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William Street Shop Street High Street McDonough's Seafood House, 22 Quay Street Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas Saturday market The Nora Barnacle House Museum Rahoon Cemetery |
Galway, the largest county in the province of Connacht, lies to the west of Ireland by the coast. The area has been inhabited since prehistoric times in places like Connemara. Galway City is known as the capital of the west. It is a magical city as even its name comes from Gallaimh, a mythological princess who drowned in the river nearby. In 1477 Christopher Columbus stopped over in Galway city with a fleet of ships and was given a blessing in St. Nicholas's Church. The Spanish Armada also stopped in Galway to take shelter, and Galway soon established good trading links with Spain. By the middle of the seventeenth century Galway was a great city until an English ruler named Cromwell invaded. Galway was soon became poor and over-crowded as Cromwell had seized all the wealth of the city. The final blow was the great Famine 1846-1849. It is only today that Galway has fully recovered.
Nora Barnacle, Joyce's wife, was born there to parents in Sullivan's Lane on March 21, 1884. Her father was a baker, an also a heavy drinker, kept his large family poor, according to Richard Ellmann's biography James Joyce (rev. 1982, p.157).
Coole Park, the home of Lady Gregory, and also the setting of W. B. Yeats' famous poem "Wild Swans at Coole" is about twenty-four miles outside Galway on the Gort/Limerick road. Moreover, Yeats' tower Thoor Ballylee is very close to the park.
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William Street | William Street | |
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(Friday 5 August) William Street |
Shop Street | Shop Street | |
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(Friday 5 August) Inscription of the statue of Oscar Wilde, Shop Street |
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(Friday 5 August) Statue of Oscar Wilde, Shop Street |
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(Friday 5 August) Street musicians, Shop Street |
High Street | High Street | |
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(Saturday 6 August) Kennys Bookshop, High Street |
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(Saturday 6 August) Qian Lan the Chinese bamboo flute player, High Street: I bought his original CD titled "The Beauty of Grassland" (private edition) in which he plays the bamboo flute with the synthesizer but still maintains the traditional Chinese styled music. |
McDonough's | McDonough's Seafood House, 22 Quay Street: my favorite fish & chips restaurant in Galway. | |
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(Saturday 6 August) McDonough's Seafood House, 22 Quay Street: my favorite fish & chips restaurant in Galway. |
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(Friday 5 August) My lunch (deep-fried cod [Gadus morhua], onion rings with curry sauce & coffee) @ McDonough's Seafood House, 22 Quay Street. |
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(Saturday 6 August) My lunch (deep-fried whiting [Merluccius bilinearis]. onion rings with curry sauce & coffee) @ McDonough's Seafood House, 22 Quay Street. |
Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas | The Lombard Street entrance [in front of Bowling Green] to the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas, which was built by the Anglo-Normans in 1320 and enlarged in the 16th century. The church contains many fine carvings and gargoyles dating from the late Middle Ages. According to legend, Christopher Columbus once prayed here, because Galway was his last port of call before setting off on his voyage to discover the New World. The story, of course, is impossible to prove, but it's not totally implausible. | |
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(Friday 5 August) The Lombard Street entrance [in front of Bowling Green] to the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas, which was built by the Anglo-Normans in 1320 and enlarged in the 16th century. The church contains many fine carvings and gargoyles dating from the late Middle Ages. According to legend, Christopher Columbus once prayed here, because Galway was his last port of call before setting off on his voyage to discover the New World. The story, of course, is impossible to prove, but it's not totally implausible. |
Saturday market | A Saturday market, held on every Saturday mornings in the shadow [Lombard Street] of the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas. | |
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(Saturday 6 August) A Saturday market, held on every Saturday mornings in the shadow [Lombard Street] of the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas. |
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(Saturday 6 August) A Saturday market, held on every Saturday mornings in the shadow [Lombard Street] of the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas. |
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(Saturday 6 August) A Saturday market, held on every Saturday mornings in the shadow [Lombard Street] of the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas. |
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(Saturday 6 August) A Saturday market, held on every Saturday mornings in the shadow [Lombard Street] of the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas. |
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(Saturday 6 August) A Saturday market, held on every Saturday mornings in the shadow [Lombard Street] of the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas. |
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(Saturday 6 August) A Saturday market, held on every Saturday mornings in the shadow [Lombard Street] of the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas. |
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(Saturday 6 August) A Saturday market, held on every Saturday mornings in the shadow [Lombard Street] of the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas. |
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(Saturday 6 August) A Saturday market, held on every Saturday mornings in the shadow [Lombard Street] of the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas. |
Nora Barnacle House | The Nora Barnacle House Museum, 8 Bowling Green: Built in 1855, it consists of one room on the ground floor and another room on the first floor plus the very narrow backyard. Nora's mother Annie Healy (Mrs. Barnacle) lived here until her death in 1939; it was bought and renovated by the local sisters, Sheila and Mary Gallagher. | |
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(Friday 5 August) 8 Bowling Green, or The Nora Barnacle House Museum; built in 1855, consists of one room on the ground floor and another room on the first floor plus the very narrow backyard. Nora's mother Annie Healy (Mrs. Barnacle) lived here until her death in 1939; it was bought and renovated by the local sisters, Sheila and Mary Gallagher. |
Rahoon Cemetery | Rahoon Cemetery | |
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(Friday 5 August) Entrance Gate to Rahoon Cemetery |
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(Friday 5 August) Michael Bodkin's (one of Nora Barnacle's admirers: a model of Michael Furey of "The Dead") grave, Rahoon Cemetery |
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(Friday 5 August) Michael Bodkin's (one of Nora Barnacle's admirers: a model of Michael Furey of "The Dead") grave, Rahoon Cemetery |