There are few things more reliably capable of starting an argument in Galway than traffic, parking, buses, planning — and, apparently, the letter G.
The city’s long-running civic identity is being given a makeover, with Galway City Council unveiling a new lower-case ‘g’ intended to reflect the hull of a ship, the city’s maritime heritage, its Irish-language character and the traditions of seanchló. The €28,000 project, developed following a competitive procurement process, is intended to create a more coherent identity across the Council’s many services.
All perfectly reasonable, perhaps. Except that Galway already has a G.
The familiar 1984 design by Jimmy Conneelly has been around long enough to have acquired something that cannot be bought by a branding agency: recognition. It is part of the visual furniture of the city. It has appeared on council vehicles, bins, buildings, signs and paperwork for decades. For many Galwegians, that G doesn’t merely identify the local authority. It identifies Galway.
And therein lies the controversy.
Mayor Helen Ogbu has demanded that the city’s historic coat of arms remain part of any new identity, while Councillor Alan Cheevers has moved to retain the iconic G branding. The Council, meanwhile, says the coat of arms will remain part of a wider “brand family”, while the new identity will be introduced gradually rather than prompting a wholesale bin-wrap blitz. That matters, particularly when public money is involved.
But it also raises a bigger question: what exactly are we rebranding?
A multinational selling shampoo can decide its old logo is looking a little last-century. A city is different. A city is not a product. Its identity is accumulated rather than manufactured — layer upon layer of history, memory, buildings, language, symbols and, yes, slightly unfashionable logos.
There is also something wonderfully Galway about the entire argument.
The new ‘g’ has already prompted comparisons ranging from Pac-Man ghosts to raised toilet seats and — inevitably — reproductive biology. Perhaps the designers should have anticipated the possibility of a G-spot becoming the most discussed feature of the new corporate identity.
Gee whiz. We could have a G-spot in the city centre, a G-string on Shop Street and, before long, the whole controversy may become a genuine storm in a G-cup.
Yet behind the jokes is a serious point.
The Council says its research found that people do not always recognise the full range of services it provides, and that different departments and projects lack a consistent visual identity. That is a legitimate communications problem. Galway City Council provides an extraordinary range of services, from housing and roads to planning, fire services, environmental protection, tourism, culture, and community supports. A clearer identity could make those services easier to recognise.
But clarity does not necessarily require erasure.
Perhaps the smartest solution is not old G versus new g, but old and new G together. Let the Conneelly G continue to do what it has done for more than four decades, while allowing the new identity to develop around it. Let the coat of arms retain its ceremonial and historic authority. Let the new design earn its place rather than demanding it.
Because Galway doesn’t need to choose between heritage and modernity.
It is quite capable of being both.
After all, this is a city that has spent centuries reinventing itself while stubbornly remaining Galway.
And that, surely, is the real G-spot.
