Search Results for 'Finbarr'

In 1965, the Galway Arms Golf Society was formed in the pub of that name on Dominick Street with the blessing of the owners, Jimmy and Nancy Coen. The idea of forming a society was Tommy Donnelly’s who, for his troubles, became its first secretary. Jimmy Coen was elected the first president, Finbarr O’Mahony as treasurer and Paddy Noonan as club captain.

On January 15, 1827 two Patrician Brothers, Paul O’Connor and James Walsh, took up residence in Lombard Street and set up the Monastery School. The attendance on that first day was 300 boys, many of whom had little interest in learning because they were poor and hungry. So the Brothers set up The Poor Boy’s Breakfast Institute in May 1830. It continued seven days a week, 365 days a year for many years after the founders' time. The breakfast consisted of porridge with molasses or treacle, and during the Famine, they fed 1,000 boys every day. The ‘Old Mon’ became a vital cog in education in Galway.

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.

About a zillion decades ago, back in the days before finding yourself was actually called finding yourself, I found myself in Westport attending a Finding Yourself Course run by Anco. It was actually some form of computerised bookkeeping, but in those days it was the closest to anything technology-based that Anco were likely to offer. I had digs in Mrs Sheridan’s in Altamont Street and every morning and evening, fortified by breakfast cooked by Mary Calvey, I would traipse the walk between there and the Westport Ryan Hotel.