Passing of a political giant

Thu, Oct 06, 2016

They were the best of times, they were the worst of times.

Picture Palace will be a monument to plámás but must be finished.

Thu, Sep 29, 2016

When the notion of an arthouse cinema for Galway was first mooted back in the day, it seemed a much more desirable project than it has since become. In a city that just loves its luvvies, it seemed only right that a place with a history of film development and promotion should have a flagship arthouse cinema, a venue that would act as an unofficial shrine for those who love non-mainstream movies.

It was, we were told, serving a need. And it was an argument that met little resistance early on. Back then, we didn’t know what we wanted. We just saw what the rest of the world had. And we wanted it. By two. And whatever you were having yourself. So for the first time ever, Paddy went skiing, Paddy did coke, and Paddy made an eejit of himself trying to compete with the Arabs in buying up Mayfair (the place, not the magazine), probably as a result of too much coke and too much falling down the piste.

Moving on up the charts….why we are all winners

Thu, Sep 22, 2016

Back in the day when we’d hang around the telly on a Thursday night to watch Top of the Pops, we’d keep an eye on our favourite artists and hope that they’d made a move into the Top Ten, and even to the top of the charts. And you’d never hope that your fave artists would get to No 1 ‘cos that meant that everyone liked them and they weren’t ‘your artists’ anymore.

We like league tables, we love to know where we’re sitting. Whether it’s your ticket at the tax office, or your place in the queue for the NCT, or waiting for a pizza in Papa Johns, we all like to know where we sit and where we stand.

Every community needs people like Caitriona Lucas

Thu, Sep 15, 2016

There is a scene in A Few Good Men where the character played by Jack Nicholson provoked by the Tom Cruise character, says that he represents those who stand guard on the wall while we sleep, while we have our parties, while we take liberty for granted, while we enjoy the freedoms that we have, because people like him are standing on that wall, day and night. Leaving aside the characteristics of that part he played, there resonates from his words the reality that exists in every community across the world.

Make time and enjoy Culture Night next week

Thu, Sep 08, 2016

Time is like a circus — it is always packing up and moving away. No sooner do we sit ourselves down to enjoy time, but it is gone again.

Why the impasse at the Sportsground?

Thu, Sep 01, 2016

What a difference a season makes. Connacht Rugby kicks off its new Pro 12 campaign on Saturday as reigning champions for the first time. No doubt there are still some players and many more supporters who are still pinching themselves to make sure last season's heroic campaign is for real. It is the same feeling Joe Connolly must have felt when he lifted the McCarthy Cup in 1980 - some 57 years after Galway last won the All Ireland - or when Galway United won the FAI Cup in 1991.

Direct route or circuitous - dreams can be realised

Thu, Aug 25, 2016

It has been an anxious week for students since opening their Leaving Cert results and now receiving their CAO offers in the first round.

While some will be delighted to have received the offer they sought, others will be disappointed, uncertain, and fearful for their future.

The Green Isle Hotel — a hidden gem in the middle of west Dublin

Fri, Aug 19, 2016

With just under 270 bedrooms, an exquisite selection of food, live music, and recently refurbished leisure centre, the Green Isle Conference and Leisure Hotel has established itself as the ideal location for family getaways.

Park and relax at the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport

Fri, Aug 19, 2016

If you are flying from Dublin this summer, Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport is offering a great deal valid until September 30. Book the Park, Stay & Go package and get your holiday or business trip off to an easy start. All you have to do is book any room the night before you fly and you will get up to eight days free parking in the hotel’s secure multi-storey car park.

The hotel’s courtesy shuttle will whisk you to and from the airport in around seven minutes and operates from 4am until 11.15pm every day. Just call reservations on (01) 862 8888 or e-mail [email protected] and mention the Park, Stay & Go package to avail of this offer.

Andorra holidays – tapas, duty free, and snow

Fri, Aug 19, 2016

Duty-free shopping, tapas restaurants, and a relaxed vibe on the slopes; is it any wonder Andorra has become such a favourite among Irish skiers and snowboarders. Set high in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, the tiny principality of Andorra has invested hugely in upgrading its lift systems, terrain, snow-making, and activities in recent years. It also has a strong snow record.

Has the Olympics lost its lustre?

Thu, Aug 18, 2016

Sporting events produce more than their fair share of elation and disappointment - and few could not be moved by the tears of defeat shed by Katie Taylor this week and empathise with the anger of Michael Conlon when decisions went against them in the boxing ring in Rio. It has prompted widespread accusations of corruption at an Olympic Games that has been marred with issues since winning the bid in 2009.

Time to get Galway to Clifden Greenway sorted

Thu, Aug 11, 2016

This summer thousands of Irish will have crossed the channel to France for their annual holidays, to revel in the sun, relax by a pool, and, for those who want a little more activity, perhaps take a bicycle ride.

The Olympics doesn’t fire the imagination anymore

Wed, Aug 03, 2016

We tend to look at Olympic Games through the glass prism of the rose-tinted glasses. I remember seeing my first colour TV while watching the athletics at the Munich Olympics. It was the era of the flares, the locks. It was a rare look at events that happened somewhere else across the world and we were watching it. Remember these were days not long after the wonderment of the moon landings. Our brains were sponges for saturation of colour, of exoticism. The only live events on television were All-Ireland semis and finals, the FA cup finals, the European Cup finals and the Eurovision.

We live in a time of constant flux

Thu, Jul 28, 2016

There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen. there are times when you get all you desire. and there are times you don’t. These days in Galway, there exists an extra sense of satisfaction, to which we are unaccustomed. Perched here on the edge of Europe, we have often felt away from the centre of things, but still a part of the big picture.

2020 vision for Racingman

Thu, Jul 21, 2016

I’m here so I am, like. Where’s me thunder clap? I’m your real culture…coming here thirty year or more, so I am, with me fadder and me fadder’s fadder and me fadder’s fadder’s fadder… though not at the same time like…Sun rises in the capital of culture…the real one, ate a clock in the morning like…waking up in a crumpled hape…smartphone alarm beep beeps into me ear...one hand picks up and smashes it again the wall...not so smart now is it…Pokemon Go, Pokemon go and feck off with yerself…’tis Race Week…where am I...recessed lights in ceiling shine into me eyes...discover me pyjamas have a hood in them… …and jeans…fell asleep in the clothes again...where am I...not Mrs O’Brien’s b & bloody b this year…no a cheap hotel I found somewhere on the internet thingy… jaypers the state of me…open shirt buttons and spray deodorant under arms and head for the lift…head on me like Boris Johnson…close buttons, push buttons and fella in the lift mirror does the same...full Irish with bacon rashers and eggs... throw back the lugs and dive in...lash back the orange juice...parched I am...try to walk sober like, wan foot then the udder, repeat...I’m Racingman, I’m wide out…I’m part of Galway. I’m its culture too. Don’t look down on me ‘cos I don’t know Chekhov or ballet… I’m Racingman…there’ll be racing in 2020 too, don’t forget…down the square check out paddys ladbrokes boyles muls get the odds... and ends... too early to go out yet...sit on bench and look at fountain knocked on for the few weeks…knocked on for 2020…For the day…the trickle, they’d needn’t have bothered their...whole week I’m here for…sit on steps, legs sprawled…then light up, brighten up... wink at young wan heading to work down town, get scowl but scowl back at her... I’m in love, besotted, but she don’t know what’s she missing...missing in Racingman... me. the man. I’m a cultural ambassador…for Galway…I can be a cultural icon…I back Galway…I back everything in Galway…Everything I back in Galway normally falls coming up the hill towards the stand…I light another... hand shakes but ‘twould by now anyways Wednesday and all... phone dying just two bars...head dying just 25 bars...need cash...act fast...shaky fingers dance on vomit-splattered keypad at hole in wall...good job don’t need numbers 3, 8, 2 as they’re splashed pretty bad... cash comes out crisp clean only gives 300 so go to other machine... clean pad, thick wad jammed in arse pocket but switch to front... can’t be too sure... cute hoor watching ya catching ya but not me. I’m wide out me so I am, sham ya have to get outa the scratcher early to catch out Racingman…some fecker murdering a violin in the Square...where’s Lee Harvey Oswald when ya need him...get the Racing Post...to look cool like…in the know…and the Star...dash into Debbinghams cosmetics section and when the wimmen aren’t looking over, Racingman is lost in a spraycloud of Calvin Kyne, Packie Rabanne and Ralph Lawrence eau de sweat…lash on the lot of them…the cognac combo….then a splash on ur hand to look like ya know your stuff…spray some on that little card yolk… doubles up as a toothpick…smelling grand...looking good, give the auld Jogi Loews a scratch...ready for the road...ready for the course...hop into taxi...sit in front…legs sprawled…talk the talk…big head on him...air stinks of air freshener and stale conversation...he tells me country is fecked...emigrants should shag off home…to Mayo…Brexit. Tells me about the 2020 judges and how they were only here for the day but got the clap before they left…Asks me if I read Rita Ann’s poem…and how he agreed with it. Told him that I’m not into poetry that doesn’t rhyme. Then he said something about a rising tide lifting boats..knows his stuff this fella…crabbing on about emigrants taking our wimmen, can’t get jobs…and he’s from Lagos...three ways to racecourse...green, blue and red routes…an hour later we take a bit of blue and red and he drops me in a cowshit-spattered field near Castlegar church...walk that way he says... the brown route...and I walk...go to ring the boys but smartphone still smarting from batin’ I gave it… walk straight...shoes covered in dung...sham says ‘any wan want to try the three card trick the three card trick, watch out Char-less the shades are lamping the scene’... don’t fall for that not after last year not me cos I’m wide out...Racingman won’t fall for that...this year...in the gate...meet yer man from home he waves and says he knows a fella who knows Weld is the man…get card and biro...rip page from card and jam in raffle drum to win another shaggin’ night in another gombeen hotel...always been lucky, mother said, when I won the teddy bear at the sale of work but she didn’t know I stole it then sold it then stole it again...Guard nods at me I nod back ‘howya guard’ what does he know... probably has a file on Racingman... Maybe a whistleblower will get it for me…the big happy Templemore head on him and eyes red-out from reading Pulse all night…met the boys... the boys from home...lads shout yahoo at Ted Walsh and some others... twenty years since he rode her mother...run to the stand... spilling plastic pints down new Next shirt, it’ll live up to its name tomorrow...horse romps home...plastic pints go skywards...beef sandwiches all round... grease is the next stain for the Next shirt... Lads have quare wans’ mobile numbers… they want 200 notes for an hour of the bould thing... lads laugh when I ask for group discount….an hour I laugh, an hour of drinking time wasted...she says for 400 she’ll bate me with a whip til I cry and give me a happy ending…told her I can get a batin’ for nawthing outside the chipper…and if I want a happy ending, I can watch What A Wonderful Life…and the lads laugh…I know my culture…and then the streets...Latin Quarter with not a word of latin on me…nil desperandum and all that…from wan pub to another.…with the boys…Not a sign of any Latinos in the Latin Quarter… Racingman’s head’s in a spin...time for food...tuna melt with extra dolphin...staggered up the pedestrianised streets, avoiding the bikes and the rickshaws, like fecking Tianaman Square ‘tis...hops into taxi and shows him card from hotel...Lagos man again......more stale conversation...he’s up from Carlow with all the other taxidrivers…tells me he loves Trump…drives me around town nine times and then drops me back at gombeen hotel where room was chayper than taxi...birds are singing when me head hits the bed...zzzzzzzzzzzzz..ate a clock...smartphone about to beep its alarm, but decides not to...now that’s a smart phone...still only Thursday morning…but I love it. I love Race Week, part of my culture…part of what we are…there’ll be racing in 2021 as well...never forget…i back Galway and I back whatever Weld sends out. Hup ya boyahs…..

It might be us. It should be us

Thu, Jul 14, 2016

And so it has come down to this. Ten people standing in front of about 10 others. And trying to sell an idea.

Cultural legacies are key to Galway's continued growth

Thu, Jul 07, 2016

Excitement mounts in Galway which has taken on a blue hue this week in support of Galway's final push to be selected as the European City of Culture 2020.

Time for us all to see the sea

Thu, Jun 30, 2016

Sometimes when I think of Galway’s relationship with the sea, I am reminded of the insult that the famous conductor Sir Thomas Beecham uttered to a cellist who had performed poorly. “Madam,” he said, “you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands... and all you can do is scratch it.”

Staying and leaving

Thu, Jun 23, 2016

I remember the scene about about a decade or more ago, when Inishbofin was annoyed that they weren’t getting something or other that they richly deserved from Galway Council Council, they told the council that if they weren’t getting it from Galway, they’d head off to Mayo and get it there. They said that they’d hold a plebiscite on the island, and in one fell swoop, they’d recommend that they pitch their lot in with Mayo County Council, because the Mayo islands seemed to be faring much better.

Streets ahead — get off that couch

Thu, Jun 16, 2016

There are some things that are uniquely Galway, that are of us. There was the queuing for the advertiser accommodation list back in the day; there is the Ballybrit on the Friday or Race Week, there is the carol service in St Nic’s at Christmastime. And then there is the Streets of Galway road-race.

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