Galway

I think I may well have a new favourite Irish city. Galway. I spent the Easter weekend there and I just fell in love with the place.

With everything in such close proximity it’s just a joy to walk through. The sounds of buskers fill it’s busy cobbled streets which are dotted with plenty of cosy cafés, pubs and eating houses – it’s a place that is just bursting with vibrance and while it’s a city, it appears to have more of a small town attitude which I’m sure is something that a lot of us, especially those of us who live in Dublin, wish we could experience a lot more of.

I never really got out with my camera too much on the Friday and Saturday as I seemed to spend most of it walking up and down the promenade with breaks for good coffee and tasty food. Wa Café and Cobblestone Café as two of the standout favourites. On Sunday however I finally took the camera out of the bag and wandered into town for a bit. It being Easter Sunday a fair few of the shops were closed so things were a little quieter. That’s not  to say however that there wasn’t as much to see. As I came up to Eyre Square I saw a gathering of people who were attending a memorial for those killed in the 1916 Easter rising. It was when I was taking some photographs of this I was approached by a guy who’ll remain anonymous, asked if I could take some pictures of the posters he’d dotted around the streets.

The poster titled “Frank Fahey TD – Property Baron!” read “Frank Fahey is a landlord to many poor souls all over Galway and the world. What was the point in ending British colonialism in Ireland if we only replace their landlords with our own class of gombeen land barons? Re-distribute Land Now!”. I duly obliged.

A short while later I headed back down toward High Street. It was here that I came across three men sitting in the doorway to Brown Thomas. As I was changing lenses across the street from them I was approached by one of the men. Mick frm Castlebar. “If anyone can, Canon can!” he quipped. We had a brief chat and told me that the two other men sitting in the doorway were his drinking buddies. I asked if I could take their picture and he told me to wait and he’d join them. The picture I took wasn’t great so I walked over and struck up a converstion with them in the hope that I’d get something a little more intimate. All I can say is these men were true gents. Mick from Castlebar, Paedar from Galway and Mick (another) from Dublin.  All interested in what I was doing in Galway, what I was taking pictures of and where I was from. Before too long Dublin Mick (as he refered to himself) was reciting song after song, sometimes joined by Castlebar Mick on the spoons. They didn’t mind me snapping away and taking plenty of video. Peadar, a former skipper of a ship and aerial photographer, would just sit and enjoy it, smiling as he watched his two friends sing song after song. It was Dublin Mick however that interested me most of all.

Dublin Mick

A man who was very much down on his luck but showed no bitterness about his current circumstances. An intelligent man who battled with drink in his younger years but after five years sober he had earned himself his PhD. He went out to celebrate telling himself he could have “just one drink”  but that changed everything and has since been a self admitted chronic alcoholic. A sad tale for a man I saw as being so gifted. He’d recite poetry and song continuously only pausing to to have a quick chat while he’d light the end of his cigarette and take a drink from his paper cup. I could sit and write another 1000 words about Mick but I’ll just finish by posting this little clip of him reciting a poem straight down the camera. Just a side comment, I absolutely love how Peader shows such a big interest in both the photography and his mate – you’ll see him in the reflection of the window coming around to view the camera screen and at the end you’ll hear him congratulate Mick.

The poem is titled ‘Dublin’ by Louis MacNeice. Warning, contains strong language.

To see the rest of the images from my little walk around Galway which includes a trip down to the diving platform on Salthill road click here.