News
Kilconnell native scored world’s biggest videogame ever
A Galway-born conductor and composer of some of the most iconic music associated with the multi-billion dollar gaming industry is taking her talent home next week for what must be one of the most original festivals Ireland has ever seen.
Eímear Noone – who originally hails from Kilconnell – is the composer of the music that features on World of Warcraft, the highest grossing video game of all time with over ten billion dollars in earnings.
And she is now part of a massive three-day celebration of video game music at the first Dublin International Game Music Festival, (iDIG Music Fest), which takes place from Thursday to Saturday of next week at the Dublin Convention Centre.
Hers is an incredible story because she now splits her time between composing for video games, feature films, TV, commercials, and conducting classical concerts and game music.
Living in Malibu with her husband – Emmy-nominated composer, Craig Stuart Garfinkle – Eímear previously conducted and composed for the Dublin City Concert Orchestra, an ensemble she co-founded at the age of 21 for the performance and promotion of film music and repertoire used in films.
She is now composing and conducting for World of Warcraft and recent expansion, Warlords of Draenor – the score for which won the 2014 “Hollywood Music in Media Award” for “Best Video Game Score” and was nominated for five Game Music Awards.
As a conductor, the Galway native has led many of the world’s great ensembles such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic and the Sydney Symphony, just to name a few.
Raised in Kilconnell, her grandfather Joseph Shea was a celebrated Irish traditional musician – and Eímear herself was introduced to traditional Irish music at the age of just three before beginning her classical training at the age of five.
“I’ve wanted to be a conductor since I was seven, literally,” she said. “I started in the school orchestra when I was fifteen, and anywhere I could get a few musicians together I was doing it.”
Eimear went on to attend Trinity and got involved in the orchestral ensembles that were going on in the college at that time.
“I did DU Orchestra, and was auditor of the Music Society for a couple of years, and then I set up my own orchestra called Dublin City Concert Orchestra with a girl called Gillian Saunders who was in my class,” she said.
In 2011 Eímear conducted and co-produced This is Ireland, a live show with her husband, Craig, at Royce Hall in Los Angeles for St. Patrick’s Day. Featuring orchestra, gospel choir, actors and soloists, the show starred Irish stars Pierce Brosnan and Roma Downey.
Although best known for these contemporary performances, her background is solidly in Classical Music.
She had the pleasure of conducting the orchestra for the Los Angeles Ballet in their inaugural production of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker in 2007.
But now, after conducting sold out performances across the US and Canada, Eímear will conduct and host the first Dublin International Game Music Festival
Only a limited number of full festival tickets are still available, but tickets still available for the festival’s headlining act – Video Games Live! – at 8pm on Saturday week, April 4.
Her husband Craig – himself a composer/director/producer – described this as ‘the perfect orchestral experience for the whole family’.
“It’s half orchestra performance, half rock concert; it uses the power of your favourite game music – Halo, Skyrim, Final Fantasy, Zelda, World of Warcraft and more – videos screens, and stage lights to thrill the audience and introduce a new generation to the joys of orchestral music,” he added.
And Galway’s musical queen of the gaming world is conducting it all.
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
