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Celebrating its 30th year in 2024, Fleadh na gCuach (the Cuckoo Fleadh) is a cherished traditional music and community-based arts festival held in Kinvara, Galway. Known for its vibrant ambiance and exceptional talent, the festival has garnered a stellar reputation as a showcase for traditional music, attracting musicians from across Ireland and beyond.

As communities in the coastal towns of Kinvara and Clarinbridge rally to support one another following the devastating blow to buildings and infrastructure, the question facing affected residents and business owners is ‘how will we rebuild’?

Alexander Nimmo made a survey of Lough Corrib almost 200 years ago in which he wrote the following: “The lake has 50 miles of shore, occupies 30,000 Irish acres and contains 1,000 acres of arable land in its isles, and contracts into a very spacious river about two and a half miles above Galway, which, flowing by the town, communicates with the Atlantic. The fall from the summit of the lake to the sea is considerable, but to the Wood Quay, above the town, it is trifling, and the river is in parts very shallow, running over a bed of rocks and hard gravel. It is not navigable from the sea to the Wood Quay owing to its shallowness and the rapidity of the water, and none but small boats can come down; but unless in very dry seasons, it is thence navigable by boats drawing four feet of water and carrying from ten to twenty tons, with one square sail and four men, to Cong. They seldom sail, unless before the wind, and though the lake has many islets and sunken rocks, the only serious difficulty in navigation is at Buachally Shoal about four miles up the lake, and at Newcastle. These shoals could be deepened for a small sum and the whole made to admit vessels of much greater magnitude. The fine navigation which extends about 30 miles, and into a seaport town, seems to deserve more attention than it has yet received. A good chart with soundings and sailing instructions should be published, the shoals or rocks cleared or beaconed, and a communication opened with the sea.”

John Henry Foley was one of the greatest artists this country produced in the 19th century. He was a world famous sculptor who was commissioned to produce many public works in different parts of the world including Galway. The statue he produced here was of Lord Dunkellin, a 2.5 metre high bronze on a polished Peterhead red granite base which stood on two steps of Aberdeen granite about 20 yards inside the main gate into the Square. ‘In none of the great works which have given him world-wide celebrity has he shown more genius and skill than in the present instance where, with only the slender assistance of a photograph, has he been able to produce the faithful likeness.’

These two women are chatting at the doorway of a Claddagh house on Dogfish Lane c1920. The lane is cobbled, the geese and hens are pecking around, the thatch roof is perfect, there are flowers on the windowsill, everything is calm and peaceful, but what are they talking about? Could it be about piseógs, about the ‘good people’, the fairies, the banshee?

“On Thursday night a crowd numbering several thousand assembled inside the Square, and two men set to work sawing at the base of life-size bronze monument of Lord Dunkellin, a brother of the notorious landlord, Lord Clanricarde of Portumna. In a scene reminiscent of the downfall of Saddam Hussain’s statue in Baghdad, shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a rope was fastened around Dunkellin’s neck, and with a mighty pull, down it fell amidst great applause.”

It is winter. Cold out. Most of us sane people cosy up to a toasty, warm, fire in the evening. On the other hand there are the hardy souls of the Atlantic Masters Swimming Club who plunge into the icy ocean at all times of the year and live to tell the tale and even thrive on the experience.

A special celebration of seafood to mark the Galway, West of Ireland 2018 European Region of Gastronomy awaits visitors to the long-standing traditional sailing festival Cruinniú na mBád in the picturesque harbour village of Kinvara this weekend.

IN MAY 1922, a bronze memorial statue to Lord Dunkellin, which had stood in Eyre Square for almost 50 years, was pulled from its pedestal and dumped into the River Corrib. It disappeared overnight and has never resurfaced.