The happiest days of our lives

Thu, Aug 25, 2022

It may be a cliché but the old adage that the happiest days of our lives were the ones we spent at school would be true for most people. When we were in school, we probably thought that it was all lies, but later we gradually realised it was true. Life changes with time but memories of our school days remain the same all the time, days of laughter, smiles, great friendships, games in the school yard, no worries of bills, taxes or finances, desks with flip-tops and inkwells in the middle, heavy school bags, the glantóir, headline copies, the poems we learned, the sheer joy of the last day before the holidays, the imaginative excuses for being late … “The two wheels fell off me bicycle, sir”.

Tobar Éanna, St Enda’s Well, Barna Woods

Thu, Aug 18, 2022

In many cases, ancient folklore linked holy wells with a god, a goddess, a mythical creature, or a serpent; they were places of pagan worship which were at odds with Christianity. Ever since medieval times, efforts have been made to stop well-worshipping and to Christianise them. Many townlands have a water source that has been marked out for special devotion, most of them being allied to a particular saint. These are usually sanctuaries within the landscape, threshold sites that enable us to step back from the hullabaloo of daily existence and allow us to access something grander and otherworldly, something infinite and unknown.

Steamboats come to Galway

Wed, Aug 10, 2022

One hundred and fifty years ago, on August 17, 1872, the paddle steamer Citiy of the Tribes was launched in South Shields in England. She was built by JT Eltringham, weighed 117 gross tons, and was registered for the Galway Bay Steamboat Company. Her arrival in the docks caused great excitement. She was hailed as heralding a new future for shipping in the west, the age of steam. She was the only steamboat in Galway, a paddle tug about 96ft x 18ft x 9ft, and as you can see from her schedule for July 1875 printed here, she was a busy vessel. On the days not listed, she travelled on excursions or to Aran.

Inis Caorach, Mutton Island

Thu, Aug 04, 2022

In the year 1124, the town was put in a state of security and a strong castle was built at Dún Bun na Gaillimhe (the fortification at the mouth of the Galway River). Several times in the next century, the kings of Munster invaded Connacht bringing death and destruction and usually destroying the town and the buildings on the island. In 1190, there is a reference to Lismacuan, ‘The fort on the Mouth of the Harbour’

Wolfe Tone Bridge

Thu, Jul 28, 2022

Wolfe Tone Bridge was the third bridge to be built over the river. The West Bridge (now known as O’Brien’s Bridge) was the first and dates from medieval times. The Salmon Weir Bridge dates from 1820, and the Wolfe Tone Bridge was built in the mid-19th century.

The construction of the Claddagh Basin

Thu, Jul 21, 2022

On January 1, 1848, Samuel U Roberts was appointed district engineer of the Districts of Lough Corrib. He spent the early part of that year making necessary preparations and arrangements and started navigational works in Galway on March 8, having taken possession of some of the lands required for the Eglinton Canal.

The class of ‘82

Thu, Jul 14, 2022

One hundred and sixty years ago, in 1862, the Jesuits opened the doors of St Ignatius' College on Sea Road for the first time. They also opened a community residence and a church at the same time. To take on such an ambitious building project at a time when the economic state of the country was so bad took courage and vision.

The Model School

Thu, Jul 07, 2022

The Model School on Newcastle Road was built in 1849/50 for a cost of £2,533 plus £800 for the furniture. It was one of a series of Model Schools built around that time and was the only one constructed under budget. It opened in July 1852, 170 years ago this month. It catered for Protestant children.

The Boys' Club

Thu, Jun 30, 2022

“There is nothing as Galway as Our Lady's Boy’s Club,” was how our president Michael D Higgins described OLBC some years ago at a function in the Columban Hall. It is more than 80 years since it was founded and it is the longest-running youth club in the country. It was set up by Fr Leonard Shiel SJ at a time when there were was a lot of grinding poverty in Galway and no recreational facilities or extra-curricular activities for young people in areas like the Claddagh, Bohermore, Shantalla, and ‘The West’. The club provided these and has been a source of guidance and inspiration to thousands of young men and boys since, especially those from a working class background. From that first day of nervous membership, right through their teens, and even after they had taken up the challenges of adult life, the spirit and watchful eye of the Club is ever with them.

The Boys' Club

Wed, Jun 29, 2022

“There is nothing as Galway as Our Lady's Boy’s Club,” was how our president Michael D Higgins described OLBC some years ago at a function in the Columban Hall. It is more than 80 years since it was founded and it is the longest-running youth club in the country. It was set up by Fr Leonard Shiel SJ at a time when there were was a lot of grinding poverty in Galway and no recreational facilities or extra-curricular activities for young people in areas like the Claddagh, Bohermore, Shantalla, and ‘The West’. The club provided these and has been a source of guidance and inspiration to thousands of young men and boys since, especially those from a working class background. From that first day of nervous membership, right through their teens, and even after they had taken up the challenges of adult life, the spirit and watchful eye of the Club is ever with them.

The Bish

Thu, Jun 23, 2022

The Patrician Brothers, at the invitation of the last Catholic Warden of Galway, arrived in Galway in 1826 and a month later they opened St Patrick’s Monastery and School on Market Street. They initially had 200 pupils but this figure rapidly grew so that during the Famine, there were more than 1,000 boys being educated, fed, and many of them clothed there every day. The school was a major success but there were no educational facilities for older boys in the ‘lower orders’ in Galway so Bishop McEvilly invited the Patrician Brothers to set up a secondary school.

Sickeen/Suckeen

Thu, Jun 16, 2022

According to O’Donovan’s Ordnance Survey Letters from 1839, “Suckine is now pronounced Suicín, which is, out of satirical humour frequently called Suicín na Mallacht, that is “Sickeen of the Imprecations or Curses”. It is written Sickeen Dyke in the Name Book and described as lying where the road from Galway to Menlo crosses the flooded land at Coolagh.”

Sickeen/Suckeen

Wed, Jun 15, 2022

Sickeen/Suckeen
According to O’Donovan’s Ordnance Survey Letters from 1839, “Suckine is now pronounced Suicín, which is, out of satirical humour frequently called Suicín na Mallacht, that is “Sickeen of the Imprecations or Curses”. It is written Sickeen Dyke in the Name Book and described as lying where the road from Galway to Menlo crosses the flooded land at Coolagh.”

McDonagh’s, a Galway treasure

Thu, Jun 09, 2022

Patrick McDonagh from Galway was born in 1817 and married Sarah Cooney. They had a son Michael who married Peggy Wallace in 1870, and they in turn had a son Colman in 1875. He had a habit of whispering in people's ears and so became known as ‘Cogar’. In 1902, he moved from Carraroe to Galway and rented stores at the back of the Spanish Arch from Peter Greene. From there, he began to sell coal, carrying it on a horse and cart.

Bohermore and some of its people

Thu, Jun 02, 2022

On the 1651 map of Galway, Bohermore is shown as running from The Green (Eyre Square) to the present Cemetery Cross where the ‘Old Gallows’ was located. There was also a gallows ‘where justice is executed’ near the Green. To the left and right of Bohermore, the land was known as St Bridget’s Hill and the region around Prospect Hill was known as Knocknaganach (Cnoc na Gaineamh), the Sandy Hill.

Steamer’s Quay

Thu, May 26, 2022

Alexander Nimmo made a survey of Lough Corrib almost 200 years ago in which he wrote the following: “The lake has 50 miles of shore, occupies 30,000 Irish acres and contains 1,000 acres of arable land in its isles, and contracts into a very spacious river about two and a half miles above Galway, which, flowing by the town, communicates with the Atlantic. The fall from the summit of the lake to the sea is considerable, but to the Wood Quay, above the town, it is trifling, and the river is in parts very shallow, running over a bed of rocks and hard gravel. It is not navigable from the sea to the Wood Quay owing to its shallowness and the rapidity of the water, and none but small boats can come down; but unless in very dry seasons, it is thence navigable by boats drawing four feet of water and carrying from ten to twenty tons, with one square sail and four men, to Cong. They seldom sail, unless before the wind, and though the lake has many islets and sunken rocks, the only serious difficulty in navigation is at Buachally Shoal about four miles up the lake, and at Newcastle. These shoals could be deepened for a small sum and the whole made to admit vessels of much greater magnitude. The fine navigation which extends about 30 miles, and into a seaport town, seems to deserve more attention than it has yet received. A good chart with soundings and sailing instructions should be published, the shoals or rocks cleared or beaconed, and a communication opened with the sea.”

The legend of the last battle in Connemara

Thu, May 19, 2022

During the war of Independence the West Connemara IRA brigade, under the command of Petie McDonnell, was an effective and disciplined force. It had moved its headquarters to the Muintir Eoin residence of Pádraic Mór Ó Máille, a two-storey farmhouse, backed by rock and heather covered hills, which stood on a small rise, along the Maam to Leenane road. It offered commanding views of the Maam Valley.

A night of terror

Wed, May 11, 2022

In November 1920, Jimmy Folan, aged 20, of O’Donoghue Terrace, Woodquay, was sentenced by court martial to six months imprisonment with hard labour for acting as a republican policeman and possessing seditious documents – one of which blamed the local RIC for the killings of Seamus Quirk and Seán Mulvoy. Having served his time, he was released on May 10, 1921. That evening, a benevolent RIC sergeant warned a local volunteer to tell Jimmy ‘not to be at home tonight’.

Digital Equipment Corporation, fifty years in Galway

Thu, May 05, 2022

In May 1971, it was reported that US computer manufacturer, Digital Equipment Corporation (known here simply as DEC) had chosen Galway for its first hardware manufacturing base in Europe because of the availability of an English speaking workforce, a favourable tax policy, a local university, and the anticipated entry of Ireland into the EEC.

The Galway Youth Orchestra, forty years

Thu, Apr 28, 2022

Years ago, there was neither an independent community orchestra nor a musical instrument teaching system in Galway city or county. A handful of schools, mostly run by religious orders, taught a small range of instruments and would put a small orchestra together for their annual school show or operetta, their music teachers being very influential in passing on a love of music to their pupils.

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