Search Results for 'Ralph Ryan'

Sixty six years ago this week, on June 16 1957, Pearse Stadium opened.

This is the time of the year when our thoughts turn to schoolbooks, copy books, pens and pencils, bus schedules, etc, as we prepare our children and grandchildren for the new school year. Inevitably it brings our thoughts back to our own school years, the friendships we formed, the teachers we liked or disliked. In those first days in class you felt you had been abandoned by your mother as she left you in with a crowd of complete strangers presided over by an adult that you had never seen before. In the case of anyone who went to Scoil Fhursa that adult was known as Bean Uí Duignan. She was a saint who quickly became a surrogate mother to every child that entered her classroom, walked them up and down the clós during sosanna, and prepared them for whatever was ahead.

Eighty nine years ago this week, on November 22, 1939, the Estoria Cinema opened at Nile Lodge. It had 776 seats and two showings a night at 6.45pm and 8.45pm. It cost two shillings to sit in the balcony and the prices for the parterre were 1/4 and 9d (including tax). There were matinees on Thursdays (half day in Galway), Saturdays, and Sundays. You could book at the cinema or by phone (Galway 101) from 12 noon to 2pm and from 6pm. The building was constructed by John McNally & Co with John Connolly as foreman. The design was by Hubert O’Connor and Ralph Ryan was the electrical consultant.