100 years of Irish cuisine at Galway’s historic hotels

Lifestyle –  Judy Murphy meets the people behind two celebrated institutions in hospitality and tourist industries

Two of Galway’s most historic buildings will play a central role in this year’s Galway’s Food Festival, with chefs from both taking part in demonstrations to celebrate the last 100 years of Irish cuisine.

The Ardilaun in Galway City and Ballynahinch Castle were both centres of hospitality long before they became hotels – the difference these days is that anybody who can afford the price of a lunch or dinner can avail of the fare on offer in these four-star establishments. Back then, most of us wouldn’t have got beyond the servants’ quarters!

On Easter Monday, the Ardilaun will mark its link with the Boland family – of the famed Boland Mills in Dublin, which was under de Valera’s command during the 1916 Rising – with a family picnic. It will be on the grounds if the day is fine, and in the dining room if not, explains Breda Ryan, who with her late husband Paddy oversaw the transformation of the former Glenarde House into the Ardilaun Hotel in the early 1960s.

Paddy and Breda bought the house from the Misses Bolands, two sisters whose father had purchased it in the early 1900s from the Persse family.

The Protestant Persses had fought at the Battle of Aughrim on the side of William of Orange and were awarded land in Roxboro in South Galway for their efforts, says Breda. From there, they branched out into other areas and into other business, most notably distilling.

Like the Smithwicks in Kilkenny, they started brewing beer, but graduated to whiskey as it was more respectable. Their distillery was a lucrative business for many years and helped finance various townhouses in Galway of which Glenarde was one. Eventually, however, having taken their eye off the business in favour of the high life, they were forced to sell it and Patrick Boland, a Catholic, purchased it. He had been a lawyer in London but suffered poor health and was sent to the West of Ireland for its fresh air.

Glenarde House was at the heart of a small estate then, Breda explains, as she maps out where the boundaries reached. That has long been swallowed up by housing.

The Bolands were an industrious family, she says and Patrick’s daughters, Miss Eleanor and Miss Maeve, kept silkworms. They had six gardeners to maintain the gardens and they supplied flowers for free to the Jesuit church. They also maintained the woodlands, which are still there and are much loved by Breda.

The Ryans initially bought the house and land immediately around it from the sisters. They later bought the walled garden, which now supplies many of the ingredients for the kitchen.

The contents of the house were auctioned off by the Misses Bolands and Breda remembers the event, when the late Mrs Kenny of Kennys’ Bookshop, realising how valuable the library was, made a special and successful effort to acquire it.

The Misses Bolands, who “were beautifully mannered but not of this world”, initially moved to a new house on their land after selling Glenarde. Subsequently they moved to one that had bigger gardens and more space, which kept them busy. The rest of the estate was sold off gradually.

Paddy and Breda Ryan had bought the house with a hotel in mind – “Paddy was very interested in tourism and could see what was developing”, his wife explains.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.