Classifieds Advertise Archive Subscriptions Family Announcements Photos Digital Editions/Apps
Connect with us

Featured

Festive fun on menu with dance outfit Le Galaxie

Published

on

Le Galaxie.

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie

We’re gonna have a party tonight,” sings Shakin’ Stevens on his Christmas hit, and one band who can guarantee a good time over the festive period are Le Galaxie.

The Dublin dance act return to the Róisín Dubh on Wednesday, December 30, having played one of the gigs of the year there in May. This year has been a good year for the band, but they aren’t being complacent.

“We signed to Universal and we signed a big publishing deal, but at the same time we’ve always been realistic about the band, in terms of the amount of work it takes to get you in that situation,” says bassist and keyboard player David McLoughlin. “Once you get there, it’s actually like getting to the starting line. We feel like things are just beginning for us, there’s still a long, long way to go.”

The band recently returned from France, where they played the Transmusicales festival in Rennes. That event, which took in several venues, was attended by 20,000 punters. Did the attacks in Paris have any effect on the atmosphere or security around the event?

“Absolutely not,” David says. “There were maybe a few more armed guards in the airport, but on any given day you might see armed police in any airport. At the festival, I wouldn’t have noticed anything in particular and it certainly didn’t affect the atmosphere.”

Le Galaxie were also a major part of another urban festival in their hometown, playing the Metropolis weekend in the RDS. The band played the same stage as Chic, Mark Ronson and The Roots and enjoyed the experience thoroughly, despite not knowing what to expect.

“It was fantastic. We had no idea what to expect as it’s a brand new festival,” David says. “When we went on it was 6pm. We went down about 15-20 minutes before the show and there weren’t a lot of people in the hall. We thought it was going to be terrible, but we came out and there were about 6,000 people there. And the response was incredible, to look down the back of the hall and see all the hands in the air. It was one of the highlights of our career.”

Playing to thousands at festivals is a different proposition to doing shows in more intimate rooms like the Róisín, so how do Le Galaxie go about putting a show together?

“We would tend to adjust, depending on what kind of slot we have,” David says. “There are some songs that go down better late at night; there are some songs that go better at an earlier show. Ultimately, the ideal platform for us would be late at night with an hour and fifteen minutes to play. We can build around that, and have different moods in the set.”

Le Club was one of the most impressive Irish releases of 2015, and Le Galaxie are scheming on its follow up.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune

West has lower cancer survival rates than rest

Published

on

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.

Continue Reading

Connacht Tribune

Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races

Published

on

Loughrea’s Marathon Man Jarlath Fitzgerald.

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.

Continue Reading

CITY TRIBUNE

Galway ‘masterplan’ needed to tackle housing and transport crises

Published

on

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.”

Continue Reading

Trending