My city is buzzing right now

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Attendances may have been down at the Galway Races last week, but there is no doubt that my native city has been buzzing like never before over the past few weeks and months.

Imagine, Galway ... little windswept Galway on the Atlantic coast is set to become the European Capital of Culture four years from now. No wonder people have been in party mode over the past couple of weeks.

The iconic Big Top at the Galway International Arts Festival
Photo courtesy of Andrew Downes. 

About 139,000 people attended the Racing Festival, with the inclement weather playing a part in keeping the numbers down, and over €14.5 million was exchanged through on-course betting.

But, in the three weeks prior to the races, the city seemed to be buzzing like never before.

Visitor numbers have definitely been up over the past couple of months and a hugely successful Galway International Film Festival came hot on the heels of an excellent Galway Film Fleadh.

The arts are buzzing in the City of the Tribes, which was designated European Capital of Culture for 2020 in the midst of all the festivities.

It’s evident in the city’s narrow, medieval streets.

The past few months have seen a significant increase in visitor numbers to Europe’s western-most city, as the economic recovery takes hold in the wake of the terrible crash which occurred less than a decade ago.

The streets are packed with visitors from all over the world seven days a week, as revellers take in the fantastic atmosphere and free entertainment conjured up by a wide variety of street performers and artists throughout the pedestrianized zone between the Spanish Arch and Eyre Square.

There already seems to be a party or festival every weekend between April and October in Galway City and now the city’s residents can look forward to a year-long party in four years’ time.

A budget of €45.7 million has been earmarked for the Capital of Culture project, which has the potential to create 18,000 new jobs in a city with a population of just under 80,000.

Previous cities to be awarded European Capital of Culture status in other countries have reported an increase of between 10% and 25% in the number of visitors for a full decade following the prestigious designation.

The designation is set to bring a boom to the city’s arts, cultural, and hospitality sectors.

“This is probably the biggest opportunity in the city’s history, so there is a responsibility on us all to make the absolute maximum out of it,” said Patricia Philbin, project leader of the Galway 2020 campaign.

“It is going to change Galway and provide opportunities for all those young people who are leaving our towns and cities.”

Scent of Sawdust at the Galway International Arts Festival
Photo courtesy of Andrew Downes. 

The new sense of optimism was evident at the Big Top, the huge blue tent by the banks of the River Corrib which has become an iconic image of the city in high summer during the annual Galway International Arts Festival (GIAF).

On the night the designation was confirmed, veteran singer Elvis Costello turned his sell-out show with punk rockers The Undertones into a communal celebration for 3,000 people.

Most of the bands who played the Big Top during the two week extravaganza jokingly pleaded with the audience members to invite them back in 2020.

This sense of optimism was evident at the same venue a week later, when traditional supergroup The Gloaming also rocked the tent to a capacity crowd.

No longer a city or region ravaged by emigration or any kind of inferiority complex, it was uplifting to see a huge crowd celebrate the joys of traditional Irish music in the company of acclaimed musicians including frantic fiddler Martin Hayes and veteran ‘sean nos’ singer Iarla O Lionaird.

It was a far cry from the dark days of the 1970s, when the idea of hundreds of people congregating in a huge tent to celebrate Irish music and culture would have seemed far-fetched.

Traditional music is thriving in Galway right now, as visitors can discover if they check out the free nightly sessions on offer in city centre pubs such as The Crane, Ti Coili, Taffees, and Ti Neachtain.

This year’s Galway International Arts Festival was the most successful in years, with the two week event breaking the box office target of €1.1 million in ticket sales.

Ticket sales broke the 200,000 mark for the second year running and the Box Office recorded its biggest takings to date.

“We are delighted with how the festival went this year and I would like to thank all the artists who were involved in the programme and all those who came to events," said John Crumlish, Festival CEO.

 “It was our biggest festival to date, with more of our own productions in the programme than ever before, so it is fantastic that people came in such numbers.

 “The memory of standing in front of that big screen on Mainguard Street during the Festival when the winner of the European Capital of Culture 2020 was announced is one that will live long in the memory.”

The city might be lacking in terms of art galleries, concert halls, and an art-house cinema, but every year the festival organisers show innovation in opening new venues, including a disused print works, empty warehouses (legacies of the economic collapse in 2007-8) and the giant blue tent at Fisheries Field.

“When I was a child, I was always so struck by the ambition of the festival, and the risks taken by the organisers. Risks taken out of necessity,” says artistic director Paul Fahy.

“Now our biggest venue is the Big Top, which is basically just four plastic walls and a plastic roof, albeit with the lap of luxury for everyone inside it. And the Festival Gallery, which normally only exists in my head for nine months of the year before we know where it’s going to be. And that gives GIAF a great sense of excitement.”

The sense of optimism extended to the Galway Racing Festival, which took place at the famed Ballybrit racecourse on the outskirts of the city last week.

About 800 horses competed in 52 races throughout the week, with a total prize fund of €1.9 million ($2.08m) which is significantly up on last year.

The festival provides a €56 million ($61.5m) boost to the city’s economy each year and organisers were expecting to at least match last year’s combined attendance of 140,000 over the seven days.

Helicopters no longer dominate the city’s skyline during the Galway Races as they did during the Celtic Tiger “boom” years, but the city’s hospitality sector was happy to see modest growth after attendance figures slumped during the economic downturn.

Not to be outdone, the city’s sports teams are enjoying a bumper year.

Enjoying a free outdoor show in Eyre Square.
Photo courtesy of Andrew Downes. 

Rugby team Connacht – who were almost put out of business in 2003 – captured the hearts of the nation when they won the Pro12 League title back in May.

The footballers won their first Connacht title since 2008, even though the season ended in a disappointing All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Tipperary, while the hurlers have a big semi-final date at Croke Park to come.

Connacht might not have the budget to match bigger teams such as Leinster and Munster, but led by the irrepressible New Zealander Pat Lam they have really tapped into the new mood of optimism which has taken over the City of the Tribes.

All in all, these are heady days in Ireland’s Western capital, a long way from the dark and distant days when impoverished emigrants on ‘coffin ships’ would set sail from Galway Bay for new lives in the New World with sadness in their hearts and tears in their eyes.

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* An older version of this blog was published last week by the Irish-American website, http://irishcentral.com/

** Thanks to Andrew Downes and Galway International Arts Festival for the superb photos.

Celebrating ordinary, yet remarkable, lives

My grandmother has just become a movie star ... and she’s aged almost 102!

Mary Kilroy, from Caltra, is one of 30 Irish people aged over 100 who have taken part in a remarkable documentary called ‘Older Than Ireland’.

She jokes that she’s going to sue the film producer, not because he’s put her on the big screen, but because he put a clip of her on RTE’s ‘Late Late Show’.             

Granny Kilroy ... a movie star aged 101!

Her vision has deteriorated in recent years and she’s not up to the effort involved in visiting a cinema 30 miles away, but she’s chuffed by all the attention.

Some family members may be privately mortified that she managed to mention “loads” of ex-boyfriends and told a story on film which involved a priest and a four letter word.

But the great thing is how wonderfully film-maker Alex Fegan captured the remarkable spirit of a lady who has inspired so many people for so many years.

When he began filming, his mission was to ask each of the centenarians about their life experiences through the decades, starting with the Black and Tans and the foundation of the State back in 1922.

He soon realised that the personal had far more resonance than the political for these ordinary, yet remarkable, Irish people who had lived through so much for so long.

‘Older Than Ireland’ is a warm, uplifting tribute to a group of people who sum up all that is wonderful about their native land.

Each and every one of them welcomed Alex into their homes and they all spoke with genuine honesty about the highs and lows they experienced through their lives.

We see an elderly Dublin lady puffing on a cigarette without a care in the world or a 105-year old who still drives a car around the streets of the capital.

My own gran, whose life has become much more difficult over the past couple of years, puts on a brave face as she looks back on an amazing life in which she reared nine children in a two bedroomed house in the West of Ireland.

Alex spent four hours interviewing her in the Caltra home where her brother-in-law’s activities once attracted the wrath of the hated Black and Tans – there are bullet holes on the walls as a reminder of that distant era.

But, like the other amazing people in the film, my granny did not want to dwell on the negative. She spoke of lost loves, her marriage (she has now outlived my grandfather by over 50 years), companionship, and the changes she’s seen over the course of an ordinary – yet also extraordinary – life-time.

Her house used to be a social outlet for people long before the advent of televisions or mobile phones, when people used to drop in for a chat, a drink, and some music.

As a child, I enjoyed some of the best days of my life during summer holidays at her home. Every day brought a new sense of freedom, she also had a wonderful appreciation for Irish literature which was evident in the massive scrap-books (featuring anyone from John McGahern to John B. Keane) she kept around her home.

Granny was a religious lady and always went to Mass every Sunday. But in the dark days of censorship in the 1950s, she'd go out of her way to source those demon "banned" books from England. The priest mightn't have approved, but she'd have to get her hands on an Edna O'Brien or McGahern book to see what all the fuss was about.

In the film, she talks honestly about falling for a young man before she met her husband, only to attract the wrath of her family because he was a Protestant. That was a different, more divided, less tolerant Ireland.

At a special screening of 'Older Than Ireland' in Galway

But Granny Kilroy doesn’t dwell on the past. Like most of the characters in the 90 minute documentary, her focus is firmly on the present.

She revels in the fact that over 450 people sent her cards for her 100^th birthday, which her entire extended family celebrated with a wonderful party in a hotel in Athlone.

Her younger sister Margaret Kelly, who celebrated 100 years in January, also features in the film. Margaret passed away a few months after her interview with Alex, which means that the film has since become a wonderful legacy for her immediate family.

On camera, Granny Kilroy discusses this year’s Marriage Equality referendum and the rights of gay people to get married in a candid way which must have been unthinkable to her generation 30 or 40 years ago.

The film would not have been a success without Fegan’s wonderful way of letting his subjects speak, honestly and without interruption, as they looked back on a century of life.

‘Older Than Ireland’ won a prize at this year’s Galway Film Fleadh and recently went on limited release throughout Ireland. 

The final film is completely different from what Fegan envisaged when he began the first few interviews, but it’s all the better for the way in which he let it flow and allowed the 30 interviewees to bring their personalities, hopes, fears, loves and regrets to the big screen.

It was amazing to hear Alex talk about the hospitality he received all over Ireland – not one of the 30 centenarians he approached refused to do an interview which, in its own way, is some sort of tribute to the spirit and sense of fun of the Irish people.

It’s not at all sentimental or overbearing; it’s actually a great laugh and a testament to how amazing ordinary, decent Irish people can be. 

People laughed all through the film when I went to see it at the Eye Cinema in Galway last week and were hugely enthused by a 'Question and Answers' session with Alex Fegan, who drove up from Kerry for the screening. For him, it had clearly become a labour of love.

Catch it if you can!