Although, I didn’t have much to say about Dingle and the Dingle Peninsula, I have plenty to say about Galway. In fact, this is going to be a two-part look at the town. I feel I need to write about the music scene separately. That all said, put it on your list of places to get to, especially if you are a music lover.
When we were in Kenmare, the woman at the tourist office said that Galway was a city “on speed”… And she was right. 🙂 It is a busy, busy town, but in a very good way. It is a university town so lots of students around, and clearly a favourite destination for many tourists.
This was the longest trip we have made between our ports of call to this point… about five hours. We ended up taking the bus the whole way from Tralee. That involved taking one connection to the town of Limerick and then hopping on a second bus to get to Galway. You can do it by train, but it does take longer.
The other interesting aspect of this trip was that there was a big storm bearing down on Ireland from the Atlantic that was about to hit Galway and the rest of the West Coast about the time we were to arrive in town. Galway sits on the fully exposed Galway Bay. It was going to be so significant that the boat trip we had booked out to the Aran Islands on the day after our arrival was cancelled due to the worry about heavy seas.
Arrival
We arrived in Galway and got to our hotel just before the “fit hit the shan”. Our hotel was conveniently located right at the bottom of the Latin Quarter so everything we thought we would be interested in doing was within an easy walk.
The main pedestrian boulevard, Quay Street, was literally outside the door of our hotel. We arrived late in the afternoon, so the first task was to get out and find a pub we liked the looks of and have a bite.
As you look at the photos of this first quick outing you will probably notice how windy it is and how people are bundled up against foul weather. Fortunately, we managed to get out, eat, and get back before the deluge really hit.
“Photo Carousel” – Once again, I am using the “Carousel” format to present some of the photos in topics that have multiple photos in the best possible manner. You click on the first photo (top-left) in a grouping to start the Carousel.
The Latin Quarter
Galway hosts a number of post-secondary institution’s, including the University of Galway and The Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology. My first assumption was that the reference to the “Latin Quarter” was like that in Paris… The heart of the student ghetto. But I didn’t really find any reference to that sort of connection.
The Latin Quarter probably would be better described as the “fun zone”. It is where you will find a profusion of restaurants, bars, nighttime entertainment, unique shops, hotels… and even some historic sites scattered about.
Being a former Urban Studies major my first thought was, “so what exactly are the geographical boundaries of the Latin Quarter?” As you will see, I did search for it on Google Maps, but it did not provide a definitive border, just a marker somewhere in the middle.
But, my search did reveal the official website for the Galway Latin Quarter, and it provided the following locating description:
“It’s defined by some of the city’s most historic landmarks and stretches from the Spanish Arch at Long Walk to O’Brien’s Bridge to St Nicholas’ Church and back (via Buttermilk Lane) to An Taibhdhearc on Middle Street. But as people often say, you’ll just know when you’ve arrived in The Latin Quarter!”
I agree with the last statement. You’ll certainly know you’re in it when you’re in it. 🙂
The main pedestrian pathway which lies at the heart of the Latin Quarter changes names as you progress up or down at it. So, I simply prefer to think of it as Quay/High/Shop/William Street.
We certainly gave the Quarter a decent scouring while we were there. Particularly in search of one aspect that I will be writing about and posting more photos and videos about in part two.
Mundane Tasks
But life is not all fun and games. We had been on the road for just over a week and a and a half when we arrived in Galway and there were a couple of important menial jobs that needed to be done.
First up was that I was in desperate need of a haircut. When we are at home the Love-goddess buzzes my head off once a week. We have European clippers that we take to Spain with us every winter, but because we were travelling extremely lightly, we decided to leave them at home.
So mundane task number one in Galway was get to a haircut. My first barbershop haircut in almost 30 years.
Boring task number two was to get our dirty clothes cleaned. When we are on roving trips like this one, we pack seven days’ worth of clothing, and have an eighth on when we leave town. This means once a week we must find a place to do laundry.
Doing laundry can actually be lots of fun. In places where we use the machines ourselves, we get to sit and chat with other “washers”. We have met locals and people from all over the world this way.
In all honesty, our preferred way is to find a place where we hand over our laundry, and a few hours later we come back and pick it up. And this is what we did in Galway. We located a local place… In a Rick Steves’ guidebook… Walked the short distance from our hotel to their location and dropped off our stuff… Mission accomplished.
Galway’s Westend
And it was the doing of laundry that led us to discover Galway’s growing second interesting area, the Westend. I’m not sure we would’ve crossed the river right in front of our hotel and headed over that way if I didn’t discover that’s where we needed to go to get our clothes washed.
It is an older part of the city and perhaps has had a bit of a gritty past, but it is certainly on the uptick now. It prides itself on being a home of independent and unique businesses and is certainly more bohemian than the Latin Quarter.
The photo gallery will show you many of the unique Westend businesses we frequented and give you a taste of what the area is all about.
Meeting up With New Friends
The other fun thing we did in Galway was to meet up for lunch with a couple that we met in the Dominican Republic in 2019. We met Tim and Dora at a four-day music event put on by John Prine that offered an incredible array of Roots Music – artists like Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Brandi Carlile, the Nitty-Gritty Dirt Band, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Nightsweats, etc., etc. etc. John Prine played every single night during the four-day event along with all these other fine musicians.
We first met Tim sitting around beside the pool sopping up beverages. My buddy (“The-Man-Who-Must-Not-Appear-On-Facebook“ ) and I were incredibly impressed with his knowledge of Canadian songwriters and bands.
Only rarely do we encounter Americans who have any idea who the Tragically Hip and Blue Rodeo are let alone be a fan of both. Tim had even seen Neil Young over 60 times. He also declared that his favourite television show was “Corner Gas”… But I would not hold that against him. LOL!
During our poolside discussions “The-Man-Who-Must-Not…” and I encouraged them to come north of the border and enjoy the Mariposa Folk Festival, one of our favourite musical events. We were pretty sure that if they enjoyed a four-day festival in the DR, they would certainly enjoy a three day one in Canada with similar types of music. And, in 2022 they came.
We have stayed in touch through email and Facebook which led us to discover that we were going to be in Ireland at the same time this fall and would overlap for one day in Galway. Dora is a blogger as well… Check out her Tales From the Wine Store if you are into wine and food.
We met for lunch at a pub near their hotel, McGettigan’s Galway.
Galway Oysters!
I will be talking about what Galway is most famous for in part two, but a second thing that it is famous for is oysters!!. Their world-famous Galway Oyster Festival started the day after we left sadly, but as a great lover of oysters myself I had a good feed while we were there.
And they were fantastic. They tasted just like the ocean. I told them at the restaurant that they were almost as good as Prince Edward Island’s Malpeque oysters… Which they took in good humor… I hope. 🙂
Magdalene Laundries
I wrap-up part one with a reference to a dark aspect of Irish history, – the Magdalene Laundries scandal. The thing I would equate this with in Canada is the Residential School scandal. It is a terrible bit of Ireland’s history that I am sure that the Irish are as ashamed of as we are of the history of Residential Schools in Canada.
In the past, “fallen women”… Women who gave birth out of wedlock… And other imagined transgressions were sent to work in a series of laundry facilities across the country run by Roman Catholic orders. There, an estimated 30,000 remained for their whole lives, essentially working as slaves until they died. Read more about it here on the Wikipedia page.
I went in search of the statue in Galway erected to honour the victims. Sadly, I must report that I walked right past it because it was hidden away and hard to identify… And filthy to boot. Ireland, you can do better than this.
From Visit Galway:
“The statue ‘Final Journey’ features inscribed poetry by playwright and poet Patricia Burke Brogan, who is internationally known for her award-winning play “Eclipsed” about the Magdalen Women.”
“The sculpture was erected on International Women’s Day in March 2009 last year close to the former Magdalene Laundry in Galway city centre.”
What made me think of the laundries and go in search of the statue in Galway was that before I left home, I saw the following old video clip of Joni Mitchell talking about the laundries and performing her song “The Magdalene Laundries”.
