Get dressed for the new season at GM2
Thu, Sep 25, 2008
Catch the latest trends in menswear for autumn/winter with a visit to GM2 in Liosban.
Read more ...Visit Santa in Lapland
Thu, Sep 25, 2008
Lapland promises fun for all ages. It's not just Santa Claus that makes Lapland so exciting — there is fun for all ages and a whole host of activities to enjoy in a snow-covered winter wonderland.
Read more ...Buy beds and get free duvets and pillows at Better Bedding
Thu, Sep 25, 2008
A Galway bedding company is making sure that its customers are as snug as a bug in a rug this winter by offering free duvets and pillows with all beds that are sold.
Read more ...New range as Gaeilge for Judy Greene
Thu, Sep 25, 2008
World renowned potter Judy Greene celebrates 26 years in business in Galway this year. To celebrate this incredible achievement, Judy Greene is currently producing a new range of pottery featuring the use of the Irish language in association with Gaillimh le Gaeilge.
Read more ...Free composting demonstration in Clarenbridge this weekend
Thu, Sep 25, 2008
Clarenbridge Lifestyle and Garden Centre will host a composting demonstration this Saturday. The event, organised in association with the Galway County Council and Clarenbridge Tidy Towns committee, follows a previous very successful composting event at the centre.
Read more ...gardening with Anne McKeon
Thu, Sep 25, 2008
The winter garden can be a very peaceful garden offering a break from the routine gardening chores of summer lawn mowing, hedge cutting, weeding, etc.
Read more ...The Spanish Arch, one hundred and seventy years ago
Thu, Sep 25, 2008
Antique paintings can be very important documents of social history, giving us an insight into what life must have been like when the picture was painted. They can recreate for us the streets and scenes and buildings where our ancestors may have lived or worked, show us how they dressed, the games they played, etc, before the Famine or before photography was invented. Such images of Galway are rare, so it is a pleasure to come across this descriptive watercolour of the back of the Spanish Arch, which is in a private collection.
Read more ...Some of the awful things George Moore said...
Thu, Sep 25, 2008
You might think that those at the core of the Irish literary renaissance at the beginning of the 20th century, were one big happy family beavering away in their rooms at Lady Gregory’s home at Coole, Co Galway. In those early days it was a house full of voices and sounds. Sometimes you heard WB Yeats humming the rhythm of a poem he was cobbling together; or the click-clacking of Lady Gregory’s typewriter as she worked on another play for the Abbey. There was the sound of the Gregory grandchildren playing in the garden; the booming voice of George Bernard Shaw, as he complains that he is only allowed to have either butter or jam on his bread, but not both to comply with war rations (He cheated by the way. He put butter on one side of his bread, and when he thought no one was looking, piled jam on the other!); or the voices of the artist Jack Yeats and JM Synge returning from a day messing about on a boat calling out to a shy Sean O’Casey to come out of the library for God’s sake and enjoy the summer afternoon.
And then there was the flamboyantly Bohemian Augustus John, who was her son Robert’s best man at his wedding. John was a bit wild, and loved to pinch maids’ bottoms as he swept by (“Oh! Mr John!”). It was unlikely, however, he ever pinched Marian. She was the kindly but formidable Lady Gregory’s right-hand ‘man’ in all domestic arrangements. Marian saw that guests dressed properly for meals, which were always served punctually. Despite his wickedness, she had a soft spot for Augustus. Augustus would climb to the top of the highest trees at Coole, and lie on the uppermost branches swaying in the breeze. Marian’s voice could be heard shouting up to him to come down or he’d be killed, and that dinner was on the table.
Read more ...The time trap
Thu, Sep 18, 2008
“Oh, look at the time, where has the day gone?” or “How am I going to get all these jobs done before bedtime?” are familiar moans.
Read more ...Introducing Coole Desserts
Thu, Sep 18, 2008
A selection of signature sweets created exclusively for Coole Swan
Read more ...Gourmet dinner on a budget
Thu, Sep 18, 2008
A lot of people are complaining that they cannot afford to eat out as often as before, prices are too high, less money in the home budget, cost of babysitting, etc. The cost of eating out is indeed high and that is why I recommend that you take great care when planning a meal out.
Read more ...Hotel Meyrick - a fine dining gem in the heart of Galway
Thu, Sep 18, 2008
If you thought that a well cooked meal complete with great service and relaxing atmosphere was near to impossible to find in Galway these days, well look again, because there’s still a gem of a restaurant to be found at the Hotel Meyrick in Eyre Square.
Read more ...Lipsy collection now available at Anthony Ryan’s
Thu, Sep 18, 2008
Lipsy, the red carpet label of choice for celebrities in the know, is now available at Anthony Ryan’s.
Read more ...Kate and Ava unveil autumn/winter 08 collection
Thu, Sep 18, 2008
Kate and Ava’s autumn/winter collection hits the shops this month and is being sold in a large number of stockists due to the popular demand of their stylish designs.
Madison, Upper Abbeygate st, Galway, will showcase the designers’ autumn/winter collection, which has promised to be their most interesting and wearable yet. The collection will still maintain their design ethos of classic shapes with intricate detailing, while using high quality fabrics.
Read more ...Magnify your lip colour
Thu, Sep 18, 2008
New Smashbox Double Take, a double ended lip pencil and co-ordinated creamy lip colour all in one, gives powerful, vibrant, colour that glides on velvety smooth and last for hours.
Read more ...home ground
Thu, Sep 18, 2008
What is underfoot in the garden is as important as the shrubs, trees, etc, growing in it. Believe it or not pathways and ground surfacing in general can be as decorative as it is functional.
Read more ...Go Victorian on your bathroom
Thu, Sep 18, 2008
The bathroom is the perfect place to add all the charm and opulence of the Victorian era. The timelessness design of the Adelphi suite has been the best selling collection from the Shires portfolio to date. Combining tradition and quality, the easy clean glaze of the suite brings a modern benefit to make your life that little bit easier.
Read more ...Conserve energy with CREM
Thu, Sep 18, 2008
CREM’s mission is to promote the conservation and sensible use of our scarce and depleting energy resources. To promote this aim, CREM specialises in providing information through education, assessments, and consultancy on the efficient use of energy in our everyday lives through the services is provides.
CREM Ltd will carry out BER Assessments on your property (see accompanying advertisement) and advise you on how to improve your building energy rating. Building energy ratings are required for all new dwellings from July 2007 and for all buildings sold, leased, or rented from January 2009.
Read more ...The egg and butter market
Thu, Sep 18, 2008
Hely Dutton in his “Statistical and Agricultural Survey of the County of Galway” which was published in 1824, wrote, “The vegetable market near the Main Guard is generally well supplied and at reasonable rates ; all kinds come to market washed, by which means any imperfection is easily detected. The cabbage raised near the sea on seaweed is particularly delicious ---- those who have been used to those cultivated on highly manured ground cannot form any idea of the difference. There are also in the season peaches, strawberries, gooseberries, apples, pears etc.
Read more ...How Ireland lost thirty nine famous paintings – Week II
Thu, Sep 18, 2008
The sinking of the Lusitania on May 7 1915, off the Cork coast, by a German submarine electrified Ireland, Britain and America. In Ireland, the fact that German submarines were lurking so close to the Irish shore, added fuel to the propaganda that Germany was planning to invade the country. It spurred recruitment into the armed forces. In Britain, the shameful practice of using passenger liners to carry munitions across the Atlantic without telling the passengers they were in effect travelling on a British war ship, was to come to an end. But it was too late for more than 1,000 men, women and children who lost their lives. And ironically for Germany, the Lusitania proved to be a Pearl Harbour. Among the dead were 114 Americans which caused such an outcry in the US that it led to their coming into the war, and ultimate victory for the Allies.
Read more ...