News
Spiddal singer-songwriter tuning up for success
Since she was the ripe old age of 11, Riona Moore has been writing songs.
But it has taken nearly two decades for the Spiddal woman to make those songs a reality.
Riona has made Valencia, Spain her home for seven years, moving over to the traditional home of paella to teach English after finishing her arts degree in Irish and English and completing a TEFL course in Galway.
While she loves teaching, music has always been niggling at her in the background.
“I’m a bit of a strange case,” she reflects over the phone.
“I can’t read or write music, which I’m told is very unusual for a songwriter. I can hear the music in my head and sing it into a little recorder my mum bought me when I was young.”
She describes the process of getting her imagined creation into an actual song as akin to doing a puzzle.
“I sit down beside a musician and I sing how the music should go, I say I want the chords to sound like this, I put harmony over the music, I say I want the violin here, the guitar there. The musician will say where it will work or not – it’s about finding someone who will listen to me and understand how I work to transcribe and transfer what I hear in my head.”
After the song has been digitally recorded, she then goes into a recording studio to have the track remastered with a sound technician.
So far she has released three tracks – Cannot Give Me; My Destiny; Crying Tonight – with plans to produce another shortly and complete her debut album. Two of those tracks were written when she was just 15.
“I have a truckload of songs – at least 20 – waiting to be produced. Because I’m working full-time and composing at night, I don’t have a lot of time left to get them into production, which can take up to three months. I also do all the videos myself, star in them, record them and mix them.”
She has contacted dozens of radio stations around Ireland in a bid to get her music played. She recently got a major boost when Dunkdalk FM picked up several of her tracks for a show highlighting up-and-coming artists.
She is keeping her fingers crossed that her music will be broadcast nearer to home.
“I always used to listen to Galway Bay FM as a kid so hopefully one day they will put my music on air. For me it’s not just about singing – I’m obsessed about the songs and writing.”
She describes her songs as R&B and soul, citing influences as diverse as Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Alicia Keyes in latter years and more recently Emeli Sandé, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Bruno Mars, Usher and David Guetta.
“It depends on my mood, when I was younger I used to listen to Eva Cassidy, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey and Whitney and I adored Walt Disney music. I used to spend as much time as I could singing in my room and composing songs. That’s the great thing about music, it speaks a language that we all understand and helps us feel the moment, very often I play a song that I like over and over. If you are sad it can be the remedy to help take you somewhere else,” she reflects.
“I always get ideas when I go running. I’ll get a clearer idea about the chords. I always sit down in silence when I’m composing.”
The daughter of psychotherapist Breda Moore, who practices in Health and Herbs on Sea Road in Galway City as well as NUI Galway, Riona decided to apply for jobs as an English teacher in Spain after getting on so well with her Spanish students in Galway.
Valencia is now home – and she thoroughly enjoys teaching both children and adults – but that doesn’t stop her harbouring an ambition to become a full-time singer-songwriter.
“Ah, that would be the dream,” she exclaims.
“I have been offered gigs in certain venues. I bought a microphone and a good set of speakers, so I hope to do some live performing. I’m hoping somebody will discover me.”
■ Check out Riona’s tracks through her 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
