Alumni Spotlight: Irene Buckley - Composer

8 Dec 2025

Composer Irene Buckley works across choral, operatic, orchestral, theatrical, film, and electronic music, and has collaborated extensively with filmmaker Pat Collins. She has earned multiple award nominations, including two IFTAs and a Cinema Eye Honors nomination for her film scores co-composed with Linda Buckley. Recent projects include live scores for silent films and her opera Lament for Art O’Leary, which was selected to represent Ireland at the 2025 International Rostrum of Composers.

I studied music and earned my BMus in 1999. The degree course was wonderfully diverse and opened my eyes and ears to an incredible range of musical traditions from around the world. In 2013, I completed my PhD in Composition.

Tell us a bit about your career journey - how did you get to where you are today? 

Music has always been a big part of my life, growing up in a musical family. From my teenage years, I knew I wanted to be a film composer, and that passion has never faded. Early in my career, with few opportunities in film, I turned to composing music for theatre and dance. Those experiences not only honed my craft but deepened my understanding of how music can shape emotion, atmosphere and narrative.

Looking back, is there a particular score that has challenged you the most? 

I had the honour of composing the score, alongside my sister Linda, for Nothing Compares, a documentary celebrating the remarkable artist Sinéad O’Connor. Scoring a music documentary comes with unique challenges: each transition between Sinéad’s iconic songs had to flow seamlessly, with careful attention to key signatures, tempo, and tonal shifts to achieve musical coherence.

You often collaborate with your sister, and fellow UCC alum, Linda Buckley. How do your creative processes complement each other when you work together?

We each bring different strengths to the creative process. Our styles are similar, which makes collaborating easy. Linda often tends to think about the overall structure (macro), while I tend to focus of the finer details (micro). When we composed a live score for the silent film Metropolis, which runs for two and a half hours, Linda suggested dividing the score into sections: she composed for the dark, industrial underground scenes, while I focused on the lighter, overground sequences. This method allowed us to focus on specific themes and create a better workflow.

What inspires you? 

Attending live performances continually inspires me, and I often travel abroad for music festivals. Spending time in nature is equally important to me, a space where I find my creativity can flourish and my mind finds calm.

Any advice for aspiring composers? 

Joining the Screen Composers Guild of Ireland has been particularly helpful, as they provide invaluable support to their members and offer a wide range of resources to help composers advance their careers.

Best memories from your time at UCC?

I have so many wonderful memories from my degree course - one particularly memorable moment was performing Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater with the UCC Choir and a full orchestra. It was my first opportunity to participate in a project of this scale, and I was deeply struck by the power and beauty of the work.

Another fond memory is wandering through the Classical music shelves in Q+3 of the Boole Library, gathering records and recording them onto cassette tapes to prepare for our listening exams.

I also remember going to traditional music sessions and gigs at the Lobby Bar with my classmates, where the atmosphere was always filled with a joyful, infectious energy. I have made lifelong friends during this time and I am always grateful for that.