Search Results for 'Ned Joyce'

Our first illustration today is of the cover of the sheet music for the song ‘Galway Bay’ as sung by Bing Crosby. It was written by Dr Arthur Colohan, apparently in memory of his brother who was drowned somewhere near Seapoint. I have also been told that it got its first airing in the hotel at the top of Prospect Hill. It seems Colohan, a medical student, was in there with a group of his fellow undergraduates when he told them he had written a song and sat down at the piano to play and sing it for them. The legend is that they fell all over the place laughing. He of course had the last laugh as his song became one of the world’s best sellers, topping the charts in Britain in1950.

In 1933, plans had been completed and passed by the Galway Urban District Council for a new cinema to be built on Eglinton Street by the famous baritone, Mr Walter McNally. “The building will be beautiful and imposing, designed on the most up-to-date lines. The theatre will have seating for over 800 on the ground floor while the balcony will be capable of holding over 300.”

The Columban Hall is described as a bizarre high-Victorian building with a gabled facade of opus incertum with a small porch, polychrome arches to the windows, a star shaped west window, and a curious chunky top-knot. It was originally built as a Congregational Church, designed by Raffles Brown and completed in 1863. Our photograph (courtesy of the National Library) was taken just a few years later.