If you wait for the right time, you wait forever

Thu, Apr 19, 2018

Weeks pass by in the flash of an eye. There is such order to what we do now, that we become enslaved to the routine so that on Monday you do Monday things, on Tuesday, Tuesday things, and so on, until before you know it, you’re back doing Monday things again.

A great citizen whose legacy will be felt in Galway for generations

Thu, Apr 12, 2018

A city is a patchwork quilt of faces, opinions, cultures, sounds, smells. It only becomes what it is through the juxtaposition of all of these things. From the difference which it has to other places, a difference created by the choices we make in terms of the type of place we want to live in. I think of this every week when the team and I here at the Advertiser sit down to put together a newspaper that we hope touches in some respect a variety of the issues and areas that go to make up Galway. A pot pourri to match the pot pourri that surrounds us all.

I also think of this every time we lose someone who has made a contribution to what is Galway, to the way we think and approach life. We are fortunate to have have myriad individuals who through their intellect, ability, and drive have gone on to plaster into place one of the building blocks of the city we have today and the city we will have in fifty years time.

Food glorious food

Thu, Apr 05, 2018

Once it was just one of the basic needs of life, a fuel to survive, but food and our attitude to it has certainly changed course many times.

No need to stock up, the pubs are open after 90 years

Thu, Mar 29, 2018

Tomorrow, for the first time in nearly a century, Galwegians can join their fellow Irish citizens and, if they choose, head to the pub.

The price to be paid for mild voyeurism

Thu, Mar 22, 2018

I remember long ago in the mists of time, being stuck in a marketing class and being told about the power of subliminal advertising. How the ad with the sound of a can of cola being opened was sending a message to the brain to tell us that we wanted to quench our thirst there and then. How the colours in certain global brands stirred some desire in us, a desire undetected until it was pointed out.

Science needs more rock stars like Hawking

Thu, Mar 15, 2018

They say that those who live in the shadow of death are those who live most. Those who have opportunity taken from them are those who see the greater wonder in the things that others just take for granted. And that is so true. It is only when you are faced with losing something that you start to miss it the most. At times like that, it hard to focus on the positive, to reach out and see a light when there is but a dim torch in the distance.

The humanity of the brave

Thu, Mar 08, 2018

Every day, it passes over where I work and where I live.

West feels left out being an onlooker on national weather drama

Thu, Mar 01, 2018

Like fading divas on an operatic stage, it has been a strange, although welcome, feeling this week not be the default centre of attention when it comes to adverse weather in this country. For the best part of two decades now, the west has been the owner of the weather monopoly.

If a rogue tide or a heavy gust of wind was spotted on the map at all, we were sure it was coming our way.

What does the future hold for casinos in Ireland?

Mon, Feb 26, 2018

This is a question that many have been asking in recent times, and particularly in the aftermath of the 2013 Gambling Control Bill and the 2015 Betting Amendment Act, and it is by no means an easy one to answer. But before it is attempted it would be a good idea to take a look at the history of gambling in Ireland in general to put the current role played by casinos into context.

Last thing Michael D wants is a coronation

Thu, Feb 22, 2018

We all think we know Michael D (President Higgins to the rest of ye).

He’s a man who eschews the comfort of his slippers and the Late Late on a Friday night to sit among us and shout on Galway United when he’s in town. Or to pop out to Inchicore when’s he up in the Big Smoke. He’s there for all the big occasions. For us, he was there beside David Burke for that moment in time last September.

What’s with all the doubling up of dates?

Fri, Feb 16, 2018

As if there aren’t enough days in the year.
Three hundred and sixty-five of them. At least.

Time to enjoy that stretch in the evenings, fuel the saneness

Thu, Feb 08, 2018

Every year, the smell of thick gloss blue and grey paint would fill the evening sky, as the work continued past dusk.

A woman who helped shape the place we all love

Thu, Feb 01, 2018

Galway, as we know it, did not just happen by accident. As a signifier of a wider context, what we associate with the city came about because of coincidences of time and place and ability and the juxtaposition of character.

A hero whose visage symbolises his own place

Thu, Jan 25, 2018

There are some artists whose life falls onto the canvas, becomes part of it, whose angst is evident in the brushstrokes; whose empathy shapes the message of the painting. They become part of what they work on, and what they work on becomes the whole of them. They become one with each other until it is impossible to ever see them apart as separate entities. To rob one from the other is to divide it irrevocably.

A glimpse back into an Ireland we deny knowing

Thu, Jan 18, 2018

Sometimes we imagine we are further removed from depravity that we actually are.

New Gaelscoil a boost to the city’s bilingual status

Thu, Jan 11, 2018

There is something wonderful about a new school. It is as if the newness is willing you on to learn things. It is the equivalent of the nice clean blank page in your copy book. It dares you to write on it, to make sure that its journey from tree to page is not lost on something less than meaningful.

New schools have the same effect. Because you can see their purpose more clearly, the facilities provided act as an inspiration.

When the rare becomes the commonplace

Thu, Jan 04, 2018

The thing about Once In A Hundred Years events is that, they self-implode. They are no longer sustainable as news events. Once Once In A Hundred Years events happen and are repeated soon after, they lose their appeal. They don’t carry the awe and wonder anymore.

Look after the little things this Christmas

Thu, Dec 21, 2017

Look after the little things in life.
Because one day the time will come when you realise they are the big things.

Because one day the time will come when you realise they are the big things.

A local lad who went away...and came back

Thu, Dec 14, 2017

There is a lot to be said about being able to work in your own place, among your own people. It’s very parochial and comforting to be walking the paths of your childhood, waving good mornings to people you grew up with. There is a familial concept to it that forms your every decision for the day.

In your own place, there is no need for airs and graces, no need for pretentiousness. Here among your people, people know your faults and your attributes and they are prepared to accept you warts and all.

Get the perfect present at Hanley & Co.

Thu, Dec 14, 2017

With Christmas just over a week away, it can be a stressful time for people who have not completed their Christmas shopping list. But there is no need to panic as Hanley & Co, a Galway's menswear institution has the perfect present with which the man your in life will be delighted.

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