Recording Galway

This short talk by Brendan McGowan is one of eight talks delivered on a walk through Galway on Culture Night, 19 September 2025. The focus was on the individuals remembered in statues and public spaces around the city centre. 

Brendan speaks about the life and work of Ó Conaire, the sculptor, the commissioning and unveiling of the statue, and its impact in Galway.

Brendan McGowan is the Galway City Museum Education and Outreach Officer. The walkabout was coordinated by John Cunningham for the Galway City Museum in association with the Galway Archaeological and Historical  Society. 

This short talk by Brendan O'Mahony is one of eight delivered on a walk through Galway on Culture Night, 19 September 2025. The focus was on the individuals remembered in statues and public spaces around the city centre. 

Brendan talks about the founder of Irish republicanism Theobald Wolfe Tone, his connection with Galway, and the circumstances surrounding the naming of the Wolfe Tone Bridge. 

Brendan O'Mahony is a former post primary teacher and a french language tour guide. 

The walkabout was coordinated by John Cunningham for the Galway City Museum in association with the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society. 

This short talk by Gary McMahon is one of eight delivered on a walk through Galway on Culture Night, 19 September 2025. The focus was on the individuals remembered in statues and public spaces around the city centre. 

Gary McMahon talks about the memorialisation of JFK in Eyre Square, in particular the bust by local sculptor Albert O'Toole marking the US president's visit to Galway in 1963. 

Gary McMahon is an arts broadcaster on Galway Bay FM, formely employed by Galway City Council.  

The walkabout was coordinated by John Cunningham for the Galway City Museum in association with the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society. 

This short talk by Mary Cunningham is one of eight talks delivered on a walk through Galway on Culture Night, 19 September 2025. The focus was on the individuals remembered in statues and public spaces around the city centre. 

The subject here is the Domincan priest Fr. Tom Burke who was famed for his remarkable oratory skills. His ability earned him the title 'Prince of Preachers' from Pope Pius IX. There is information on the sculptor John Kavanagh, the commissioning and unveiling of the statue located on Fr. Griffin Road near Claddagh in 1948.

Mary Cunningham is a teacher who records and publishes oral histories of Galway. 

The walkabout was coordinated by John Cunningham for the Galway City Museum in association with the Galway Archaeological and Historical  Society. 

This short talk by Mary Harris is one of eight talks delivered on a walk through Galway on Culture Night, 19 September 2025. The focus was on the individuals remembered in statues and public spaces around the city centre. 

Mary's subject is Liam Mellows whose statue is located in Eyre Square. She speaks about his activity during the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War along with the circumstances around his execution. She has details on the provenance of the statue erected in 1957. 

Dr Mary Harris is president of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society.

The walkabout was coordinated by John Cunningham for the Galway City Museum in association with the Galway Archaeological and Historical  Society. 

This short talk by John Cunningham is one of eight delivered on a walk through Galway on Culture Night, 19 September 2025. The focus was on the individuals remembered in statues and public spaces around the city centre. 

John talks about some of those remembered in Eyre Square, with a focus on the monument to Lord Dunkellin by the noted sculptor, John Henry Foley. Unveiled in 1873, it was torn down in the course of the Galway Soviet of 1922. 

John Cunningham is an historian who worked for many years as a lecturer at the University of Galway. 

The Culture Night walkabout was coordinated by John Cunningham for the Galway City Museum in association with the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society. 

This short talk by Sarah-Anne Buckley is one of eight delivered on a walk through Galway on Culture Night, 19 September 2025. The focus was on the individuals remembered in statues and public spaces around the city centre. 

Sarah-Anne's topic is the memorial to the Magdalen Women - The Final Journey Statue - at the site of the former Magdalen Laundry on Forster Street. The memorial by Mick Wilkins was unveiled in 2009, and features a poem by Patricia  Burke Brogan, whose play, 'Eclipsed', powerfully conveyed the lives of the people in such institutions.

Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley is an Associate Professor in History at the University of Galway. 

The walkabout was coordinated by John Cunningham for the Galway City Museum in association with the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society. 

This short talk by Jonathan Hannon is one of eight delivered on a walk through Galway on Culture Night, 19 September 2025. The focus was on the individuals remembered in statues and public spaces around the city centre. 

Jonathan talks about the bronze statue of Oscar Wilde and Eduard Vilde, gifted to Galway in 2004 by Estonia to mark its accession to the European Union. 

Dr Jonathan Hannon works or the Galway City Council. He was recently awarded a PhD in Sociology by the University of Galway

The walkabout was coordinated by John Cunningham for the Galway City Museum in association with the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society. 

This is a recording of a walking tour through the streets of Galway where eight speakers give an account, at appropriate locations, of incidents or issues related to the arts which were the cause of some controversy in the past. 

SELECT CHAPTERS  above to access individual contributions.

The tour was co-ordinated  by Dr John Cunningham and Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley of the University of Galway History Department in association with Galway City Museum. It was conducted on Culture Night 20 September, 2024 

Produced by Mary Cunningham,

Photo courtesy of Aodh Ó'Coiléain

Music : 'Fine Dining' by Track Tribe
Website: tracktribe.com.
instagram.com/tracktribemusic/?hl=en

This documentary was broadcast on Galway Bay FM on September 17, 2021 and was part of the online programme for Culture Night that year.
It has interviews with Maude O'Donohoe and Jane Hogan who have fond memories of swimming at Salthill, Galway in the sixties. They reveal the rules that were in place at the behest of the local bishops in relation to where people could swim. Believing that men and women bathing together was an occasion of sin the bishops requested that bathing places be designated for men, ladies and families.
Jane and Maude tell of one young woman's rebellion against the rules sometime in the mid sixties when she swam up to the male section  at Blackrock when all was quiet and left her bikini top on a flagpole.  Though this caused consternation in the community more women began to venture past the Men Only sign.
P.J. Flaherty, a year round swimmer, describes the camaraderie that existed among the men who frequented the area and the resentment of some at the arrival of women.
A final attempt to stem the tide of change was spearheaded in 1971 by a local councillor  who requested that Galway Corporation ban 'Bikini Girls' from the male enclave on the basis that they disturbed the older men and priests who swam there.  At this point attitudes had changed and the councillor's concerns seemed quaint and old fashioned. The Men Only sign was quietly removed in early September 50 years ago.

Sources:
Bishop Michael Browne of Galway (1937–76) and the Regulation of Public Morality Author(s): James S. Donnelly, Jr. 

Source: New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua , EARRACH / SPRING 2013, Vol. 17, No. 1 (EARRACH / SPRING 2013), pp. 16-39 

Published by: University of St. Thomas (Center for Irish Studies) Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24625062 

Bishop Michael Browne of Galway and Anti-Communism, 1937-1976 Author(s): Gerard Madden
 Source: Saothar , 2014, Vol. 39 (2014), pp. 21-31
 Published by: Irish Labour History Society 

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24897247

Music: https://pixabay.com/music/folk-krainer-waltz-traditional-austrian-and-slovenian-music-3358/?fbclid=IwAR18M4lYC5uIye9s6DFzgSK7FcS1g0VdAuE2ybd5ltPHuL1yCV-HzerASj0#:~:text=Music%20by%20JuliusH%20from%20Pixabay