CITY TRIBUNE
Busker Paul living proof that everyone can have their moment in the spotlight
Buskers are the life and soul of this city and some of them are gaining quite a bit of attention online lately.
Paul Taylor is one of them. You might know Paul by recognising his two little dogs that are never far from his side. “This is Benny, the black fella”, he says as the dogs stir at their names, “and Miley, after Miley from Glenroe”, he laughs as I explain that I’m also from a place called Glenroe.
He orders two coffees and the dogs settle at our feet outside The Quays bar – no doubt hiding from the lashing rain just beyond the canopy.
“I was reared here in Galway”, says Paul. “I was brought up here with the Christian Brothers in Salthill and a few foster families around. I went to boarding school in Saint Mary’s and then headed off to England, as we all did in the 80s’, he adds as he lights a cigarette. “I spent my little time over there working in hotels and then came back and ah, I don’t know, I just fell into the music scene really.”
Paul learned to play the guitar while staying with a friend in Limerick and the pair had their first busking experience outside Dunnes Stores. “we made like a euro – or a pound back then – between us which was great,”, he smiles, flivking ash from the cigarette.
Busking is a daily thing for Paul. “It keeps me sane and it keeps me occupied. It’s something I just love to do.”
This is Beautiful Galway and This is Paul TaylorThe Super Talented Paul Taylor, brightening up the streets of Galway on a Sunny Afternoon with his two Best Buddies 🙂
Posted by This is Beautiful Galway 2019 on Saturday, April 8, 2017
If you’re a fan of The Voice of Ireland you may also recognise Paul from two years ago when he appeared on the programme and made it to the live shows. He lived in his car along with his dogs for a while and he believes his story was part of why he got so far in the competition. “I think I had a better story than a voice, because people got voted out that were 10 times better than me,” he confides.
Paul was at COPE Galway’s daycentre looking online for accommodation when he came across an ad for The Voice of Ireland and he decided to go for it. Talking about the experience he laughs. “It was mad sure”, he says. He certainly wasn’t used to makeup and choreographers. “I can’t dance for sh*t”, he says, shaking his head.
And who knew that his time at The Voice would, in fact, lead to an end to his accommodation search. “We got the house out of it really because, I mean, it was high-profile like,” he says as he stubs out the cigarette.
He didn’t expect to get as far as he did, he didn’t even expect the buzzer to go so, when Rachel’s chair turned he was shocked. “But that song, This Year’s Love, has been so good to me over the past few years”, smiles Paul. “I mean the video’s gone viral on Facebook; it’s had over a million views.”
The video is on the This is Beautiful Galway Facebook page of Paul busking on a sunny day. “The lad who’s got the page, his name is Luke. This is Beautiful Galway is his Facebook page and he just passed one day and took it,” Paul explains. “It just caught a beautiful moment I think – it was a lovely day and the dogs were chilled out,” he smiles.
We look out into the rain and he says he’ll wait for it to stop before heading out for another day of busking.
Paul was banned from driving two years ago after drink driving offences. “Things were difficult for me,” he says, “I was throwing back a little more drink than I should be and I got caught and that’s it – lesson learned.”
He’s not sure if he wants a car again, although he would love to get a campervan and travel to festivals around Europe and explore Ireland. “I don’t like to be enclosed, I like to be out and that’s why I’m out every day,” he says.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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