ZedBlog

The Good

Galway is a great place to let your hair down. It may be a university city but there are enough locals with ruddy faces and bloodshot eyes to suggest students aren’t the only ones who enjoy the craic. And with so many watering holes to choose from, it’s hard to know where to start. Or when to stop.

You could devise a crawl around unpronounceable pubs such as the Sehan Ua Neachtain, Róisín Dubh and Tig Coilí, or spend an evening visiting only award-winning establishments. The Old Orchard took the prize for best local bar at the 2019 Irish Bar of the Year Awards; Blake’s Corner Bar came top in the bar food category and Lowry’s was voted best traditional bar in Ireland.

Wherever you end up, you can expect a warm welcome – Galway was ranked the world’s fifth friendliest city in Condé Nast Traveller’s 2018 reader survey. It was also rated “best for the sesh” (drink­ing session), while its residents were judged to be the “most fun to hang out with”, in a lighthearted poll conducted by hotel chain Jury’s Inn.

Galway is also renowned for its calendar of high-profile cultural and sporting events. The Arts Festival kicks off the season in June with a programme of theatre, dance, music, literature and comedy perform­ances.

More than 250,000 people attend the Galway Races, the biggest and best-known horse race meeting in Ireland, which begins on the last Monday in July. And from September 27 to 29, the city takes centre stage again when it hosts the annual Oyster Festival – the most internationally recognised Irish event after St Patrick’s Day.

Visitors enjoy oyster-shucking competitions, cooking demonstrations, tastings and a beauty contest to select the festival pearl, all culminating in a Mardi Gras masquerade ball. And if all that is not enough, Galway has been named European Capital of Culture for 2020.

To get a feel for Ireland’s second-most popular destination for overseas tourists, after Dublin, take a stroll along pedestrian­ised Shop Street, a photogenic thorough­fare of gaily painted buildings and statues – both living and bronze-cast – punctuated by buskers strumming for their supper (the city is famous for the variety and calibre of its street performers).

Five minutes away, across Salmon Weir Bridge, Galway Cathedral sits on the banks of the fast-flowing Corrib River and boasts a mosaic dedicated to John F. Kennedy, who stopped by in June 1963. There’s also a memorial to the American president’s visit in the centre of town, at Eyre Square.

Further along the riverbank, beyond the pre-medieval Spanish Arch fortifications and impressive City Museum, is the Long Walk, a picturesque row of brightly painted houses facing Galway Bay. In the other direction, the suburb of Salthill is a seaside resort proud to have Ireland’s largest native species aquarium, a 2km (1.2 miles) promenade and, surprise surprise, more pubs.

A kayak trip is an excellent hangover cure. Beginners can get to grips with the basics on Lake Corrib while experienced paddlers head for the open seas, where they’ll stand a good chance of encountering seals; and, if they’re lucky, killer whales. (Or should that be unlucky?)

Back on dry land, Galway is on the Wild Atlantic Way, a spectacular 2,600km (1,600-mile) coastal route. Last summer would have been an ideal time to hit the trail as Galway enjoyed one of its warmest, driest spells on record. The drought conditions even led to a hosepipe ban in parts of the county. Water restrictions! In the west of Ireland!

The Bad

Alas, things were soon back to normal, weather-wise. Last September, Storm Ali brought the strongest wind gusts ever recorded at Galway coastal station. And this summer, many parts of the county endured the heaviest August rainfall since records began.

Be sure to take waterproof clothing, keep an eye on the sky and when Galwegians comment on how “grand” the weather is (biting winds, relentless drizzle), just smile and agree.

Further proof of Galway’s less than desert-like climate comes in the form of a study that concluded the City of Tribes is the worst in the world for people who cycle to work. The dubious honour is based on how often two-wheeled commuters get a thorough soaking. It turns out raincoats are required for 115 working days per year, or 44 per cent of the time.

Meanwhile, storm clouds are gathering over Europe’s soon-to-be Capital of Culture. The project has been plagued by the resignations of key figures, funding shortfalls, delays and a reality check as it became clear that the Board of Galway 2020 had over­promised.

To add insult to injury, councillors recently voted in favour of new by-laws to regulate busking and street performances in the city centre. The rules are aimed at reducing decibel levels after 6pm and restricting so-called circle acts that draw large crowds of pedestrians, but the timing is unfortunate, to say the least.

The legislation will come into effect on January 2, 2020, two days into Galway’s reign as European Capital of Culture. As local People Before Profit representative Joe Loughnane puts it: “Councillors have just voted to restrict a huge part of what gives Galway city its character.”

And when visitors turn up to experience some of the 1,900 events, they’ll find getting around can be a headache. According to transport analytics company Inrix, Galway has the worst traffic congestion in Ireland.

The situation has become so bad, coach tour operators claim the city is losing out on visitors and tourism income owing to a shortage of parking facilities, set-down and pick-up areas and the unpredictability of traffic delays, which play havoc with carefully planned schedules.

Despite being renowned for its friendly locals and inviting pubs, alcoholism is a serious problem, particularly among Galway city’s street sleepers.

Homelessness in the west of Ireland is increasing at a faster rate than anywhere else in the country. Even students returning for the new academic year have been forced to sleep rough due to a lack of accommodation. Hostels, which could provide a short-term solution, are often booked out with tourists.

The Ugly

In July, a Galway city mosque was vandalised in what is being treated as a hate crime. Windows were broken, furniture and computer equipment damaged and security cameras ripped off the walls. The burglary follows an attack on the same mosque in June 2017, when windows were smashed during evening  prayers.

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