Gone but not forgotten – Una’s life to become play

In her hey-day she was a renowned beauty and socialite who would host fabulous tennis parties in the family home courtyard behind William Street, enjoy afternoon tea in the Great Southern Hotel and Sunday drives in her father’s open top car.

By the end of her life, Una Taaffe had been made a ward of court.

For the five years after her brother Eddie’s death in 2001, she had been living alone and terribly frugally, in badly deteriorated living quarters above the closed shop with no sanitation, too proud to accept help.

She lived the last two years of her life in the Coral Haven Nursing Home on the Headford Road. When she died on September 24, 2006 she had more than €8 million in her bank accounts, much of it from the proceeds of selling the knitwear shop which Americans flocked to for years despite the horrid smell from the dozens of stray dogs and cats which took up residence inside.

Today, the prime located shop, bought at the height of the boom by businessman Gerry Barrett for an estimated €20 million, remains derelict.

But its link with its late owner remains ever strong for generations of Galwegians. Una Taaffe was one of the great characters of Galway, known far and wide as the city’s Miss Havisham, an eccentric who would don dark clothes and bright red lipstick, followed everywhere she went by animals.

Her shop also attracted many homeless people, one of whom she married in the 1980s. Her husband died some years later in an abandoned car fire near the Spanish Arch.

Now, a project is underway to document her fascinating life.

Launched on Thursday at the Galway Arts Centre, locals were being invited to share their stories, photographs and memories of the retailer which will be used to create a play.

“Through research and interviews we will constellate the fragments of memories of Úna and excavate the essence of a lady who left a deep imprint on the collective consciousness of the city,” explains project director Elaine Mears.

The play is to be staged at the Galway Theatre Festival in May.

■ For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.