All Galway children know the deer in the walled orchard garden at Coole Park, near Gort, guide Santa to their homes on Christmas Eve.
The Cool deer, know every street, hill, road and lane in the city and county, and know the houses where every boy and girl lives. They are happy now eating all the good grass of the orchard preparing for their big night helping Santa.
This Sunday at 3.30pm there will be a Christmas tree and free food at the Visitors’ Centre. Children and their parents are especially invited. On December 18, Santa Claus has agreed to come along at 2pm, and read Dylan Thomas’s ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’. Thomas’ wife was Caitlín MacNamara, the daughter of Francis, a would-be poet, and a descendant from an ancient land owning family in Ennistymon and County Clare.
Coole Park is one of the most popular venues in the county, visited weekly by thousands of local people. It provides a safe environment for children to play, and was once the home of Lady Augusta Gregory, a major contributor to the literary movement at the beginning of the last century.
