To be fair, I can’t blame the folks at St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church for the ridiculously busy news weekend that lies ahead of us here in Galway. There is no doubt that when they finished that wonderful church on that February Sunday in 1320 that they had no idea that exactly seven centuries later, they would be blowing out the 700 candles on a massive cake, at the same time as the drums of Galway being named a European capital were beating out just a few fields away.
Nor would they have known that they would be competing with the sound of thumbs flicking through the counting of 200,000 votes as the city and county played its part in electing our new leaders. If there had been buses through Galway on that day in 1320, indeed at least two of them would have come by at the same time, although then again, the street surfaces were probably better at that time than they are now ).
This is the wonder of Galway — a wonder that all of the visitors to the place will discover this year as they embark on a trip to the soul of the place, guided by the programme of Galway2020. Those who stood in St Nicholas’ that day could never have imagined that it would all evolve as it has; nor would they have known the role it was to play in our history, and indeed the history of the New World. From the swarthy looks of the Spanish sailors throwing the glad eye at the comely maidens to the dung-splattered sweat of the Cromwellian horses that were stabled there; its tower looking down on the Galway that Nora Barnacle knew; the fishing town of shawled residents who lived a life of black and white; to the colourful scenes visited upon those same streets by Macnas and the Galway Arts festival for the past few decades.
St Nicholas’ has seen it all — and standing proud and tall over the city, it looks set to continue to do so — and how appropriate it is that it starts this as the city begins a new era with the arrival of the designation of Capital of Culture. In a time when we have seen the loss of Notre Dame to Paris, let us stand back and admire what we have at our heart. I was there on New Year’s Eve as the hastily-trained campanologists rang in the New Year after a memorable service celebrated by Rev Lynda Peilow. As each bell rang, it was answered in unison by boats in the harbour, signifying the close relationship over the centuries between it and the water that laps up to us.
It was a beautiful ceremony and it would be nice if the bells of St Nicholas were to ring in every new year, pealing out across the rooftops, competing with the fireworks and challenging us all to be better people for the coming twelve months.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the decisions we make this weekend are to have an impact on the city seven centuries from now.
In one sense, the three events that happen this weekend are akin to three strangers arriving at a crossroads, stopping for a while, and deciding if they should go their separate roads or take the one together, the one that will offer them comfort and warmth and respect and progress; or whether they should go their own road of loneliness, despair, of greed and avarice.
And in a sense that sums up the crossroads that Galway finds itself at. Nobody is naive enough to think that theatres or performance spaces were ever going to be built as part of Galway2020 — but what it will do is create a sense that will enable those spaces to be built as part of the new Galway that will emerge over the next decade. Let us make sure that each new development has at its heart spaces for congregation, for public expression, for entertainment, for meeting old friends. Make sure the spirit of Galway2020 does not die when the fire is extinguished. It is up to us to keep that flame alive; and to use it to torch the arses of those who beg to create a Galway that we do not recognise.
And so to the election and the role it plays in all of this.
Let the people who are elected represent the sort of Galway we want — let us hope they espouse empathy, respect, dignity, inclusivity, practicality and the odd bit of tempered hilarity, because without that or indeed any of these characteristics, they will not accurately reflect us and what we want.
Wouldn’t be nice if, as a mark of appreciation to St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, that the decisions we make this weekend, and the cultural projects we unfurl, were to have some form of impact seven centuries from now, or even into the current century?
So Happy Birthday St Nicks; and welcome Galway 2020. Make sure you vote this weekend — best wishes to all the candidates who have been brave enough to put their names forward. Let us hope they greet victory and defeat with the same humility.
