Galway publican devises novel board game for customers

The dearest pub property in Galway city is the Blue Note on William Street . . . according to a unique board game based on Monopoly.

In fact, it was the brainwave of the Blue Note publican, Malachy Duggan and two friends to create their own customised board game.

The three men had great fun sitting down and coming up with all sorts of alternatives to the squares on the Monopoly board so they would represent Galway but they had even greater fun composing the chance and community welfare cards.

For the Galway game, which by the way is called Gal-o-poly, these are called Chancer cards and Community Welfare cards!

One card reads ‘Caught doing a nixer – lose three weeks’ dole’ or ‘Wedding Invite, lose €500’. There’s also a fine for not having a TV licence.

All of the cards reflect Galway life and are a mix of  irony and a reflection on local issues. For example, for the owners of Terryland Water (it is one of the properties on the board) there’s a fine when cryptosporidium is found in the water!

Instead of Jail, of course it’s Mill Street. Galway Airport is another property but this game was composed before it was bought by the two Local Authorities. There’s also a square for NAMA and a Supertax office.

“We had great fun thinking it up and since we put it out in the bar, we have had a very positive feedback from customers.

“We only got one board printed and we printed our own money. As I said, it is a customised game, loosely based on Monopoly and it would have been too expensive to get more of them done.

“We only wanted one for our bar here, which is why of course we made the Blue Note and the Old Forge on the same street, the two most expensive properties on the board,” said Malachy.

The two cheapest properties on the board are Fibber McGee’s and Crowes bar on the other side of the town on the basis of their location – away from The West – which to Malachy and pals is the epicentre of cool when it comes to Galway’s social life.

He stressed that it was all just a bit of fun and that now Blue Note customers could play a property game on a board as opposed to gambling big sums of money on real property during the boom years!

The cards also refer to a lot of local characters which are drawn in caricature style and which Malachy hopes adds to the enjoyment of the game, which is a one-off and exclusive to the Blue Note.