Search Results for 'Ross Castle'

Tom Grealy, the well known Galway accountant and music aficionado, remembers as a schoolboy the day John Wayne rode into the town. In 1951 Wayne, probably the best known cowboy actor of his day, was in Cong filming The Quiet Man. The film, somewhat surprisingly, remains a world -wide favourite. More than half a century later, it is still regarded by many film makers as the ‘perfect told story’. The involvement of local people among its star studded cast, which included Maureen O’Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Victor McLaglen, and Arthur Shields, all at the peak of their careers at the time, won their lasting affection. The occasion is still celebrated in Cong today.

Tourism in Ireland is changing. Yes, there will always be a market for the Book of Kells, The Ring of Kerry, the Aran Islands, and Paddy Reilly’s Fields; but we have seen this year how the call for The Gathering has worked a treat. Surely Galway has never had a busier summer? To achieve above average visitor numbers you clearly must offer more than the chocolate box Ireland.

I have always had great respect for the Irish yew tree. Because of its association with sanctuary and protection in mythology, you often see the yew in old graveyards. But its strength and bulk in old age, (it can live for hundreds of years, fertile to the last bearing red berries and new growth every spring), it is also associated with love and protection. It is considered a great gift to have yew in your garden. If you are fortunate to have yew trees of a great age you are doubly blessed. Its branches are traditionally used in the Palm Sunday ritual.

Take a trip back in time to when you were a child growing up, there were no mobile phones, no playstations, and not a whole lot of money, so what did you do for fun?