slowly built up the group's profile, and led them on two major tours, one to
Derry for the Derry International Choral Festival and one to London compete in the
International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, and performed with internationally renowned musicians
Glen Hansard,
Imelda May and
Donal Lunny. Jacob and Kneeshaw's partnership culminated in a debut performance at
Electric Picnic, Ireland's largest music festival. As the group entered its fifth year, Jacob was replaced as director by Robert Somerville. Three new music videos were released to the public. The "Generation V" group also toured to Hungary, where they performed at the
Franz Liszt Academy of Music. Kneeshaw and Somerville graduated at the end of the 2015–16 academic year, leaving Neil Dunne to take the reins as director. Events included joint concerts with the Trinity Tiger Tones of
Melbourne and the
Yale Whiffenpoofs, as well as an invitation to perform at the Trinity London Alumni Ball and a fifth anniversary concert that saw all previous generations perform. In September 2017, the group embarked on a tour to
Australia that included stops in Sydney and Melbourne. The group appeared on several radio programmes and featuring in a number of viral videos. The three week tour concluded with a joint performance with the Trinity Tiger Tones in the
Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne. A music video was released to commemorate the tour, a cover of Bob Dylan's
I Shall Be Released.
Tours and "e-Stardom" (2017-2019): Generation VII & VIII With Dunne leaving Trinity College after the Australian tour, Andy Keenan replaced him as director for Generation VII. In November 2017, Trinitones were invited to
St. Andrew's University to perform in the annual A Cappella Christmas Concert. In February 2018, the group appeared in the audition stage of the first series of reality
talent show, ''
Ireland's Got Talent''. Despite their cover of
Ed Sheeran's "
Shape of You" receiving a standing ovation and "Yes" votes from all four judges, including the "biggest yes of the day" from Irish entertainment manager
Louis Walsh, the group were not subsequently selected to perform in the live stages of the competition. The following month, the group extended an invite to US and Scottish a cappella groups to join them and the Trinity Belles for a "international celebration of acapella [sic.]" at the Button Factory venue in
Temple Bar, Dublin. While the event, featuring the Penn Counterparts and the St. Andrew's Accidentals, was deemed to have been a success, the name of concert drew criticism. Titled "Super-Duper Number 1 Greatest of All Time A Cappella Bonanza!", the name was selected after it was voted #1 by
internet trolls in an online
Twitter poll. In a bargain plea with the trolls, the group agreed to proceed with the chosen name, provided the tweets in question, some of which were abusive, were removed. The video, a cover of
George Ezra's "Budapest", was shared online by free British newspaper,
Metro UK, and garnered over 5 million views in the week following its release. A subsequent cover of
Frank Sinatra classic "New York, New York" was also widely shared, and accumulated in the region of 15 million views. On the back of this exposure, Trinitones were once again invited on to Ireland AM to perform on a special Royal Wedding themed episode as the in house band. In May 2018, Keenan led the group on a tour of the American North-East coast, which included stops in
Montreal,
Burlington,
Boston,
Gettysburg,
Washington, D.C. and
New York City. Performances on this tour included a performance at the annual Montreal "Walk to the Stone" famine commemoration for the Mayor of Montreal,
Valérie Plante and Lord Mayor of Dublin
Mícheál Mac Donncha, and a performance at the
Ben and Jerry's factory in
Vermont. In Washington, D.C., the group was invited to perform at the 50th anniversary of the
assassination of Robert F. Kennedy for a sizable crowd, including Kennedy's widow,
Ethel. Later that week, in New York, the group sang the American national anthem at
Yankee Stadium before a
baseball game between the
New York Yankees and the
Washington Nationals. By September, Trinitones had returned to its traditional system of
duarchy, with Evan Holland joining Keenan as director. In December, the group once again returned to St. Andrew's to perform in the university's Christmas concert, where they were described by Owleyesmagazine.com as a "worldwide hit". Later that month, the Trinity Tiger Tones returned to Dublin, where they held a collaborative concert for the third time. Generation VIII also saw the group perform for two Irish Presidents:
Michael D. Higgins and
Mary Robinson. In April 2019, the group released another video in the form of a cover of
Sean Kingston's "
Beautiful Girls", which was again widely shared and garnered millions of views on-line. ==Discography==