The changing face of Shop Street

Thu, Aug 11, 2022

Nothing remains static in this dynamic world. In nature, we see growth, development and decay. Our very life would be an impossibility without this all-pervading law of change or motion. Nothing remains constant no matter how good it has been. To be wedded to the past and to shut eyes to the future is a form of mental slavery. Nostalgia is all very well, but we must always be unafraid of change.

Here, on the other side of everything

Thu, Aug 04, 2022

I’ve a great grá for this time of the year. Here, on the other side of everything. Here, with most of the Galway year behind us; the Races, the arts festival, the summer influx of event aficionados.

Our county teams created pride and a legacy — now support our clubs

Thu, Jul 28, 2022

I love the perspective you get a few days out from something. At a time when the emotion has dissipated, the becalmed excitement allows you to think freely, having cast away any conscious bias.

Every detail has been pored over, every decision analysed, every ‘what if’ exhausted, and we walk away with pride at the performance and the disappointment that it did not yield more. But there will be other days.

Galway, be emboldened by all who wish you well

Thu, Jul 21, 2022

So here you are, men of Galway; for the first time in a generation, back to a familiar field. And you are here because you have faced down every challenge laid in front of you....and this Sunday, will be just another.

The quest for that elusive ticket

Thu, Jul 14, 2022

Getting a ticket for an All-Ireland final is an art-form. One that might, in time, become to be represented in the sea of art in which we are all currently sailing here in Galway.

Tents and tackles — the signs of summer

Thu, Jul 07, 2022

Probably most of our lives, we have lived unaware of the Signified and the Signifier of semiotics, so beloved by the linguist Saussure. But these theories espoused in those studies are what make life worth living, as they spark memory and association.

There are sights and sounds and smells which trigger memories in us all; that bring us to happy or sad places; that the mere mention of which floods our brain with overwhelming images of blue skies or dark winters.

Churches still feeling the impact of the pandemic

Thu, Jun 30, 2022

Lest we think that the implications of the pandemic are items of the past, maintained on video for retelling in some future decade’s episodes of Reeling In the Years, there are still many walks of life that have felt the blow of the lockdown and restrictions, and which are unlikely to ever recover from them.

Galway project a step on road to energy independence

Thu, Jun 23, 2022

So much of what will shape Galway in the remainder of this century will centre on where we position ourselves in terms of innovation, quality of life, sustainability, inclusivity and community.

Flights give certainty and confidence to our islands once again

Thu, Jun 09, 2022

Every community and society has gems that it has to protect. Whether they be social, cultural or geographic, there are aspects of life for which future generations will chastise us if we let them falter or disintegrate in any way.

The need for someone to be proud of

Thu, Jun 02, 2022

Wouldn’t you know that with the first rustle of the exam papers that the weather was going to improve and that at long last we can head into a sort of summer.

'Culture helped us through such difficult times'

Thu, May 26, 2022

Let us arise from our two year Covid-induced coma, and get set, go, for a summer that looks like returning to something like normal.

Noble gesture to accompany the heroes out at sea

Thu, May 19, 2022

It goes without aying that we are all filled with admiration for those heroes who risk their lives so we may live ours. Our minds do not have to go far back to remember those who have died in the service of rescue on this side of the country.

Bring on the sounds of summer

Thu, May 12, 2022

Each day of our lives, it is our duty to make deposits in the memory banks of those who come after us, to create signifiers of different times, some far away place we can then all go to when we need to let ourselves drift from the humdrum of the present, while contemplating the future.

Younger than the Cathedral

Thu, May 05, 2022

Give or take a few weeks, I'm the same age as Galway Cathedral. Both of us have aged gracefully, one a bit greyer than the other. To be fair, the Cathedral looks like it has a few years on me, as all such buildings should.

An air of change abounds

Thu, Apr 28, 2022

There’s a lot of change in the air at the moment — Galway gets its new bishop this weekend; the University formerly known as University College Galway and latterly NUI Galway will soon be known as Ollscoile na Gaillimhe — University of Galway; the RTC/GMIT is now ATU; Jurys is to become Leonardo; and there’s a new bridge due to span the Corrib; and dare I say it, Galway are beating Mayo again.

Tragedy resonates with us all

Thu, Apr 21, 2022

There are some tragedies in life that resonate with us all, but those that feature the commonplace are the ones that hit home the hardest.

Fifty years of the giant that changed Galway forever

Thu, Apr 14, 2022

Life in Galway certainly changed at the start of the 1970s. Prior to that, it was a large market town with an historic university. Its new cathedral still had the freshness of new about it.

There is wind behind the drive for offshore energy

Thu, Apr 07, 2022

It is quite ironic that for a city so perched on the western edge of Europe that in economic terms we have spent such little time in actually looking out to sea. Perhaps back in the Middle Ages, when the city was accessed easier by the water, we looked out to sea for protective reasons, to ward off any dangers that might come in on the overnight tide.

However, more and more we are realising that great potential lies in those great waters that lash against us every winter to remind us just how fierce they can be.

Atlantic University tide will rise all our western boats

Thu, Mar 31, 2022

Not far shy of 40 years ago, I entered college in Galway at what was then Galway RTC. College is an exciting time, as you throw off the shackles of your life up to that point and set about reinventing yourself. You walk onto a new stage, with a different supporting cast. Whether you were a star actor in the drama of your life up until that point, or whether you were a backstage hand, all bets are off when you go to college. All roles are up for grabs.

For the next four years, the college became my second home. I worked for a year in the Student Services office after that and became entwined with the workings of academic institutions. I set up a college magazine, wrote a book about my time there (Kittyland) and made lifelong friends. I still have a tremendous affection for the place and the people there who gave me a chance (Bernard O’Hara in particular).

Never was the ‘grand stretch’ in the evening needed so much

Thu, Mar 24, 2022

For a world that has been in hurt to some degree or other for a few years now, there is a comforting lick for us all from the soft-creeping light bursting its way through the curtains these Spring mornings.

E-paper

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