CITY TRIBUNE
Galway to host flotilla of ships of all sizes as SeaFest comes to town
Galway City will be at the centre of the country’s biggest and most spectacular seafaring festival this week as a small armada of sailing, scientific and navy ships make their way around the coast – as SeaFest finally hits our shores.
Galway Harbour Master Captain Brian Sheridan, believes it will be an unbelievable sight.
“Every inch of the port will be crammed with boats of every size and shape and the entire waterfront will be awash with spectacle and non-stop water based activity,” he said.
“SeaFest is a marvellous festival, unquestionably the best of its kind in the country. It’s going to be brilliant weekend of spectacle and family-friendly entertainment and we are delighted to be able to open the port and provide a stage for such a wonderful event.”
An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 visitors will flock to Galway Harbour for the three-day festival from Friday, June 30, to Sunday, July 2.
The weekend will see more than 100 seafaring, water sport, sea science and entertainment events being staged in and around the Harbour which will also be the location for business and industry exhibitions and a range of children’s activities and workshops.
For Galway Port it will, says Captain Sheridan, be ‘by far the busiest week of the year with more than 70 sailing and motor boats crowding into the harbour for ringside seats on the non-stop programme of events and activities’.
Although the Harbour will be packed with ships it will remain open for business and a large oil tanker ship will have to be squeezed in during the weekend.
The first of the ships taking part in SeaFest will arrive in the middle of next week. One of the most dramatic arrivals will be the famous tall ship, The Phoenix, which has played swashbuckling roles in a number of blockbuster films and TV series. It is sailing from Liverpool and will make a historic stopover at Kilronan, on the Aran Islands, on its way to Galway.
The traditional, wooden, gaff-rigged sail training ketch The Brian Boru will leave Sligo next Monday and arrive in Galway, weather permitting, on Friday June 30. The boat operated by Safe Haven Ireland, will have twelve trainees, including two Syrian refugees on board.
The Brian Boru will leave Galway on Monday, July 3, and head for Limerick on its next sail training voyage. Five children from Gaelscoil on Inishmore and five refugees now living in Galway will join the voyage.
The naval vessel the LÉ Ciara will leave its base at Haulbowline in Cork next Monday to undertake a routine patrol in the Atlantic – and on completion, it will sail for Galway to arrive in the city on Friday, June 30. It will be open to the public during the festival weekend.
The Marine Institute research vessels the Celtic Explorer and the Celtic Voyager are both working on scientific surveys in the Atlantic and will arrive in Galway on Thursday, June 29.
The Commissioners of Irish Lights vessel, The ILV Granuaile, is working in the Atlantic this week and is due to join the other ships in Galway on Thursday, June 29.
The Irish Sailing Association is offering free Try Sailing lessons especially for those who have never been on board a sailing boat before, to experience the excitement and the adventure of getting out on the water for the first time.
The ISA is also arranging free lessons for people with disabilities. Specially adapted keelboats will be sailing every hour between 11am and 3pm from Galway Harbour.
Three sailing clubs – Galway Bay Sailing Club, Galway City Sailing Club and Spiddal Sailing Club – are combining with Báidóirí an Chladaigh, Galway Bay Boat Tours and the Port of Galway Sea Scouts to offer three days of free sailing trips.
The Galway Hookers operated by Báidóirí an Chladaigh will take up to 20 people at a time on an hour long sailing trip. A fleet of powerboats will also be taking up to 20 people on the water every hour for a trip along the Claddagh throughout Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Traditional boatbuilding demonstrations have been organised by Galway County Council and Údarás na Gaeltachta and will take place between 10am and 5.30pm on Saturday and Sunday, July 1 and 2.
Boat builders from Báidóirí an Chladaigh and Carraroe Men’s Shed, will show how ancient skills are being preserved and passed on to new generations and how the legendary hookers are being designed and built.
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.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
