Search Results for 'Billy Lawless'

Judy Greene who passed away on Sunday after a long battle with cancer was an extraordinary person, and someone I am incredibly proud to have called a friend for over forty years.

In a week when the next president of the USA appointed an official to oversee an expulsion of undocumented migrants, Galway City councillors were celebrating the life of a man who dedicated his to regularising illegal immigrants in America.

A place is defined by its people; those who awake at dawn and from that moment contribute to the betterment of life for their community. To offer a hello, to whistle, to hum. Those who speak and advocate; and those who don’t. Those who lift the hearts through song, through sport, through artistic excellence, through being there when a helping hand is needed.

On August 31, 1939, Dr Douglas Hyde, President of Ireland, signed his name in Irish in a small leather-bound book as the first Freeman of Galway.

Galway-native but US-based senator Billy Lawless has this week urged graduate members of the Irish diaspora to avail of their rights to vote in any future Seanad elections.

It is interesting to meet someone again after a long period of time, especially someone with whom you spent five days a week for about six years, but that is what school reunions are all about. People will have inevitably aged and may have gained bellies, more wrinkles, their hair greyer than before, or maybe have no hair at all, so there is often a little tension mixed with the expectation of meeting them again. But the end result is generally delight at reviving old friendships, at the renewed camaraderie, at all the nostalgia, the memories of sporting occasions, the sharing of photographs and, of course, the stories about particular teachers. Indeed, some who were slogged or mistreated by teachers may use the reunion as a kind of revenge. Inevitably, some stories will have taken on legs — “The older we got, the better we were”. The reunion is also an occasion to remember colleagues who have died in the interim.

Tomorrow, for the first time in nearly a century, Galwegians can join their fellow Irish citizens and, if they choose, head to the pub.