CITY TRIBUNE
An Tóstal revival celebrates 70th anniversary of traditional racing in Galway Bay
This weekend sees Salthill host two-day gathering of traditional currachs and rowers at Ladies Beach – reviving a tradition that goes back for most of a century.
An Tóstal – or the Gathering – has been brought back to life by the combined efforts of the Galway Hooker Sailing Club, in partnership with The Salthill Village, Blackrock Cottage, the Gráinne Mhaol Rowing Club, and Galway City Council.
This celebration of Galway’s maritime life and seafaring customs will see the traditional racing currachs and rowers gather at Ladies Beach in Salthill for the first time in ten years.
The foundation for this gathering was laid out in the early 1950s, and Tóstal na Gaillimhe of 1953 marked the beginning of the All-Ireland Currach Racing Championships. Dignitaries and thousands of spectators gathered to witness the rowers compete for championship titles and glory.
For 2023, the two-day gathering will take place this Saturday and Sunday and will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the original Tóstal na Gaillimhe.
The event will feature male, female, and junior traditional currach racing rowers alongside sliding seat rowers.
The currachaí will be provided by Cóiste Lár na gCurrachaí for the duration of the festival and we are delighted to have the support of the previous festival director of 2011-2013, who is working closely with us to ensure the success of An Tóstal 2023.
Ciaran Oliver of the Galway Hooker Sailing Club said they were thrilled to bring back the tradition of An Tóstal to Salthill in celebration of its 70th anniversary.
“Our aims is to deliver an exciting two-day event that celebrates the rich maritime culture of Galway Bay,” he said. 
The event is a revival of a national celebration of maritime life and customs that was initiated in 1953 by Bord Fáilte and continued till 1959.
An Tóstal was revived in 2011 after a long wait of 57 years, and the winning crew of 1955 officiated at the opening ceremony before races began.
In 2012, new trophies were presented for the senior men’s race and junior category, and racing continued with different crews winning in each category. The weather conditions were perfect for racing, with boats of different sizes out on the water.
In the expectation of similarly good weather conditions on Saturday, the Gráinne Mhaol Rowing Club will be hosting ‘Try Rowing’ sessions and the Galway Hooker Sailing Club will be hosting ‘Try Sailing’ sessions for those curious about getting started.
Galway Bay promises a spectacle of red sails as the iconic Galway Hooker fleet – along with other local sailing clubs – take to the water.
There will also be plenty of family-friendly activities and entertainment on shore throughout the weekend.
Live music performances by local artists will also feature, adding to the festive atmosphere. With something for everyone, An Tóstal is a free event that promises to be a fun-filled weekend for the whole family.
(Photo: Margaret Jenkins, Fáilte Ireland, Collette Furey, Galway Hooker Sailing Club and Finian Hanley, Blackrock Cottage and Salthill Village as preparations are getting underway for “An Tostál”).
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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