{"id":279466,"date":"2026-02-04T01:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T01:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/279466\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T01:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T01:28:12","slug":"it-was-a-real-joy-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/279466\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It was a real joy\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Killarney man who mastered Kendrick Lamar<\/a>\u2019s Grammy award<\/a>-winning record Luther has said \u201cit was a real joy\u201d to work with the rapper. <\/p>\n

Mastering engineer Ruair\u00ed O\u2019Flaherty worked with Lamar on his surprise release album, GNX. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really fun to be part of an album that was under wraps. No one knew it was coming,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery project has a different rhythm and this one was in some ways challenging and complex and in other ways very easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lamar became the most-awarded rapper in Grammys history after he won five gongs<\/a> on Sunday night, bringing his total up to 27 Grammy awards. <\/p>\n

Although O\u2019Flaherty worked on the project which won the four awards, he receives a trophy only for record of the year. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe funny thing about mastering is there are only three categories in contemporary music where you get a trophy and that\u2019s album of the year, record of the year and best engineered non classical,\u201d the California-based Kerry man said. <\/p>\n

The Sunday night prize marks the mastering engineer\u2019s first Grammy, having seven nominations under his belt for work with Sabrina Carpenter<\/a> and Lana Del Rey<\/a>. <\/p>\n

He was twice nominated this year in the record of the year category for Carpenter\u2019s Manchild along with Luther, and album of the year for his mastering work on Carpenter\u2019s Man\u2019s Best Friend as well as GNX. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have two things like that nominated against each other you are just kind of grateful that they are being recognised, and you\u2019re happy for the artist and the team.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Who is Bad Bunny? Only the \u2018King of Latin Trap\u2019 and next weekend\u2019s Super Bowl headlinerOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point of what we [mastering engineers] are doing is not to get recognised. As you get older, and I have been doing this a long time, you realise where the true value is; in the relationships and the joy of it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

In the wake of his Grammy win, O\u2019Flaherty is swamped with \u201chundreds of messages from Killarney and my family too\u201d. <\/p>\n

However, there are two high-profile well-wishers who are notably absent. Namely, the Healy-Raes. \u201cWinning a Grammy is one thing, but a direct message from a Healy-Rae, I don\u2019t know if I could handle that. That could be too much altogether for me,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

\"DonnachaDonnacha Dennehy received an award for his work Land of Winter. Photograph: Hugh O’Conor <\/p>\n

Also taking home a gong at the 68th Grammy awards was composer Donnacha Dennehy<\/a>, who won an award for best chamber music\/small ensemble performance.<\/p>\n

The Dubliner received the award for his third album Land of Winter, which was also nominated for best contemporary classical composition.<\/p>\n

The album is his largest non-operatic work, and is performed by Alarm Will Sound, a 20-member chamber orchestra, and conducted by Alan Pierson. <\/p>\n

The 12-movement piece explores the character of Irish seasons through rhythm and harmony.<\/p>\n

\"ComposerComposer Emma O’Halloran\u2019s operas Trade\/Mary Motorhead explore the complex modern lives of three characters. Photograph: Alex Dowling <\/p>\n

Other Irish nominees included Athlone woman Emma O\u2019Halloran<\/a>. The composer\u2019s double opera Trade\/Mary Motorhead was nominated for best opera recording. <\/p>\n

She was nominated along with Cork woman Elaine Kelly<\/a> for her work as a conductor on the recording, which was performed by the Irish National Opera and released on Signum records in August 2025.<\/p>\n

\"ElaineElaine Kelly, resident conductor of Irish National Opera, was also nominated for an award <\/p>\n

The operas, which explore the complex modern lives of three characters, are based on original plays by Mark O\u2019Halloran, the composer\u2019s uncle.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Trade\/Mary Motorhead review: Compelling double bill reveals Emma O\u2019Halloran\u2019s impressive instinct for operaOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Trade\/Mary Motorhead featured fellow 2026 Grammy nominee mezzo-soprano Naomi Louisa O\u2019Connell<\/a>, along with John Molloy<\/a> and Ois\u00edn \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell was further nominated in this category for her work on Mary Kouyoumdjian\u2019s opera Adoration which follows a high school student whose fictional story about a terrorist plot goes viral.<\/p>\n

The best opera recording went to the Houston Grand Opera for their production of Jake Heggie\u2019s Intelligence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Killarney man who mastered Kendrick Lamar\u2019s Grammy award-winning record Luther has said \u201cit was a real joy\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[135286,93,21947,61,60,135287,7488,41695,1834],"class_list":{"0":"post-279466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-emma-o-halloran","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-grammy-awards","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-john-molloy","14":"tag-kendrick-lamar","15":"tag-lana-del-rey","16":"tag-sabrina-carpenter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}