News
Two Ó Conaire statues to be in place by end of Summer
City officials expect the two Pádraic Ó Conaire statues to be unveiled by the end of Summer.
The statues, the original and a bronze replica, have been in the works at Cast Foundry in Dublin since September.
The replica will be located in Eyre Square, but city officials haven’t determined an exact location at this time. Since the replica is quite heavy due to the bronze it needs to be placed on a reliable base.
The other issue with location is making sure it’s away from any possible vandalism, but at the same time is in a spot where it’s accessible to everyone.
“It’s taking longer than we expected because we want to do it right. Once it’s put there we don’t want to move it,” said Gary McMahon, Acting Senior Executive Officer in Arts, Culture & Communications in Galway City Council.
“It’s an iconic image of Galway and we expect and we know that visitors and locals will treat it with respect.”
The original stone statue of Shean Phádraic will be housed in the Galway City Museum, where it was safely placed for a number of years.
In the past, the statue was hugely popular with tourists for photographs and Mr McMahon pointed out they wanted today’s visitors to have the opportunity to pose with the statue, too.
City officials hoped the statues would be ready for mid-June for the Remembering Eamonn Ceannt event, but Mr McMahon said that hadn’t proved possible.
Officials and craftsmen have been working to make the replica look as identical to the original piece as they possibly can.
The original statue, which was designed by Albert Power, has been moved quite a few times since its creation.
In 2004, it was moved out of Eyre Square to City Hall during the square’s enhancement scheme. Then two years later it was relocated to the museum.
Surgery to the original piece includes work on the nose, fixing the brim of the hat and some cracks along the neck which appeared after an earlier repair when the statue was vandalized.
Back in 1999, four youths from Northern Ireland drunkenly kicked off the head of the statue causing about IR£11,000 (around €14,000) in damages.
They were charged with criminal damage after the head was found in a bag and were fined IR£1,000 and ordered to pay IR£2,000 to the city of Galway.
At that time, the judge compared the theft of the head to the removal of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre.
The statue was unveiled in 1935 by Eamon de Valera and was placed between the Browne Doorway and Richardson’s Pub.
Ó Conaire is regarded as one of the advanced writers in the Irish language and was a contributor to the revival of Gaelic literature in the early 20th century.
Cllr Padraic Conneely has welomed the imminent return of the statues.
“I have been told by the City Council the replica is complete. A structural groundworks assessment is being progressed to finalise a location and ensure a stable and secure platform for the statue. It is expected that this will be completed and the replica will be in situ in the coming weeks.”
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
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.”
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
