Celebrate your graduation in style at The Ardilaun

Thu, Oct 15, 2015

The Ardilaun hotel has recently launched its graduation menus for the season with lunches and dinners to mark that special occasion. As graduations take place from October 19 to 23 in NUI Galway, The Ardilaun, situated on leafy Taylor's Hill, is the ideal setting for celebrating with family and friends, as it is only 1km from the university and offers ease of access and plenty of free parking.

Take a cake walk

Thu, Oct 15, 2015

For lovers of all things sweet, Sheena Dignam, who runs the Galway food tour Around the Market Place, is holding a special Pastry Food Tour visiting a selection of the best bakeries and cake shops in town as part of Galway Bake Fest.

Lunchtime favourites at Nox Hotel

Thu, Oct 15, 2015

Tucked away in the Liosban Industrial Estate, off the Headford Road roundabout, is Nox. Galway’s newest hotel is a surprising oasis for visitors coming to Galway. Set back from the busy road that encircles the city, it also has the advantage of being just minutes from the centre of town.

An Unusual connection between Breaking Bad and ‘Eva of the Nation’

Thu, Oct 08, 2015

Most of us are mad jealous that we cannot claim some kind of connection with Caherlistrane. A new book by Mary J Murphy*  manages to link the north Galway parish with an extraordinary number of writers, artists, singers, poets, actors, and historical personalities, that leave all other parishes in Ireland bereft of personality and character. There can be no other competition. We are all characterless by comparison to Caherlistrane.

Mexican food - it’s so hot right now

Thu, Oct 08, 2015

There is something hot happening in Ireland — Mexican food, one of the biggest food trends of recent years, has gone mainstream, and shows no signs of cooling down just yet. 

High tea and fashion — let’s celebrate

Thu, Oct 08, 2015

PoppySeed Clarinbridge hosts its Fashion and High Tea event on Thursday next, October 15, at 8pm. Following the excitement of last year's event the PoppySeed team will introduce the finest fashions from Ail Ruin Design Centre, Inspired By Accessories, and Meadows & Byrne while guests enjoy a sumptuous high tea of handmade treats.

This is an evening to celebrate with friends and enjoy the simple pleasures of scent, sight, and taste. There will be prizes and surprises galore at this wonderful event. Tickets are €25 and are available from PoppySeed Clarinbridge or on 091 796019.

Mícheál  Ó Droighneáin, 1916 veteran

Thu, Oct 08, 2015

Mícheál Ó Droighneáin was born in Spiddal. He left school when he was 14 and got a job in McCambridge’s for 6d a week. Lady Killanin convinced him to go back to school and he became a monitor, went on to training college in Dublin, and it was there he became a Nationalist. “I became a member of the IRB towards the end of 1910 when I was teaching in Dublin [from August 1910 to January 1913]. Then I came to my native place, teaching in Spiddal for one year and then coming to Furbo.”

Shantalla in 1953

Fri, Oct 02, 2015

Walter Macken’s first published English language play Mungo’s Mansion was about people in the tenements of Buttermilk Lane about to be rehoused away out in the country, in the wilds of Shantalla. This was causing great distress to the ‘townies’ who would have to move less than a mile as the crow flies.

‘A ghostly presence through trees and over bog’

Fri, Oct 02, 2015

One of Ireland’s great engineering feats in the 19th century was the building of the Galway - Clifden railway. After 30 years of argument as to which was the best route, the first train steamed out of Galway to Oughterard on January 1 1895; and the final section to Clifden was finished by July of that year.

Declutter your home and make some money

Thu, Sep 24, 2015

Attics, garages, sheds, and spare rooms can end up filled with all sorts of items that have never been used because they did not fit in with the decor or were unwanted gifts. The children and teenagers are back to school and it is the perfect time to give the house a good clear-out and make some spare cash as well.

One war that Fr Conway lost

Thu, Sep 24, 2015

Before Fr Peter Conway was appointed parish priest of Headford, he was a curate in Ballinrobe. His very considerable energies were thrown into building a new church and presbytery. He also succeeded in acquiring a site for the Convent of Mercy and Christian Brothers’ schools in a primary location in the centre of the town. And all may have been well, and the good father praised for his building and organisational skills, and allowed to live in peace, were it not for the Mayo general election of April 6 1857.

Conway became obsessed, going way beyond the bounds of respectability in his use of descriptive language, his threats of hell and damnation, even using intimidating terror gangs and physical force to support the Catholic George Henry Moore who was being seriously challenged by two powerful and wealthy Protestant landlords Rodger W Palmer and George Gore Ouseley Higgins.The outgoing member for parliament was the hard working, but vehemently anti Protestant, George Henry Moore, of Moore Hall, Ballyglass, Co Mayo. He spent a good deal of his first decade as MP for Mayo calling for the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland.

Aer Árainn, the early years

Thu, Sep 24, 2015

There was a ferry service to the Aran Islands in the 1960s, but the ship could only dock at Inis Mór. In 1969 Colie Hernon wrote a letter to The Irish Times complaining of the inadequate transport facilities to the islands, which prompted Hayden Lawford to conduct an aerial survey of Inis Mór. Meanwhile Ralph Langan, whose business was fruit wholesaling in Galway, and who had problems shipping fresh fruit to the islands, had also seen Colie’s letter.

Terryland Park

Thu, Sep 17, 2015

In ancient times, Galway was known as Streamstown because the lower Galway River divided into many streams, thus creating a system of islands. The area was known as ‘Tír Oileáin’, the land of islands. Two place names survive from that period, Tirellan and Terryland.

‘God grant peace to America’

Thu, Sep 17, 2015

Despite Fr Peter Conway’s row with the Protestant rector of Headford, the Rev Dean Plunkett (and there were some appalling battles against Protestants to come), he got on surprisingly well with the landlord of the whole area, the impressively named Richard Mensergh St George, Esq, also the High Sheriff. Initially, when Conway asked him if he would donate land for a church for his Catholic tenants, the request was turned down flat. But out of the blue, St George invited Conway to his house one day and offered him an acre of ground ‘anywhere on his estate’, rent free forever;  furthermore, he gave an additional seven acres of land for a priest’s house, and a subscription of £20 for a school.

The Crescent from Murray’s shop

Thu, Sep 10, 2015

This photograph of The Crescent, which was originally known as Palmyra Crescent, was taken c1940. Palmyra in Syria is very much in the news these days, but I cannot think of any reason why someone would name a road in Galway after it.

The young priest who cried for two days in Carna

Thu, Sep 10, 2015

I hope the recent scandals in the Catholic Church will not discourage the noble tradition of the cleric as the social champion of the people. It is time that we had their like to nail their colours to the mast once again. Growing up in the last century, I was familiar with such names as Fr James McDyer and his tireless campaign against the official neglect of Gleann Cholm Cile; and Canon George Quinn and his fight for better social housing. There were several others, who have spilled over into recent years, including Fr Peter McVerry and his fight for homeless people in Dublin, and Fr Harry Bohan and his belief in the staying power of families in rural Ireland. But the champion of them all, the priest with the soft voice and a twinkle in both eyes, was the indefatigable Monsignor James Horan. Not only did he re-design the village of Knock to make it more people friendly, he built schools, clinics, and a convent, and a vast basilica. He organised community water schemes, and forestry plantations, and built an impressive international airport in the bogs of Mayo. 

Esquires Coffee comes to Galway 

Thu, Sep 10, 2015

Colm and Caryl McDonagh, well known businesspeople in Galway, are bringing the Esquire Coffee franchise concept to Galway city. They have recently opened in a prestige building on Eyre Square, just a few doors down from the well known O’Connell's bar. 

House Hotel’s head cocktail bartender crowned Galway’s best

Thu, Sep 10, 2015

The House Hotel’s head cocktail bartender, Aileen Cunningham, has beaten off stiff competition to win a trip to Havana, Cuba, next year after being selected as Galway’s best.

Warm and welcoming lunch at the Gaslight Bar & Brasserie

Thu, Sep 10, 2015

Autumn is drawing in; hats and scarves will soon start to reappear and we are all beginning to yearn for some warmth and relaxation. Soak up the welcoming atmosphere in the Gaslight Bar & Brasserie, whether you are on a fast lunch break, are meeting a group of friends for a lunchtime get-together, grabbing a quick bite between meetings, or enjoying a coffee after mid-morning shopping.

Located in the heart of the city, the Gaslight Bar & Brasserie is the ideal venue for lunch, promising fast and friendly service, ensuring you are back at your desk in plenty of time with a smile on your face. The extensive lunch menu offers a range of light bites, gourmet signature sandwiches, hearty soups, fresh delicious salads, Gaslight seafood chowder, and mouthwatering mains.

Colourful Dulux events for Galway

Thu, Sep 10, 2015

Leading nationwide paint retailer Pat McDonnell Paints will hold free customer events at its Galway store in the Briarhill Business Park on Saturday September 19. This will be of particular interest to people planning to decorate their homes and looking for advice on paint choices.

E-paper

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