Raised on both classical and Irish traditional music, he developed quickly, forming the Celtic folk group Kíla in 1987 with several of his classmates from secondary school. In their early days, Kíla were popular in the Dublin busking scene alongside future Frames frontman Glen Hansard. Mac Con Iomaire and Hansard struck up a friendship and in 1991, and he and guitarist David Odlum left Kíla to join the Frames. In the late '90s, he seized an opportunity to score some music for the Irish-language television station TG4. This led to other composing offers, and soon scoring for film and television became a major outlet for his creativity and allowed him experimentation outside of his work with the Frames. In 2006, he joined Hansard and Czech singer/songwriter Markéta Irglová as a touring member of their band the Swell Season. Mac Con Iomaire made his solo debut in 2008 with the critically acclaimed instrumental album The Hare's Corner. His graceful blend of traditional, jazz, and classical styles evoked a cinematic nature influenced by his soundtrack work. A follow-up album, And Now the Weather was released in early 2015. ~ Timothy Monger