Publication of vaccination dates should douse the flames of tension

Thu, Apr 08, 2021

They say that patience is the virtue that you show when there are too many witnesses around to see how you may have behaved otherwise. Be that as it may, it has been a virtue that we have been implored to employ over the past year or more. And like in all instances when we require patience, it is as we enter the final straight that the adherence to it becomes the most difficult.

Focus on new ways of living shows us the end line

Thu, Apr 01, 2021

For those of us in the weekly newspaper game, there is a six or seven year wait for your publication day to come around to falling on April 1. That day when you’d be plotting prank stories about Arabs buying Galway United, when there’d be plans for a multi-storey carpark to be located under Eyre Square, or when the IDA would be announcing a new factory opening out in Parkmore for the production of skirting board ladders and glass hammers.

A year like no other

Thu, Mar 25, 2021

A year since Ireland went into a Covid-induced lockdown, we can look back and see how we have suffered and stagnated, progressed and then regressed in attempts to return to our pre-Covid normality.

It is a year this week since Ireland went into full lockdown, and despite some brief respites in between, it seems like a continuing groundhog day. Tired and weary, yet positive and hopeful, for most it has been 365 days of living with a new fear, but still needing to remain stoic in the belief this seemingly never-ending cycle of life with little change comes to an end.

Reviving the St Patrick's Day traditions!

Mon, Mar 15, 2021

ST PATRICK’S Day will be an online celebration this year. It's a great occasion to spend time with family and have fun at home. That's why The Galway Advertiser, Galway City Council and Galway Museum have come together to bring fun and interactive content and activities for all the family to your home. Discover about St Patrick's Day traditions history, give our St Patrick's Day quiz a try and enjoy games and activities with the kids, including DIY St Patrick's Day badges, Scavenger hunt and colouring!

Return to school is the first step on the road to recovery

Thu, Mar 11, 2021

Last December, I found myself through work, in the fortunate position of being in Croke Park on a succession of weekends before Christmas for the conclusion of the hurling, camogie, and football championships, one of which resulted in a welcome and impressive U-20 win for Donall O Fatharta’s Galway team. They were journeys that were different to the norm.

But the strangest aspect for me was the emptiness of spaces that I’d normally seen packed, thronged, overflowing with colour and sound. Jones’ Road, normally a kaleidoscope in summer sunshine. Now a grey backdrop of our national stadium.

Discover three inspirational women for International Women's Day

Mon, Mar 08, 2021

To celebrate International Women's Day today, Monday 8th of March 2021, we have asked two of The Galway Advertiser's international female staff to nominate inspirational women from their home country. Discover why Galway Advertiser Sports Editor Linley MacKenzie and Galway Advertiser Digital Marketing Executive Charlotte Haffner chose Neroli Fairhall, Kiri Te Kanawa and Simone Veil.

Disappearing banks a signifier of the changing face of Irish towns

Thu, Mar 04, 2021

The banks were always a key part of the development and growth of towns and villages across the country. In my home town, we had three banks. The Bank of Ireland (where my dad was the porter for a quarter of a century; the Munster and Leinster Bank (later AIB), and the Ulster Bank. All three were housed in fine solid buildings from a different age. Buildings that marked their importance in the town.

Let’s recover the night-time

Thu, Feb 25, 2021

When the Justice Minister spoke earlier this week about her plans to extend the opening hours and to create measures to stimulate the nighttime economy, I was reminded of just how much this would impact Galway in particular, because of its role as a party capital and cultural hub.

Waiting for the call of hope

Thu, Feb 18, 2021

In all corners of the county this week, the phone is being watched. Those who would normally ring are being asked not to, or to use the mobile instead, in case a call should come through from the local GP telling them the news they have waited to hear for almost a year now.

Are we prepared for life after lockdown?

Thu, Feb 11, 2021

The answer to the above question for many of us would be “Hell yeah. Bring it on...bring...it....on.”

Make the best out of 'Lockdown' Valentine's Day!

Wed, Feb 10, 2021

It's that time of the year again when couples get all loved up and splash out on romantic gifts and treats to express their passion for one another. That's right Valentine's Day is on Sunday but with the country in lockdown, coming up with ideas to celebrate the day may prove difficult. This year and last have been tough for everyone and we thought we ALL deserve a bit of love.

It’s time for patience and calm

Thu, Feb 04, 2021

They say that patience is the ability to idle your motor, while in reality you feel like stripping your gears and throwing it all overboard.

It is perhaps the greatest virtue we can train ourselves to have, because with patience comes calmness, fewer rash decisions, less frustration and an acceptance that we cannot rush time although we might want to.

Too easy to be distracted and lose hope

Thu, Jan 28, 2021

As a child in Mayo, I always had a great sense of the potential for hope that comes with this time of the year. We had three wooden lake boats for fishing on Lough Mask, and every winter, they were upturned in our garden and allowed to hibernate against the harsh winds and rain while the fishing season remained shut. And then in late January, the boats would be turned again and the process of getting them ready for a new season would begin.

The old and weathered paint would be stripped off with scrapers and gas torches, gaps in the wood were filled with Isopon and putty. The ribs of the boat would be checked for cracks and if needed, new ribs would be created, heating them until they bent in a rubber pipe, and then bolted in with copper bolts and washers. When it was all sanded down and washed, it would be time to apply three coats of thick gloss, normally blue, with a different colour picked every year for the top board. The seat knees would be varnished, the floorboards and oars put in place, and the engines, a three or four horsepower Seagull that you’d start with a knotted rope, would be geared up and ready for the lake.

Trump’s legacy is one we can all learn from

Thu, Jan 21, 2021

This morning we wake up to a new era in world politics. Perhaps the most divisive and most colourful figure it has produced for decades has moved back into the shadows and steps can be taken to redress the damage that has been done since his arrival four years ago.

We cannot afford to close our eyes to unfairness

Thu, Jan 14, 2021

Back when I was a young journalist, I had a friend who had been born into the Mother and Baby Home. And before I ever shook his hand, I could tell that here was a man with a story, a tale that had traced its way across his face, into his furrowed brow and wrapped itself around all of his humble demeanour.

A time for our collective hibernation

Thu, Jan 07, 2021

It has been another hard week, it is fair to say. There are none who are immune from the worry of this pandemic and its consequences. There are probably none who fully understand the changing rules and regulations with their ever changing status.

A shot in the arm for a new beginning

Thu, Dec 31, 2020

I think it was Rahm Emanuel who said once that we should never let a serious crisis go to waste. And I agree with him. In every adversity, there is an opportunity. Lest this should sound exploitative, what he meant was that every crisis is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before. And so it has panned out this year.

Keep your eye on the prize but look after the little things this Christmas

Wed, Dec 23, 2020

Look after the little things in life. Because one day the time will come when you realise they are the big things.

Needlepoint — hope has brought us this far

Thu, Dec 17, 2020

This time last year when the worst of our worries were whether the bird was the right size or the pudding mature enough, we didn’t know ourselves.

Little did we know then that the world that was to be thrust upon us would change our lives and our mindsets forever. The things we took for granted such as collegiality, good health, friendship were all taken from us and reconditioned into different packages. The simple act of a cup of coffee or attending an act of worship became doings that were prohibited lest they should kill us. The freedom to run across a sports field for our children, which we never thought we’d be denied because of the wide open spaces we are used to, was also ruled out of order.

Time for female sport to be respected by those who promote it

Thu, Dec 10, 2020

I hope that no other girl who goes on to play football or camogie or soccer or whatever sport for her club, her parish, her county, her country is ever made feel the way that the Galway ladies team felt when they made their way down from Dublin last Sunday evening. On Sunday morning last when I heard that this talented Galway team, the second best in Ireland last year, top top athletes, were being asked to make a mad dash from one place to another to play a game of such importance at a time earlier than they expected, I felt it was utter madness and would end in frustration.

E-paper

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