Dermot Troy was born in County Wicklow, though  when he was eight years of age his family moved to Dublin’s South Richmond Street from where he went to the Christian Brothers’ School on Synge Street. He left school gladly once primary was completed and rarely took any musical studies.

He found jobs working at delivery of grocery items. He was attracted to a role in the police and military service as a volunteer, and he also joined the British Royal Force in 1945. Apparently he suffered damage to the hearing in his right ear, but was unwilling to mention it.

Returning to Dublin in 1948 he joined his family who had moved to Crumlin and  he became involved with various choirs and variety concerts.Troy was strongly encouraged by those who recognised his voice of unusual purity and his talented musical instinct.

He began studies with a tutor, Michael O’Higgins and continued with Dorothy Stokes and went on to work on Mozart music aplenty. In 1952 he won the Irish section of a voice competition around the launch of the Mario Lanza film The Great Caruso and went on to become the runner-up in the finals in England.

Many singing engagements followed abroad. In 1958 he was offered a contract by the Mannheim State Opera and moved  his family including daughters, Alannah and Mabel, to Germany. More opportunities occured when he was invited to sing at the distinguished Hamburg State Opera.

He came back to Dublin occasionally and in 1960 for the birth of his third daughter Vivien. He couldn’t remain here partly because of the lack of openings for his work. In mid 1961 Troy had a heart attack and the family returned to Dublin to ease his health recovery.

Resuming work in Germany and seeking to return his family there, Troy suffered a fatal heart attack in September 1962 at the age of thirty-five.

A tribute paid to him in the Irish Independent stated this:  ‘His singing was notable for a sense of line and for the expressive phrasing, which projected an emotion completely without resort to exaggerated vocal tricks. It was these qualities, allied to a remarkable purity of tone and a feeling for style, which ideally fitted him for the subtle art of Mozart singing – an art in which he had won admiration and a leading place even in Germany, its home.’

His body was returned for burial in Mount Jerome cemetery.