Running barefoot to their dreams...

Sometime in the 1880s my grandfather, Philip O’Gorman, left his home town of Littleton (An Baile Beag), north Tipperary, and walked into Galway. He must have been very well educated because his first job was reading the Dublin newspapers in two pubs in High Street. The Dublin papers arrived on the afternoon train. Then, surprisingly, he got a good job as an assistant librarian in the university. Surprisingly, because at the time it was a predominantly a Protestant institution. From there, he rented a small shop in High Street, established the Galway Printing Company, and cycled around Connemara getting orders for small printing jobs. These were later dispatched from the Claddagh quays to be delivered or collected from the small harbours all along the coast.

I don’t tell this story in any boastful way, although my grandfather was an amazing man; but I was puzzled to know where he got his education. I spent an enjoyable day in his old home, now long owned by the welcoming Ryan family. My grandfather’s people had a small farm, and, attached to their home, a little dark shop that sold everything from boot laces to sweets. But what really intrigued me was the absence of a secondary school in the village. Yes, there is a fine looking national school, built 1922, long after my grandfather had left to seek his fortune in the world. Seán Mac Sweeney, the retired principal of the renowned ‘Tech’ on Fr Grifin Road, told me that he had to have been educated in a ‘hedge school’.

A charming American who hid his battle secrets

I know it’s only a rumour, but nevertheless profoundly believed, that male medical students have an easy time with the girls. Many women appear to be under the impression that a doctor would make a ‘lovely husband’, and exert their wiles to make them believe they would make a perfect doctor’s wife.

But if medical students in NUIG back in the 1950s and early 60s believed that they were in for an easy time of it socially they were sadly disillusioned. As part of the American government’s reward for services in World War II, Korea, and VietNam, veterans were offered education, housing and employment benefits. Some of them chose to study medicine in Galway. And boy! Did they shake things up. In a world where the average Galway boy was gouche, awkward and broke, the Americans were cool, supremely confident, and always had spare cash. Some even had their own transport, an unheard of student luxury at the time.

Maamtrasna - beginning the search for truth

Week III

More Galway Diary

• Running barefoot to their dreams...
• A charming American who hid his battle secrets
• Maamtrasna - beginning the search for truth
• The Maamtrasna Murders, August 17 1882
• Saving old buildings with new ideas
• Paying roads repair money by kilometre is fairest
• The Tulip of Tuam and other flowers
• The man who ran the ‘Corofin mile’
• Chasing the girls, and hunting the wren
• Animals at war, virgins in Loughrea, poitín, and peace at the ‘Augi’...
• A Taste of Galway
• When it comes to Christmas, the best is always worth it
• Opening a door on the Clarinbridge community
• Gallows humour, and the late Ms Barbara Cartland
• The priests were on the ball...
• The crucial match that Loughrea lost
• The Strange case of Warden Bodkin’s hand...
• The strange case of Warden Bodkin’s hand...
• Portrait of the writer as a young man
• A risen people achieve their own miracle
• In the summer of 1879, the role of the Church in the Land Movement was centre stage...
• Miracle at Knock, and a disturbed County Mayo...
• 200 years ago the Belles of Galway spent their time ‘buying, laughing and chatting’
• Gala night for Druid: Magnificent Gigli Concert in new theatre
• Colm Tóibín’s praise: Druid’s new light on the world
• Gardens and history roll into one at Woodville
• Ross Castle - A labour of love
• The reason why the Baroque Singers are the best in Ireland
• Old Reynard read The Tribune
• China has its own Andrew Lloyd Webber (Week II)