Search Results for 'Ronnie'

A new Autograph Tree dedicated to the late Ronnie O’Gorman will be planted in the Walled Garden at Coole Park this weekend as part of the Lady Gregory-Yeats Autumn Gathering.

The magic of the Autumn Gathering is to bring people together from all corners of the world - to listen and learn, laugh and share, with academics and artists, locals, historians and literary figures; to meet descendants of Lady Gregory and Yeats, renew friendships and make new friends – all enjoying and celebrating the prominent role of Lady Gregory in shaping the theatrical, poetic and cultural life which thrives today.

A literary collection owned by the late entrepreneur, local historian, and supporter of the arts, Ronnie O’Gorman, has been donated to University of Galway.

It was John Tusla, former director of the Barbican in London, who once said the arts matter because they embrace, express, and define the soul of a civilisation - but it could just as easily have been Ronnie O’Gorman.

I didn’t foresee that the death of somebody I hadn’t seen for years would have such a profound effect but as I sat sobbing over Ronnie’s death notice at the weekend, remembering the warm, generous, kind and exuberant man that he was, I realised that some lives touch our own in ways that have an impact forever.

I have a sad task to perform this week, to remember and commemorate my good friend of more than forty years, the late (how it hurts to write those words) Ronnie O’Gorman whose death last week has robbed the world of an exceptional human being.

I think it must have been in the year 1967, on a visit to O’Gorman’s Printing House which was an extension of the famous O’Gorman Bookshop, that I had a discussion with an urbane man whom I think must have been Ronnie O’Gorman’s uncle. Over the course of that visit, a discussion took place on whether there was room for a second newspaper in Galway.

You reach the summit of Diamond Hill, or somewhere similar along the many spectacular locations on Galway's stunning coastline, and what you see takes your breath away. You want to capture the beauty of this sight before your eyes, and you reach for your camera. But, no matter what angle you look from, or how many photos you take, you cannot do justice to the view before you. The camera lens is not wide enough, your eyes barely are, and you realise the scene cannot be adequately captured.

Ronnie O’Gorman was the most influential Galwegian of the past fifty years. In The Galway Advertiser he created and nurtured a unique forum for Galway creativity, enterprise and community. Under Ronnie’s benign yet focused stewardship an entirely new version of Galway developed as the universal image of the city – an innovative, cultured, tolerant and sparkling city, successful, slightly raffish, and fun.