A dry decade in Eyre Square

Meteorologists tells us wetter, warmer winters and summers are the new norm, but against all the momentum of man-made climate change, Eyre Square shall remain dry.

It has been ten years since the fountain that overlooks Eyre Square was turned off.

At least, we think it is ten years, as Galway City Council confirmed the public art installation, first erected in 1984, was switched off “around 2016”, but nobody in City Hall seems entirely sure.

There may be a metaphor there…

The reason this Quincentennial Sculpture – to give this now waterless feature its proper title on the list of the city’s protected structures - was turned off, is that “leakages from the fountain… were causing issues at the lower levels of the plaza”. There is rumour of a broken pump, ruined by decades of Galwegian schoolchildren, bored waiting for buses, pouring detergent into the fountain to make bubbles, but this cannot be confirmed.

“[The pump] was not broken at the time the fountain was turned off: we cannot confirm though whether it would work now, as it has not been serviced in recent times,” is the report from City Hall.

In fact, little is known about what lies beneath the fountain, and city engineers reckon they would have to take the entire edifice apart, and maybe dig up the whole platform it rests upon, just to figure out what is going on. A city spokeswoman said this job has not been priced, and there were no plans “at present” to get the fountain going again.

This is somewhat surprising, as long-time readers will recall the hullabaloo surrounding the Eyre Square Enhancement Scheme in the Noughties, which almost completely dug up the entire upper area of John F Kennedy Memorial Park.

This was supposed to cost around €6 million, but was ultimately €15 million (€24 million in today's money ), including €1.6 million in legal fees, wracked up in various disputes concerning the renovation, which regularly made the national news 20 years ago. One would imagine for that money, some drawings of what lies beneath would have been kept.

The fountain was designed by architect Éamon O’Doherty, the Derry-born sculptor famed for James Connolly in bronze, facing Liberty Hall in Dublin, and the capital city’s fluvial spirit, Anna Livia (aka the Floozie in the Jacuzzi ). His Galwegian masterpiece is designed to hint at the taut flow of air rippling across a Hooker’s sail under power. It nods to Galway’s maritime history, but also, in its complex, angular form, hints at something much more modern.

This public art installation was commissioned as part of the celebrations surrounding the 500th anniversary of the grant of a municipal charter to Galway by King Richard III, of Shakespearean fame. It stipulated that Galwegians must elect a mayor and direct the new city’s income to “pavage” which might be construed to mean making the place look presentable.

Last October, President Michael D Higgins unveiled a memorial bench on Eyre Square to commemorate a former Galway city manager, CI O’Flynn, who in the 1950s saved the central green space for future generations of Galwegians, when he quietly killed plans to build a Roman Catholic cathedral upon it.

These days, there are perhaps greater threats to Galway city centre, including lack of housing for its inhabitants, the threat of flooding from sea-level rises, traffic congestion and of course the likelihood of impending energy shortages due to upheaval in the Persian Gulf. There is however something sad about an 'ancient' city whose monument of its own half-millennium does not work.

A new sculpture by Alan Clarke, of Galway's mythical river princess, Galvia, is due to be unveiled soon, but perhaps before we celebrate the river running through the town, we might get the water in the city centre to flow once more. [email protected].