Search Results for 'Gerry Broderick'

Galway city centre will be split into separate zones next week in order to facilitate social distancing with the expected influx of a large number of visitors during the Galway Races.

Michael Moloney has been living and breathing Galway Racecourse for many years now. When he was knee high to a grasshopper, he used to cycle around the course, while his father John, looked after the running of the course. Now, so many years on, Michael still thinks of Ballybrit as a back garden rather than a workplace, such is his passion for that patch of ground that heaves mightily every year and reverberates the Galway economy.

One hundred and forty nine years ago, Captain Wilson Lynch offered the use of one hundred and sixty acres of his family land on the outskirts of Galway city to host the Galway races. Hence the name for the new building which racegoers will see for the first time next week.

In a little over two weeks, the madness will begin. But already there is an air of effort and industry as Michael Moloney and his team are counting down to July 31, and the opening day of the 2017 racing festival. Take note of the date: a festival we usually associate with the last week of July will this year begin on the last day of July, the latest possible start date, and end on Sunday August, 6.