Search Results for 'Robert'

Bradley Motor Works on the Dublin Road, Galway will mark 40 years in business next Monday December 5 when Bob Bradley, founding director along with his son Robert and two daughters Gillian and Tara celebrate the four decades of the family business.

For nearly 50 years Monroe’s has been a pivotal landmark in Galway and its influence on the city’s social and music scene seems set to continue. By taking the plunge into expansion the business has transformed itself into a top music venue - a welcoming place where you can not only enjoy a fine pint and a delicious pizza, but also a night of great company and even better music.

As the store edges towards a landmark centenary celebration, Grace’s Londis in Loughrea recently revealed their revamped store. The exterior has undergone a substantial makeover, with a new shop front and signage. The painters have also been in, and the end result is a beautiful premises which takes pride of place on Dunkellin Street.

Sir William Gregory of Coole, Co Galway, and the husband of Lady Augusta in his later years, has been vilified unfairly by historians and commentators, said Brian Walker, professor of Irish Studies at Queen’s University last weekend. As the member of parliament who introduced the so called ‘Gregory clause’ as the Great Famine raged through the land, he did so for humane motives; but it was exploited by some ruthless landlords to clear their land.

Westmeath County Council hosted a civic reception on Monday to mark the recent sporting achievements of four Westmeath athletes.

I find it hard to imagine that not everyone liked Lady Augusta Gregory of Coole Park. What few readers there are of the Diary, I am told, sigh with exasperation when they see her name appear. They know that I will eulogise endlessly about how her home at Coole became a ‘workshop’ for writers, poets and artists during those exciting days at the beginning of the last century, leading to such remarkable talents as WB Yeats, John M Synge, Sean O’Casey and others to stand as giants on the European literary stage. She was the co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, its director and organiser during its shaky early days. She was a substantial playwright, journal keeper, folklorist, scholar, etc, etc, and, in my opinion, this amazing Galway woman never got the recognition she deserved.

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.

IN MAY 1921, Margaret Gregory, widow of Lady Gregory’s son Robert, was the sole survivor of an IRA ambush at Ballyturn House, near Coole Park.

Sir William Gregory, a wealthy widower was 60, 35 years older than Augusta, when he first met her. It was at a cricket match at her home at Roxborough in the summer of 1877, to which he was invited. He was late, and sat at the only vacant place left at the table, beside Augusta. ‘Augusta wore a fashionable dress bought at Bon Marché in Paris, and a black and white straw hat decorated with corn ears and poppies. The usually plain, quiet, girl was noticeable and pretty.’ By the end of the day Sir William was smitten.

TWO OF the three characters whose stories are told in Judith Thompson’s powerful Iraq War drama Palace Of The End will already be familiar to Western audiences.