New research into improving hand hygiene in intensive care units

Thu, Jul 21, 2016

Although hand hygiene is known to be the key to preventing hospital acquired infections such as MRSA, compliance with good hygiene practices remains low. With healthcare-associated infections affecting, on average, five per cent of hospitalised patients in Ireland, NUI Galway is to lead a Health Research Board funded project to improve hand hygiene practice.

Woman had luggage stolen after returning from holiday

Thu, Jul 21, 2016

A woman who was unloading her car after returning from a holiday had her luggage stolen in the city last week.

Final call for applications for NUI Galway sports scholarship scheme

Thu, Jul 21, 2016

NUI Galway has issued a final call for applications to its elite athlete sports scholarships scheme for 2016/17. The university has a long tradition of excellence in sport and this has been enhanced by the recent success in rowing, hurling, basketball, soccer, rugby and archery, as well as numerous individual achievements. The deadline for application for current and prospective students is Sunday July 31 at 5pm.

Springboard+ 2016 offers free course places for jobseekers

Thu, Jul 21, 2016

Springboard+ 2016 is the latest offering of free part-time and full-time higher education places to provide reskilling and upskilling opportunities for up to 5,825 jobseekers.

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…..

Homelessness rises again in Galway and 'shows no signs of abating' says Farrell

Thu, Jul 21, 2016

The number of homeless adults in Galway has jumped by 37 per cent over the last six months - almost twice the national increase in homelessness - according to Government figures.

Holiday firm collapse cost a local family a long awaited holiday

Thu, Jul 21, 2016

My 11 year old son has had two holidays in his lifetime. Neither holiday was one any parent would like to go on or any sibling would really comprehend. One was a Make-A-Wish trip for his bigger brother, Ethan and the other was a Share A Dream holiday, also for his brother. These ‘holidays’ were magical and everything you could possibly imagine but they were emotional, more emotional than anyone could prepare for.

Galway duo find novel way to overcome amplifier bans on continental Europe

Tue, Jul 19, 2016

IF YOU are in a band and keen to promote yourself in a city that does not know you, a good way is to get out onto the street and perform, but if you are an indie-electro band you need amplifiers, which are increasingly banned for busking.

Potential boost for Galway tourism with new €65 million grant pool

Mon, Jul 18, 2016

Galway groups and individuals in the tourism sector are being urged to apply for the new Fáilte Ireland Grants Scheme for Large Tourism Projects which is providing a €65 million pool of funds for the industry to draw from.

Six seconds that changed everything

Fri, Jul 15, 2016

Six seconds.
Six long seconds.

We've done it — Gamechanger for Galway as 2020 vision wows judges

Fri, Jul 15, 2016

Today, Friday 15th July 2016, at the National Concert Hall, an international selection committee announced that Galway will be the European Capital of Culture in 2020, after a selection process that included competitive bids from Limerick and the Three Sisters region.

NUI Galway and Teagasc form partnership to tackle greenhouse gases

Thu, Jul 14, 2016

The agri-food and drink sector in Ireland is a €10.8 billion industry, and one of Ireland’s most important economically, but the greenhouse gases emitted from milk and meat production in the sector makes it one of the largest sources of pollution nationwide.

‘Dream Big’ winner set for the big screen

Thu, Jul 14, 2016

“Never give up on your dreams, be your own inspiration, a beacon of self belief,” says UFC superstar Conor McGregor as he wanders through inner city Dublin.

GMIT president welcomes HEA commitment to review funding for third level institutions

Thu, Jul 14, 2016

Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology president Dr Fergal Barry has welcomed this week’s announcement by the Higher Education Authority that it will conduct a full review into the way it funds third level institutions.

NUI Galway telemedicine researcher to remotely monitor crew health during NASA deep-sea mission

Thu, Jul 14, 2016

NUI Galway-based clinician Dr Derek O’Keeffe will participate in a live, public, video link-up with the crew aboard NASA’s Aquarius undersea research station next week. Dr O’Keeffe, a clinical fellow at NUI Galway, has been selected as the flight surgeon for telemedicine for the mission.

UHG authorities accused of utilising scarce resources on projects which did little to ease overcrowding crisis

Thu, Jul 14, 2016

A local TD has accused hospital authorities at the west's biggest hospital of poorly utilising scarce resources on capital projects which offered no respite from the persistent overcrowding crisis which dogs the facility.

New multilingual phone app puts Galway’s history in your pocket

Thu, Jul 14, 2016

A new app launched in the city this week brings Galway’s history right up to date with a self-paced interactive tour of the city, featuring stories about local landmarks and famous characters from Galway’s past.

Histry, a new phone/tablet app available for iPhone and Android which relates Galway’s history in bite size stories, was launched yesterday evening.

The boy who found the Galway balloon

Thu, Jul 14, 2016

Forty years ago, the world was a simpler place. What we did as fun was different. The world seemed a bigger and more wondrous place, beyond the reach of many of us.

Former Salthill teacher ordained a Dominican priest

Thu, Jul 14, 2016

A former teacher from Salthill, who first felt a “calling” to the religious life as a child while attending the Solemn Novena at Galway Cathedral, was ordained a Dominican priest at the weekend.

Councillor welcomes support for safety strategy on local and minor roads

Thu, Jul 14, 2016

Cllr James Charity welcomed the unanimous support of councillors at Tuesday’s Athenry-Oranmore municipal district meeting for the proposal to develop a safety strategy for local and minor roads experiencing heavy traffic volumes.

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