The Irish Church Music Association has continually worked to improve the use of music in the liturgy and in encouraging our composers to offer their talents in response to the requirements of the liturgy in our communities. The ICMA has supported liturgical composers, amongst other things, by offering publication and distribution of their work.

2006 saw the re-issue of Responsorial Psalms for Sundays and Major Feast Days by Fintan O’Carroll in a new edition, edited by Paul Kenny, to mark the 25th anniversary of his untimely death. This edition includes the internationally popular Entrance Psalm from the Mass of the Annunciation – perhaps better known as Praise the Lord, all you nations – which is sung nightly at the 11.00pm Mass at the Grotto in Lourdes. This edition also makes available for the first time the additional psalm tones that came to light after the original edition was published.

Also published in 2006 was Remain with Us, Lord, a collection of hymns that had been submitted as part of a competition run by the ICMA in 2005 to mark the Year of the Eucharist announced by Pope John Paul II which ran from October 2004 – October 2005. The collection contains the music of the pieces short-listed for the final of the competition.