Exhibition captures effects of Galway City’s rapid growth

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Knocknacarra: Sale Agreed is a new exhibition by artist Hilary Morley in which she charts the changes to her neighbourhood resulting from the rapid expansion of Galway City.  This show of paintings, drawings and collage is running on the Arts Corridor of University Hospital Galway until Sunday, June 30.

Hilary, who is originally from Louth, has lived in the suburb of Knocknacarra for more than two decades and has a deep affection for the area where she reared her family.

Its closeness to the sea, rolling hills and fantastic light make it a special place to live, she says.

Since moving to Knocknacarra, Hilary has witnessed a once-wild landscape being replaced by housing estates, retail parks and roads.

For more than 15 years she recorded the changes in her immediate area – and then she broadened her horizoons to the surrounding countryside.

That happened during the recession as Hilary explored rural areas to the North and West of Knocknacarra, climbing ditches, uncovering cottages, sheds and fairy trees and meeting local farmers. She learned the names of ancient fields and observed at close range the twisted hawthorns and stone walls of Connemara, a landscape where “boardroom planners and developers” have wrought massive change.

In recent years, Hilary has seen auctioneers’ signs spring up across Knocknacarra, an indication of its popularity among house-buyers.

It’s something that causes her mixed feelings.

“On the downside, it’s an indicator of fields and old farms and landscape disappearing, but on the upside, there’s the arrival of new families, a vibrant community and progress,” she says.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.