News
Barna native lands new gig in Newstalk revamp
She’s been a novelist, social diarist, political correspondent and regularly fills the large shoes of Vincent Browne – and now Galway native Sarah McInerney is set to tackle the world of radio.
The Barna native was announced as the new presenter of Newstalk’s drive-time radio show in a complete revamp of the station’s schedule, which sees her join the presenting team alongside the likes of Pat Kenny and George Hook.
While she hadn’t always envisaged a career in journalism, she always loved English and her ambition when she was younger was to write novels. By studying journalism in Dublin City University, she thought it would hopefully give her the chance to do just that.
However, this wasn’t the case and she was instead made report on current affairs and news stories instead. “I was a bit taken aback; our first lesson ever was use smaller words if you can rather than bigger words and I was devastated. As it turned out, it wasn’t what I meant to do but I really enjoyed it,” she said.
From there she landed a position with Sunday Tribune, where she started as a more creative writer, with a tongue-in-cheek piece social column called “Sarah in the City.”
“I spent two years going around to various high flying events in Dublin, looking at the rich, the wonderful and the gorgeous and writing about it.”
She quickly grew tired of venturing out on the town every night and gradually transitioned to general news stories.
Crime was something she never imagined doing but by the end of 2008 she was approached by publishers Gill Macmillan to develop one of her stories into a book.
The story was about a murder in the Dublin/Wicklow Mountains and the book was eventually published under the title “Where No One Can Hear You Scream.”
Then towards the end of 2008, Sarah was also approached by The Sunday Times and was asked to be the political correspondent for the newspaper.
“I hadn’t really any experience in covering politics because politics was so strongly covered at the Tribune. It was a big job for me to take and I wasn’t really given a choice to be honest and I saw it as a really big challenge.
“Of course three weeks later the banks collapsed. So I was on a steep learning curve from there on in. I loved it. Sort of like going from fiction to fact with journalism, I actually loved politics.”
From this point, her political career grew from strength to strength. She has appeared as a contributor for RTE, TV3 and Newstalk. She has even filled in as a guest presenter for Vincent Browne on his TV3 political show.
“No one can replace Vincent Browne; they are very, very big shoes to fill. My first time was terrifying but I got such a buzz out of it. I decided then that presenting was something I needed to start looking into because I really enjoyed it.”
When asked what her favourite type of journalism was, her response was simple.
“I don’t know, I love radio because no one is looking at you. TV brings in a whole other angle that you have to be conscious of. Where the camera is, where angles are, you have to look at cameras at various times etc.
“So it’s just the little added complications. It’s very hard to choose. I will always love print. I would not like to abandon it completely, that’s my natural home I think.”
The interview then switched to Sarah’s proudest moments in journalism. “The big political stories when you break them. The whole country is talking about the story it and you know they wouldn’t be talking about it unless you had found it out. Those moments don’t come that often but when they do they’re great,” Sarah said.
So what does the future bring for budding presenter? “Hopefully I’ll be regarded as a very successful radio broadcaster. If I could have the sort of success and career that Ivan Yates has had for example I’d be very happy with that.”
Speaking fondly of Galway, Sarah started that her busy schedule can make it difficult for her to travel back to her family home.
Working with The Sunday Times means her weekends are Sundays and Mondays make things more difficult for her and hampers her travelling home to only once every couple of months.
She describes her new radio show as lively mix of a very strong mix of news, current affairs and politics.
“There is also going to be the lighter things, we may look at movie reviews. Basically try and keep people entertained as well as informed. The whole idea is we will be catching people at the end of their day. They want to know what has happened during the day but they also want to be entertained as well.”
Sarah will be presenting her new show alongside Chris Donoghue and it will reach the airwaves this September.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
