At the start of this year, we knew that Galway would for a short while anyway, attract the eyes of the world; that the name of the city would feature across the pages of the top newspapers, that it might just grab a few minutes at obscure hours for sports-mad insomniacs. We knew that the city would be the location for an event that would make headlines — up until November, we thought that this would be the Volvo Ocean Race, but it was not to be.
For all the wrong reasons, the name of Galway is known across the globe this winter and you can be sure this will continue into the new year as the country moves towards abortion legislation and the political and social turmoil this will entail.
In a year in which we thought the images of elaborate sailing vessels or that last ditch free by Joe Canning would be the pictures that would symbolise Galway, it is instead the sad pictures of a beautiful Indian woman, mourned by her husband and friends, that will be the defining image of Galway this year.
It has been a sad year in the city and county — the loss of public figures such as Eamonn Deacy, John Cunningham, and Mike Diskin have left massive voids. And because of that and several other tragedies around the county, such as that terrible accident in Tuam which claimed the lives of the two young Gilmore children, this winter has been a long dark one.
Internationally, our mood has not been helped by events such as the Newtown shooting in which the innocent and the defenceless have been killed, just as they have been in the streets of Gaza and in the typhoons of the Philippines.
How we will welcome the turn of the year this weekend when the days will start to get longer and the nights shorter. One hopes that this increasing light will help us all to overcome our own battles this winter. The whole country is hurting, but when we’re hurting together, the burden is easier to bear. If you have a problem, share it, please do. Don’t consider ending your life, because that is not a solution. Don’t suffer in silence, whether it be financial, emotional, or physical, there are lots of people who will help.
Oh, if you haven’t already done so, get yourself onto iTunes this evening and buy Tiny Dancer and tell your friends to do so. Help make the dreams of a brave little girl come true this Christmas. Lily Mae goes into hospital soon for a long period of treatment. A Christmas No 1 would be the sort of shining light that she will need in the weeks ahead. Let it be one of your good deeds this festive season.
Finally, on behalf of the management and staff of the Galway Advertiser and its sister newspapers around the country, we wish you a very happy and fulfilling Christmas. We thank you for your loyalty and for allowing us the opportunity to inform, entertain, and, no doubt, occasionally infuriate you over the past year. We thank you too for your comments, both for and against our commitment to allow as many diverse voices as possible to be heard through our pages and on our increasingly popular Facbook and Twitter facilities. This spring we enter our 44th year in the business of connecting readers, stories, businesses. We love what we do and we look forward to next year and remaining Galway’s favourite and most widely read newspaper, online and offline.
Thar cheann an Galway Advertiser gach dea ghuí i gcomhair na Nollag agus na hathbhliana.
