News
Galway actress acclaimed for role on both sides of the camera
Irish Screen America has named Connemara filmmaker and actress, Linda Bhreathnach, the winner of this year’s prestigious ‘Rising Star Award’ for her film Adulting.
Adulting – which was written and co-directed by and also stars Linda – was selected to screen at the Irish Screen America Festival and the San Francisco Irish Film Festival, and received its premiere last summer at the Galway Film Fleadh.
Eibh Collins, Manager of Irish Screen America said: “After carefully watching everything we screen for the festival, we’ve selected six Irish talents we are proud to showcase in our programme – talents we want to support, thank and promote for their hard work in their field. Linda was selected for the clearly vital roles she had in making Adulting the fantastic short that it is.”
Linda – who is originally from Rosmuc – previously starred in Ros na Rún and Corp Agus Anam. Adulting was very well received following its premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh over the summer and has since been featured in The Irish Times, Film Ireland and RTÉ Arena.
The short film touches on the pressures of social media and other aspects of modern life on young women today, brilliantly merging the traditional Irish life with technology and various issues that arise during young adulthood. Writing the film was a great experience for Linda, who says seeing the dialogue she had written come to life was one of the best things about the production.
“I wanted us all to sound authentic and I hope that is what comes across. In many ways, it was really hard to motivate myself to co-create Adulting. When we began shooting, I had just come back from volunteering in a refugee camp in Calais the day before and I was just feeling pretty exhausted to be honest and so performing just seemed like such a strange thing to do.
“It was a lot of hard work, organising the logistics and performing and writing and co-directing it. It was stressful, but I felt ultimately that it was a story that I wanted to tell and I’m happy with what we created in the end.”
The hard work paid off, though, and Linda is thrilled to have been selected as one of six Irish talents to be showcased in the States.
“People often say they feel humbled when they win awards and I have to say that this is how I feel. I feel humbled and I feel honoured and I’m so amazed at how receptive people have been to my writing, and I suppose it sort of makes me feel better about this annoying compulsion I have to write and create stories in my head.
“Nothing is guaranteed in the arts, but I have this drive in me to create, so I feel really relieved that the first time I shared one of these stories properly, people don’t hate it. In fact, they really seem to like it. And that feels good.”
Adulting was shot in Galway City and Connemara and combines the old traditions such as working on the bog with new traditions such as Facebook and Tinder, while following the story of a quirky young woman just trying to find her place in the world.
“In many ways the film was charmed; it always felt like a miracle to me when we would get the crew and the actors onto set and we’d complete a scene. When we were going back on everything in the edit, it was hard to believe we’d actually shot it all; it’s sort of surreal to go from conceiving something, to writing it, to co-creating it to viewing it on the big screen at an amazing Festival Such as the Oscar qualifying Galway Film Fleadh and for it to be Screened as part of Irish Screen America,” said Linda.
“In many ways it doesn’t seem real to me. It’s remarkable really. I’m so grateful to everyone who believed in our little film from the start, and I’m grateful to every single person who contributed to making the script a reality.”
■ For information about the film, visit the Facebook page.
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
