Search Results for 'Grammar School'

Galway Grammar School was founded by Erasmus Smith about 1667 in a temporary premises and it moved to High Street about 1684. An entry in the records for January 22 1684 reads: “That Dr. John Coghill be desired to write unto Mr. Patrick Mains in Gallaway that he will more particularly inspect the house there belonging unto Sir Robert Ward concerning the necessary repairs to make it convenient for a school and a commodious dwelling for the schoolmaster and usher and for boarders lodgings that it will amount to.”

On Monday morning September 4 1939, the Galway harbour master Capt T Tierney was listening to a radio message from the Norwegian freighter Knute Nelson to say that it was steaming to Galway with 430 survivors from the Athenia, which was sunk by torpedo 250 miles north-west of Inishtrahull Island, off the Donegal coast. There were injuries among the survivors. Many were distressed and suffering from hypothermia. It requested urgent assistance.

“A short walk on the gravelled path and I was before the man I had come to see. There was a great peace about him as he sat there, leg crossed upon leg, hat rakish on his head, mute in the sculptured dignity of stone. Ever since I had learned the Gaelic, I had loved him, this strange man of dreams whose friends were the birds and the furry people of the wood, the wind and the small white stars.

Galway prides itself on being a medieval city. Thanks to some good development during the past 30 years or so, much of our ancient city landscape has been highlighted. Yet compared to Kilkenny, we are only at the tuppence-halfpenny stakes when it comes to physical history. But one new building in particular has done more than anything else to highlight the beginning of commercial Galway, and the growth of the town. I am referring to that deceptively simple projection of a 13th century Norman hall into the public domain at Druid Lane, off Quay Street. Designed by Michael Cadden at the Office of Public Works, using clean-lined modern architecture, the archaeological site is left as it was unearthed, and is presented behind a large glass wall. Uniquely the public is offered total immersion. Not only can we view the site, but there is provision for a public walkway over the site. But more of that in a moment.

The RTE 1 Nationwide programme is due to feature Open House Galway, which takes place in association with the Irish Architecture Foundation, on the weekend of October 16-18. The programme, due to be broadcast at 7pm on Wednesday October 14, will preview many of the quality-designed buildings in the Open House programme as well as interviews with architects.

The campus of Galway University is fortunately situated.

Instead of forking out more than €720,000 to rent office space at the Grammasr School, the Galway City Council should put that money to better use in this “time of budget constraints”.

When it comes to planning applications in Galway, whether it is for a new building, or the renovation of an old building, modernisation or improvement, there are two strands of thought that can affect the decision from the local authority. I may not have all the technical jargon, but I understand that one side of the argument insists that pretty well every building that is a few generations old should be preserved. Any additional building must use the same or similar materials so that the addition appears to be a seamless add on.

Fine Gael councillor Pádraig Conneely has condemned a proposal by City Hall to upgrade its civic reception area as “daft”.