Street selling in Woodquay

Thu, Dec 04, 2025

Markets and fairs were where town met country years ago, when rural people from the hinterland came into town with their produce and sold it on the streets to the townspeople who needed it. So the city hosted cattle fairs, sheep fairs, horse fairs, hiring fairs, vegetable markets, hay markets, fish markets, sock markets, fowl markets, egg and butter markets. When the country people sold their produce, they would often spend money on necessities they could not produce at home such as flour, tea or sugar. If they did not sell, they had to return home, usually by shank’s mare, with whatever they had to sell, whatever the weather.

Irish dancing down the years

Thu, Nov 27, 2025

There is a general lack of specific references to dancing in our older literature but it would be remarkable if there was no dancing in ancient Ireland, if a people with a native taste for music had no knowledge of the kindred art of dancing. There are two Irish words for dance, ‘damhsa’ and ‘rince’. The first is derived from the French ‘danse’ and the second from the English ’rink’ as in skating on ice. The Normans are credited with introducing ‘round dances’ to Ireland.

A century of County Galway Libraries

Thu, Nov 20, 2025

In May, 1924, Galway County Council resolved, ‘… the adoption of the Carnegie Rural Libraries Scheme in County Galway, and we, the members, undertake, individually and collectively, to press for the maintenance of the scheme of a County Library rate at the end of the two years during which it has been maintained by the Carnegie Trust’.

James Hardiman, historian

Thu, Nov 13, 2025

James Hardiman, who wrote the history of Galway, died on this day, November 13, 1855. He was born in Westport in 1782, the son of Tomás Ó hArgadáin and Marcella Hall. Irish was his first language. The family moved to Galway where his father had a ‘small but respectable shop’. He had hoped to study for the priesthood but he had to give up that idea when he lost his right eye in an accident. He studied law instead in the King’s Inns in 1804, became a solicitor in 1814 and worked in the Public Records Office from 1811-1830.

Souvenirs of our industrial past

Thu, Nov 06, 2025

During the 17th century, official money made under the king’s licence was often very scarce and to counteract this some individuals, merchants and borough corporations often issued their own coinage – tokens. These had the issuer’s name or his crest or motto and a statement of what he was – eg, merchant, distiller etc. These pieces were issued between 1650 and 1680 and passed locally as small change. They were readily accepted by locals as they knew the issuers and with virtually no official small change in circulation, the tokens had to suffice. There were 32 different issuers of tokens in Galway city during that time.

Claddagh interiors, some 200 years ago

Thu, Oct 30, 2025

William Evans (1798-1877) was the drawing master of Eton College in England, an accomplished artist who exhibited widely in London, Dublin and Paris. He made a number of visits to the west of Ireland in 1835 and 1838 where he produced many finished watercolours and studies, mostly of Counties Galway and Mayo. His subject matter varied from panoramic landscapes to market and street scenes, and what might be called peasant structures and peasant portraits. He painted a lot in Conamara, especially in the vicinity of Renvyle and was among the very first artists to show off this wild remote area in his pictures.

Coláiste Éinde

Thu, Oct 23, 2025

On this day, October 23, 1928, Coláiste Éinde (St Enda’s College) opened in an old house belonging to the Blake family in Furbo. It had been founded by the State shortly after the State itself was founded. The aim of the college was to teach boys through the medium of Irish so that they could go on to third level at St Patrick’s Training College, get a secure job as an Irish language teacher and then, in turn, educate a new generation of boys as Gaeilge. The college did not last very long in Furbo as there was some kind of domestic dispute between members of the Blake family and the school had to be evacuated by Christmas 1930, so they moved it to Dublin, to Talbot House on Talbot Street.

The canal

Thu, Oct 16, 2025

In 1872, SU Roberts, the Galway County Surveyor, wrote: “The lower lake empties its waters through a delta by three visible outlets: the natural and original shallow, tortuous and rocky Corrib River, navigable for only very small craft and row-boats on the west; the Mionloch Creek, a small stream, on the east and now nearly filled up; and through the boggy island covered with sedge between these two, by means of the “Friar’s Cut”, a canal of about three-quarters of a mile in length, fifty feet wide and twelve deep through the main stream passes. Besides these three streamways, there is a subterranean communication through the cavernous limestone, by means of ‘swallow holes’ near Tír Oileáin on the eastern shore which formerly carried off a large portion of the surplus waters of the lake, and discharged them into the sea near Oranmore”.

When motoring came to Galway

Thu, Oct 09, 2025

The first motor car was imported into Ireland in 1896. The early ones were steam-powered and badly suited to Ireland’s climate and roads. There was no surface on the roads, lots of potholes left by horses and animals, and of course pedestrians who were unfamiliar with motor cars. Some thought they were parts of trains that had broken off, noisy and smelly vehicles driven by faceless people – drivers wore goggles and head coverings to keep smoke from the engines and road dust from irritating their eyes and nose. Others thought they were the devil’s work and would bless themselves and say a prayer as these cars went by.

Stories about the prince of storytellers

Thu, Oct 02, 2025

As next Monday is the anniversary of Pádraic Ó Conaire’s death we thought to relate some stories about him.

When Salthill was a village

Thu, Sep 25, 2025

This photograph of Salthill was taken about 75 years ago by Norman Ashe, a Dublin photographer who specialised in aerial photography. Most aerial images of the area were taken from the sea side but he chose the other direction.

St Mary’s: the class of ‘65

Thu, Sep 18, 2025

It was about this time of year, September 1910 that construction work started on the new diocesan college, St Mary’s. Our photograph shows the blessing of the school on August 26 1912, Monsignor Fahey preaching. The first students entered two days later. There were 17 day boys paying £6 per annum and 60 boarders who paid £30 per annum.

St Anthony’s and Claddagh Credit Union

Thu, Sep 11, 2025

Benny Byrne and Stephen Deveney often met in Cooke’s Bar for a pint and they invariably ended up wondering about the possibility of starting up a credit union in the Shantalla area. They were greatly encouraged by Nora Herlihy, a Cork lady who had done a great deal to spread the credit union idea. So they wrote a letter to the Galway Observer inviting interest in their idea. They got one reply, from Jack Phelan in Ashe Road. They eventually organised a meeting for the formation of a study group in Benny’s house at 20 Shantalla Place on September 26, 1963.

My happiest day in Croke Park

Thu, Sep 04, 2025

I was privileged several times to have been in Croke Park when Galway won All-Irelands but none of them compared to September 7, 1980 when we won our first hurling title in 57 years. All of those years of frustration, of being gallant losers, noble in defeat, worthy opposition, of being classed as also-rans, chokers, of being told we had some of the finest hurlers never to win an All-Ireland, were all forgotten in that never-to-be-forgotten moment when the final whistle went. All of the hard luck stories, the near misses, the controversial defeats, the emptiness, all vanished with the sweet music of that whistle. We had to look at the scoreboard to make sure it was true. Galway 2-15, Limerick 3-9. The tears. The huge outburst of emotion and frenzied celebration was beautifully captured in Stan Shields’ photograph, our first image today.

Silkes of William Street West

Thu, Aug 28, 2025

At the beginning of the last century, William Joseph Silke came to Galway from Kilconnell. He had occasion to visit the shop owned by Mrs Teresa Mannix on the corner of Upper Dominick Street and Pump Lane. She was a Macaulay from Scotland and was the widow of a Mr Mannix from Galway. They fell in love and eventually married and together, they had four children, Willy Joe, Michael John, Tess and Annie May.

Going back to school

Thu, Aug 21, 2025

This is the time of year when parents are preparing to get their children ready for going back to school, when the kids are feeling sorry for themselves, and their days of carefree freedom in the sunshine are coming to an end.

The KLM disaster

Thu, Aug 14, 2025

On this day, the 14th of August in 1958, the Dutch KLM Super-constellation airliner named Hugo de Groot crashed into the sea about 100 miles off the Conamara coast with the loss of 99 lives. The flight was on its way to New York from Amsterdam via Shannon with 91 passengers and eight crew on board. Nobody survived the tragedy. It was the worst disaster involving a single plane in the history of aviation up to that point.

Nimmo’s Pier and 'The Swamp’

Thu, Aug 07, 2025

In 1822, the harbour of Galway was very defective with only one small dock, now known as ‘the mud dock’, and two small jetties on the Claddagh shore. The outflow of the river was too great to allow sailing boats to enter safely at low tide. They had to wait outside on the roads for high tide, and even then, the entry could be tricky when the wind was strong. The merchants of Galway petitioned the Lord Lieutenant in 1820 to make improvements and he forwarded their request to Nimmo.

The Galway Races

Thu, Jul 31, 2025

Records of organised race meetings in County Galway go back to the mid-13th century when what were known as ‘horse matches’ were run under the King’s Plate Articles. In 1764, there was a five-day race meeting at Knockbarron near Loughrea. The first race day at Ballybrit was on August 17th, 1869 when contemporary records show that some 40,000 people turned up to watch the sport. The racecourse, measuring one and a half miles, was laid out by a civil engineer, a Mr. T. Waters and was described as “Covered with herbage or moss and excelling any course in Ireland for good going”.

One hundred years of golf at Blackrock/Pollnarooma

Thu, Jul 24, 2025

In December 1923, the committee of Galway Golf club, then based at Barna, decided to explore the idea of acquiring the late Col O’Hara’s estate at Blackrock and on April 24, 1924, they bought the West Lodge and the land at Pollnarooma for £4,750 plus £237 auctioneer’s fees. Messrs Tighe, Kennedy, Lenihan and Quinlan were appointed to oversee the laying out of the new course and the renovation of West Lodge which had been Col O’Hara’s house.

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