Animals at war, virgins in Loughrea, poitín, and peace at the ‘Augi’...

Thu, Dec 17, 2009

World War 1 is the backdrop for the London box office success War Horse. It’s the story of bravery, loyalty and a mutual bond that grew between a young farm boy and his horse. But it is the highly imaginative and skilful way that the story is presented that has caught London’s imagination. The play is based on a book by Michael Morpurgo; and a recent acknowledgement by the public of the role animals have played in war, from the horse, the mule, the dog, the pigeon, even the humble glow worm used by sappers in No Man’s Land as they drew maps in the dark*. During the merciless, and relatively recent Battle of Stalingrad, (July 1942 to February 1943), 207,000 horses were killed on the German side alone (the human cost was an unimaginable one million). Animals are still used to help solders navigate rough terrain, or for dolphins to seek out mines, and dogs to sniff out contraband.

I was struck at the observations made by U boat commander Adolf KGE Spiegel, as he prepared to attack an allied ship in April 1916. To his surprise he saw long rows of wooden partitions along the deck from which gleamed the shining black and brown backs of horses. His reaction: ‘What a pity, those lovely beasts.’

Some memories of a Galwegian

Thu, Dec 10, 2009

Michael Gillen was born in a house on a corner at Galway Docks in 1933. His family soon moved to Cooke’s Terrace in Bohermore, which he describes as “the best place I have ever lived in... you could not find a bad neighbour”. He had a “massive childhood”, much of it revolving around sport. Two of his great mentors were Tom Fleming and Martin King, both from Bohermore and both All-Ireland winners with the Galway hurling team in 1923. Michael’s dad grew vegetables and potatoes in ‘The Plots’ on the Headford Road, and his mother kept chickens in the back garden. Michael was always chasing them around, which is probably the reason why everyone called him Chick. This nickname stuck to him to the extent that one day, when a gang of his pals called to the door and said, “Is Michael in?” his mother had to think before she finally replied, “Do you mean Chick?”

A Taste of Galway

Thu, Dec 10, 2009

Emer Murray, crowned by food writer John McKenna as ‘the best baker in Ireland,’ was an unhappy law student at NUIG. She came from a business and insurance agents background, and the law just didn’t have the excitement she thought it would have. One day her mother Ena told her that John and Anne Sherry were looking for outside caterers. They had recently taken over Lydon House, and wanted croissants and Danish pastries for their breakfast menu. Emer, who had a passion for cooking, went into O’Gorman’s bookshop, bought a book on making breads and pastries, and, that evening called round to the Sherry household with samples. She got the job.

The village of Salthill in the 1920s

Thu, Dec 03, 2009

Griffith’s Valuation was done in the mid 1850s in order to survey all land and buildings in the country with a view to putting rates on them. It was a comprehensive project and is a very valuable resource for researchers today. In that survey there are 38 houses listed in the village of Salthill, including those we see in our photograph, the six that were in Beach Avenue (which was known then as Ryan’s Terrace), those that went down to Cremin’s Sea Baths (where Seapoint is today), and a number across the road, roughly where Baily Point is today. There were also some irregular buildings on what is now called Lenaboy Avenue.

When it comes to Christmas, the best is always worth it

Thu, Dec 03, 2009

“Christmas dinner is the most important dinner of the year,” says Ray Colleran, third generation butcher in the city’s Mainguard Street. “And this year it’s more important than ever.” I was challenging Ray on the price of turkeys. One international supermarket chain is selling frozen geese for €25, how can they do that?

“We have been using the same supplier for 35 years. Our prices are exactly the same as last year, and probably a bit cheaper,” says Ray. He believes that this year, however, there is a nervousness out there, an uncertainty about jobs, the endless drip of bad news and rain. Families are feeling threatened. “We have already noticed that whereas last year, there may have been two people sharing a turkey, this year the same couple have ordered a bigger one because they are going to their mother’s, or family are coming home. It’s time to circle our wagons and see how we are all getting on. And there is no better way than sharing guaranteed quality Irish food, good talk and being together.”

Joseph Phillips, Connaught Ranger

Thu, Nov 26, 2009

Bernard Phillips, who was born c1835, was a widower who worked with Thomas McDonogh and Co in Merchants Road. He had been married to Mary Bowen from Galway, and they had five children. She unfortunately died, and some time afterwards Bernard was loaned by McDonogh’s to Craig and Gardiner, 41 Dame Street, Dublin, where he worked as a mercantile clerk. While he was there he met and married Teresa Hayes from Dublin. They came back to Galway and Bernard continued working for McDonogh’s.

Opening a door on the Clarinbridge community

Thu, Nov 26, 2009

Not so long ago December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, a day when schools were closed, was the start of Christmas for most people. There were not the long gruelling hours of late-night shopping that are par for the course today. Perhaps in the final days before Christmas, most shops would open late; but generally in the weeks leading up to December 25, it was the normal week’s opening times. Believe it or not, everyone got their shopping done.

December 8t was an exciting day. Everyone working in the retail trade enjoyed the surge of parents and children coming into Galway from all over the west of Ireland. It was all hands on deck, and as a boy I was happy helping out in my father’s bookshop. As the dark evening drew in, there was a sense of accomplishment. The atmosphere was relaxed and festive.

Fitzgibbon Cup winners, 1970

Thu, Nov 19, 2009

Shortly after the GAA was founded 125 years ago, the universities started putting out hurling and Gaelic football teams and competing against each other. These intervarsity competitions were put on a formal basis with the presentation of the Sigerson Cup for football in 1911, the Fitzgibbon Cup for hurling in 1912, and the Ashbourne Cup for camogie in 1915. Involvement in the GAA in third level institutions was a help to many students in adapting to a new life away from their homes and local clubs. It gave them a common interest with fellow students and helped the process of integration into a more diverse community.

Gallows humour, and the late Ms Barbara Cartland

Thu, Nov 19, 2009

I was surprised to learn recently that I shared a theatrical experience with the journalist and commentator Fintan O’Toole. Years ago Fintan went to the toilet during one of the many intervals in John Arden’s The Non-Stop Connolly Show (it was non-stop for an amazing 24-hours). The toilet was just behind the stage. When Fintan came out, the performance had restarted, and he was on stage. The audience applauded the embarrassed young Fintan.

I was in London in the late 1960s and was sitting in the audience at the Roundhouse Theatre, Camden Town, enjoying Arden’s The Hero Rises up. In the Arden style, the play was a burlesque debunking of the much revered Horatio Nelson. Inevitably there was a huge battle scene. The playwright, wearing a long overcoat, suddenly came on stage. He shouted over the noise of battle, and a manic steam organ, and divided the audience with his hands saying: ‘This half are the French; this half are the British. Now everyone on stage, and let’s have a battle’. And that’s what we had. But the French ‘won’ which was not supposed to happen. For a time there was confusion, before the play got back on track.

The Shambles Barracks, 1910

Thu, Nov 12, 2009

This photograph was taken from the first floor of The Galway Arms at 2.25pm on a summer day in 1910 when these people were processing over O’Brien’s Bridge to the site of Saint Mary’s College for the laying of the foundation stone for that school. The large crowd is being led by a group of priests all wearing birettas, followed by several RIC men. There is an interesting mix of styles on view with some women wearing patterned Galway shawls while others are sporting large fashionable hats. Virtually all of the men are wearing headgear, be they hard hats or soft caps. Notice the tramtracks.

The priests were on the ball...

Thu, Nov 12, 2009

Nothing more symbolised the relationship between the Irish Catholic Church and the GAA than the formalities in the lead up to an All Ireland final in Croke Park. To the musical accompaniment of the Artane Boys band, there was the parade of the players, then a rousing version of the national anthem, followed by Faith of our Fathers, and then the sight of a bishop throwing in the ball to begin the game.

Galway supporters at the 1966 final

Thu, Nov 05, 2009

In 1966 Galway were fortunate to get out of Connacht by beating Mayo. To an extent they were also lucky in a hard fought semi-final against Cork. They eventually won what was regarded as the best game of football seen in years, by a score of 1-11 to 1-9. And so they were into their fourth All-Ireland final in a row and going for three wins in a row and the question was, would this team reverse the three losses in a row that Galway suffered at the hands of Kerry 1940, Kerry 1941, and Dublin in 1942? Meath still stood between them and Sam.

The crucial match that Loughrea lost

Thu, Nov 05, 2009

One of the many voices in our kitchen when I was growing up was Michael O’Hehir and the Sunday afternoon game. The GAA (Chumann Lúthchleas Gael) has been blessed with its RTE broadcasters. I don’t think anyone can equal the inimitable Míchéal Ó Muircheartaigh, whose all inclusive broadcasts today are a performance in themselves. I think I am the same as most people to say that I turn down the sound on the TV, and turn up the volume on the radio when Ó Muircheartaigh takes flight.

I don’t know what technique Ó Muircheartaigh uses to memorise all the background information of the players, their clubs and colours, the boreens where they live and play, and their mothers, not to mind the local neighbours glued to their broadband internet in Honolulu and other exotic places that he throws out with delight; but O’Hehir had a different intimate touch. In his autobiography, published in 1986, he recalled that in his early days of broadcasting, he would picture in his mind’s eye a man called Patrick Garry, from Ballycorrig, Co Clare. “For some years before I started, he had been bedridden,’ he wrote.“So I’d imagine myself talking directly to him.... In those formative years it was not the people of Ireland or anywhere I was speaking to, but to Patrick Garry, doing my best to tell him what was happening.’

A bit of this and a bit of that

Thu, Nov 05, 2009

This week I have a few different items to mention and would like to suggest that it might be a good time to shop around for Christmas wine. There are some really good deals available now and also watch out for some up and coming wine fairs such as Cases Wine Fair on the Tuam Road. It is on today (Thursday) from 6.30pm to 10pm and the €20 ticket will be donated to the National Breast Cancer Research Institute. There will be 120 wines to taste and cheese from Sheridan’s. As wine makes a really acceptable present I suggest you make an early Christmas present list and note anyone who would like a bottle or two or indeed a full case! If you are buying a pretty expensive wine for a wine lover, ask the advice of the wine shop’s most senior person and usually you will be well advised. We are well served in Galway with wine shops — O’Brien’s, McCambridge’s, Woodberrys, Harvest, Cases, Fine Wines, The Wine Buff, Noel O’Loughlin at Galwaybaywine.com, upstairs over Sheridan’s Cheese Shop, The Vineyard, and the organic wines from Dirk at the Saturday Market in Galway, off Shop Street. In fact, now that I list them all (hoping I have not forgotten any) I am amazed that there are indeed such a number.

Tuna

Thu, Nov 05, 2009

You know, it’s easy to forget sometimes that we, as a nation, are incredibly well placed at the edge of the Atlantic to take advantage of some pretty incredible seafood. And one such treasure from the sea is tuna. Many an Irish person is of the opinion that tuna is some kind of tropical fish which primarily arrives on our tables and in our lunch boxes via a tin and can opener, but the reality is that tuna is abundant off our coast at certain times of the year. Interestingly Ireland has the potential to tap into ‘big game fishing’ as a small industry, as I believe catching a tuna with rod and line is possibly the greatest fishing challenge of all.

Scholars from St Brendan's, 1956

Thu, Oct 29, 2009

St Brendan's National School opened on St Brendan's Road, Woodquay, in 1916. It was an all-male school which initially catered for boys from Woodquay, Sickeen, and Bohermore. After World War II it began to attract pupils from Shantalla and Newcastle. The school closed down in the 1960s with most of the boys transferring to St Patrick's. The school building was hidden behind a high wall, and it was later demolished. Part of the boundary wall is still visible at the back of the rather dull office block that replaced it.

The Strange case of Warden Bodkin’s hand...

Thu, Oct 29, 2009

Week II
What did John Bodkin, the last Catholic warden of St Nicholas Collegiate Church, mean when, handing over the keys of the church to the Williamite soldiers in July 1691, he cried: “My God, that my right hand may not decay until the key of this church be restored to its proper owners?”

What did John Bodkin, the last Catholic warden of St Nicholas Collegiate Church, mean when, handing over the keys of the church to the Williamite soldiers in July 1691, he cried: “My God, that my right hand may not decay until the key of this church be restored to its proper owners?”

Get the royal treatment at Royal Villa

Thu, Oct 22, 2009

The re-emergence of Royal Villa in Salthill has been greeted enthusiastically by the hundreds of customers who were regulars when the Royal Villa was upstairs in Shop Street for many years. After a gap of three years, during which time Charlie Chan opened a very swish restaurant in Oranmore, he decided to open another Royal Villa close to the centre of town. The new Royal Villa is run by the next generation of the family, Yvonne and soon-to-be husband Jeff are at the helm and it looks like it may be the most successful venture for the Chan family. It is located over the Atlantaquaria in Salthill.

Cupcakes and cookies

Thu, Oct 22, 2009

Have you noticed lately, when passing a coffee shop or tea house, that there is a new trend happening? The cupcake is making a come back, and nowadays they really are coming in all shapes and sizes. Not to mention cookies in their many forms, and these aren’t just everyday cookies. The cookies of today are big, tasty, decadent things which come in a multitude of flavours ranging from chocolate chip through pecan and ginger.

Galway company wins All Ireland Landscaping Award again

Thu, Oct 22, 2009

Moycullen company Radharc Landscaping has triumphed again at the Association of Landscape Contractors of Ireland national awards ceremony, receiving the prestigious Bog Oak Trophy for the best landscaping project in Ireland.

The National Landscaping Awards ceremony took place last Friday night in Mullingar, celebrating the best in Irish landscaping. Radharc, which also won this coveted award in 2004, was once again deemed honoured for its project in the Large Private Garden category. The award was presented to directors Charles Hosty and Brian Whyte by Minister for Food and Horticulture Trevor Sargent.

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