Search Results for 'John Wayne'

A motion proposing a memorial arch, first put forward in the 1930s and supported by Hollywood stars like John Wayne in the 1950s, commemorating the men and women who took part in the struggle for Irish independence between 1916 and 1923, has once again come before the Galway City Council.

A new drive to develop Mayo as a serious player in the film and television industry is being launched on Monday.

This committee, also known as Coiste Cuimhneacháin Óglach Condae na Gaillimhe, was set up in the late 1940s, and represented all shades of political opinion. Its objective was to erect a memorial gateway to the memory of all the men and women of Galway city and county who suffered for freedom during the years 1916 to 1923. The chairman of the committee was Louis O’Dea and the joint honorary secretaries were Mrs T Dillon and Mr John Hosty.

Tom Grealy, the well known Galway accountant and music aficionado, remembers as a schoolboy the day John Wayne rode into the town. In 1951 Wayne, probably the best known cowboy actor of his day, was in Cong filming The Quiet Man. The film, somewhat surprisingly, remains a world -wide favourite. More than half a century later, it is still regarded by many film makers as the ‘perfect told story’. The involvement of local people among its star studded cast, which included Maureen O’Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Victor McLaglen, and Arthur Shields, all at the peak of their careers at the time, won their lasting affection. The occasion is still celebrated in Cong today.

ONE OF the most praised novels of recent years was Patrick deWitt’s highly original western tale The Sisters Brothers, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won a number of prestigious awards in deWitt’s native Canada.

The iconic Ashford Castle hotel and resort in Cong, Co Mayo has been sold this week to a United Kingdom based hotelier group for €20 million after a period of receivership.

PRIVATE UNDERGROUND Residence have been compared to Battles, Fugazi, Slint, and The Melvins, and they play the Róisín Dubh tomorrow at 9pm.

Many of us carry fears within us. Fear of the dark, fear of failure, fear of losing our jobs, our homes, our lifestyle, our loved ones.

Since opening its doors in 1852, the luxury four star Hotel Meyrick which overlooks the historic Eyre Square at the heart of Galway City has welcomed more than six million visitors.

Last September I wrote a number of Diary entries on the wonderful reception that Galway extended to the survivors of the SS Athenia, torpedoed off the Donegal coast on September 3 1939, the very first day of the war. The ship was sunk by Fritz Julius Lemp, the commander of the U-30. The Athenia was obviously a passenger boat on its way with refugees from Europe to Canada. This wasn’t the start to the war that the German government wanted. Initially it denied that any of its submarines sank the Athenia, and suggested that it was sunk by the British on orders from Winston Churchill in the hope of getting America into the war.