This year marks the 300th anniversary of the foundation of Eyre Square, and this milestone event in the city’s chief civic space will be marked with an open air concert this Saturday.
The area that is now Eyre Square was originally an open space in front of the Galway city gate, known as The Green. During the mediaeval period The Green was used as a market space. In 1631 the area was made into more of a park when ash-trees were planted and the area was enclosed by a wooden fence.
In 1712 the then mayor of Galway, Edward Eyre, handed over the area to the Galway Corporation, and the evolution towards Eyre Square began.
In January of this year Fine Gael city councillor Pádraig Conneely called on City Hall to commemorate the handing over with a civic and cultural event. Recently, city arts officer James Harrold approached Brian MacNamara of the Sean Agus Nua arts group to organise musical entertainment for an event to celebrate the square’s 300th anniversary. Sean Agus Nua documents and celebrates Galway’s cultural diversity through music events, the released of compilation albums, etc.
Saturday’s concert will see a diverse range of Galway talent - drawn from both native and newcomer - performing Irish trad, Latin American, African, and North American music.
The shows start at 1.30pm with FUM, featuring German fiddler Anna Falkenau, guitarist Ivan Murray, and Swedish banjo player Lena Ullman, who play Irish trad and old-time American music.
At 2.30pm Brazilian samba band Kalanguetal, led by Andre Kalango from Brasília, will take to the stage; at 3.30pm Mexican band Tacumba Son Jarocho will play, Rodolfo Floselo García Montiel and Marco Antonio Hernández are keen to promote awareness of the Son Jarocho style, a form of folk music centred on singing and playing the jarana jarocha, a small guitar-like instrument.
Roots of Africa are an eight piece Galway-African band who play Congolese soukous and rhumba. See them at 4.30pm. Next up at 5.30pm is Alalé, who play a mix of Irish and Spanish traditional music. The line up is Gabriel G Diges (flute, whistle, Galician gaita ); Stephanie Swanton (vocals/fiddle ); Esteban Moreno (guitarist ) and David Cardona (bodhrán ).
At 6.30pm Americana band The Sumbrellas, centred on American singer-songwriter Chris White and Italian fiddle player Fede Betti will perform trad, bluegrass, and rock band The Rye take to the stage at 7.30pm. These two acts will then join together for a session to round off the day’s events
