Galway – the city of rain and self-aggrandisement?

Sunny Disposition

There’s a lot I like about Galway, but I wouldn’t like to live there again really. The population is very transient, for that reason I think it is a hard place for an outsider to make friends. Plus the traffic is chronic. Absolutely terrible.

Loads of good points though, there is loads to do, no two ways about it, loads. Night life is excellent too.

Tell me how

Greyfox wrote: »

And that's the reality. Galway is lovely and although it doesn't have the choice that Dublin offers it's comparable to Dublin when it comes to having a good night, Cork is decent too but let's face facts lads.. Dublin is an amazing city to live in

Dublin is the capital and is catering for 6 or 7 times the population within the city itself than Galway.

Of course it's going to have more on on any given night. Be something massively wrong if the options were even close.

Given what we've seen in relation to open drug use, cost of rent etc, I think 'Dublin is an amazing city to live in' is a bit of a stretch at the moment.

beaz2018

I grew up in a Galway suburb. Great place to grow up but I find it very hard to comprehend going back to live there- it is very small, everyone knows everyone and your likely to meet half of the town on the prom on a fine evening. I think it's mainly people who moved there as adults that seem to like it best- half of Mayo is there.

Peatys

You think Galway is bad for being up its own arse? Try working/living in Westport.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Tell me how wrote: »

Much more personality around City of Galway in my opinion.

Where is Limericks equivalent of Eyre Sq/Shop Street?

Eyre Square is nothing special though. So why does any other city need an equivalent? Shop Street is the main shopping street. Every city has one of the those.

kikilarue2

Tell me how wrote: »

Greyfox wrote: »

And that's the reality. Galway is lovely and although it doesn't have the choice that Dublin offers it's comparable to Dublin when it comes to having a good night, Cork is decent too but let's face facts lads.. Dublin is an amazing city to live in

Dublin is the capital and is catering for 6 or 7 times the population within the city itself than Galway.

Of course it's going to have more on on any given night. Be something massively wrong if the options were even close.

Given what we've seen in relation to open drug use, cost of rent etc, I think 'Dublin is an amazing city to live in' is a bit of a stretch at the moment.

If rent was significantly cheaper in Galway you’d have a point there, but it’s not. As for open drug use, I’d say there are two streets in the city center where that’s common and no more.

Seathrun66

Greyfox wrote: »

And that's the reality. Galway is lovely and although it doesn't have the choice that Dublin offers it's comparable to Dublin when it comes to having a good night, Cork is decent too but let's face facts lads.. Dublin is an amazing city to live in

Before moving from London we weighed up Dublin, Cork and Limerick as options before choosing Galway. Cost and the lack of quality of life immediately excluded Dublin. It's more expensive than the city we left though there are many good points about the capital. As there are for the others.

We chose Galway for the cost, culture, friendliness and proximity to Clare, Connemara and the islands. And haven't regretted it at all.

All Irish cities have their good and bad points. But if you're happy where you're living that's all that matters.

Tell me how

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

Eyre Square is nothing special though. So why does any other city need an equivalent? Shop Street is the main shopping street. Every city has one of the those.

Eyre Sq has a vibrancy through being in City centre, on a thoroughfare, surrounded by restaurants/pubs and generally in any sort of good weather, has a lot if people hanging out there.
I'm not suggesting it's worth moving to Galway because of but it does engender something which not every city or town in Ireland has.

If you think shop st is the same as any main shopping street then I don't know what to say to you other than to ask a question.

Imagine you take a bus load of tourists and walk them from one end of shop st to the other just to experience it on a typical Saturday morning, and you do the same with them on O'Connell st in Limerick or, I dunno, Patrick st in Cork, which place do you think they'd choose to spend the weekend in, purely on that experience?

Seathrun66

kikilarue2 wrote: »

If rent was significantly cheaper in Galway you’d have a point there, but it’s not. As for open drug use, I’d say there are two streets in the city center where that’s common and no more.

National average rent (from RTB Rent Index, December 2018) - €1,122 pcm
Galway - €1,226 pcm
Dublin - €1,620 pcm

€400 per month is a significant difference. That's a €4,800 per year gap in rent. You'd need to have substantial earnings for that not to be relevant.

kikilarue2

Seathrun66 wrote: »

The most prominent film festival in the country is very significant. The films funded by Screen Ireland/IFB based here are even more so.

This is typical of a thing a pro-Galway person would say with not much basis in reality. The film fleadh is a good festival, but tell me how it’s more prominent than the DIFF or Cork Film Festival.

Listen, Galway is grand. I’d recommend it to any tourists for a few nights.

But it’s also far too expensive (almost as bad as Dublin for a much smaller, more remote city), the traffic is an absolute nightmare, public transport isn’t great, and the concentration of students and tourists gives the place a buzz but makes it unpleasant/ inconvenient a lot of the time for regular residents going about their day.

There’s a reason a lot of Galwegian’s take RaceWeek off and get out of the place.

In my early 20s when a lot of the above wasn’t a concern I loved it, but now I enjoy the variety Dublin has to offer far too much.

Each to their own. Galway is fine. But it’s nothing particularly special.

Seathrun66

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

Eyre Square is nothing special though. So why does any other city need an equivalent? Shop Street is the main shopping street. Every city has one of the those.

Agreed. Eyre Sq could be impressive but isn't. Good during the arts festival though with the outdoor bars and artist/acrobat setups.

The poster may mean Quay St which runs on from Shop St. Latter offers little different from every other high street. Former has some good bars and one excellent one (Neachtains) plus a few decent eateries and cafes.

Tell me how

kikilarue2 wrote: »

If rent was significantly cheaper in Galway you’d have a point there, but it’s not. As for open drug use, I’d say there are two streets in the city center where that’s common and no more.

Well, going by Boards, and Dublin city dwellers, the entire city centre is occupied by visible drug users pretty much 24/7.

Doing a quick search for room shares in Galway on daft, the max per month on the 1st page was 585. Same in Dublin had several over 1000.

Maybe you should move to Galway. Nicer neighbors too maybe.

Pineapple1

Peatys wrote:

You think Galway is bad for being up its own arse? Try working/living in Westport.

Really?? Worked in Westport before, thought locals (customers) were lovely to deal with, much nicer than Castlebar folk who came across to me like a rat with a headache (sorry love Cbar but thats what I found). Was always a dream to live in Westport but house prices seem a bit up their arse alright.

Seathrun66

kikilarue2 wrote: »

This is typical of a thing a pro-Galway person would say with not much basis in reality. The film fleadh is a good festival, but tell me how it’s more prominent than the DIFF or Cork Film Festival.

Listen, Galway is grand. I’d recommend it to any tourists for a few nights.

But it’s also far too expensive (almost as bad as Dublin for a much smaller, more remote city), the traffic is an absolute nightmare, public transport isn’t great, and the concentration of students and tourists gives the place a buzz but makes it unpleasant/ inconvenient a lot of the time for regular residents going about their day.

There’s a reason a lot of Galwegian’s take RaceWeek off and get out of the place.

In my early 20s when a lot of the above wasn’t a concern I loved it, but now I enjoy the variety Dublin has to offer far too much.

Each to their own. Galway is fine. But it’s nothing particularly special.

The Irish film Board/Screen Ireland is based in Galway. Hence the significance of the Film Fleadh as that's where the main business is done in selling Irish produced movies. Last year it was Black '47 that was sold internationally. This year's focus was on Never Grow Old. For the Irish film industry it's the most prominent festival. Is it the best in terms of quality? Probably not, that may be Cork.

And see my previous post on comparative rent figures. Dublin is 33% more expensive than Galway.

Personally I can see the attraction of all Irish cities. There's a buzz about Sligo and Limerick at the moment. After living in London for years we didn't want the same struggle to get by on returning to Ireland. Hence our choice of Galway. I've not heard anyone arrogantly boasting about the place here. But people seem happy to live here. and surely that's a good thing?

kikilarue2

Tell me how wrote: »

kikilarue2 wrote: »

If rent was significantly cheaper in Galway you’d have a point there, but it’s not. As for open drug use, I’d say there are two streets in the city center where that’s common and no more.

Well, going by Boards, and Dublin city dwellers, the entire city centre is occupied by visible drug users pretty much 24/7.

Doing a quick search for room shares in Galway on daft, the max per month on the 1st page was 585. Same in Dublin had several over 1000.

Maybe you should move to Galway. Nicer neighbors too maybe.

Well it wouldn’t be hard to beat the current one that’s for sure!

Thankfully I’m past the stage of my life where I’m doing room shares - the cheaper ones in Galway are all aimed at students. The difference between the price of a 2 bed apartment isn’t what it should be at all.

I’ve lived in Galway, Limerick and Dublin. I actually like them all. Each has their own personality, benefits and drawbacks.

If people like Galway best that’s grand. All I’m saying is I agree with the OP that Galway isn’t anywhere near as far ahead of other cities as it’s people would like to think it is.

kikilarue2

Seathrun66 wrote: »

kikilarue2 wrote: »

If rent was significantly cheaper in Galway you’d have a point there, but it’s not. As for open drug use, I’d say there are two streets in the city center where that’s common and no more.

National average rent (from RTB Rent Index, December 2018) - €1,122 pcm
Galway - €1,226 pcm
Dublin - €1,620 pcm

€400 per month is a significant difference. That's a €4,800 per year gap in rent. You'd need to have substantial earnings for that not to be relevant.

Go back and look at what that difference was 10 or 15 or 20 years ago. Galway used to be far more affordable than it is now by comparison with Dublin. It’s been catching up rapidly over the last few years.

A city of what, 70k people, should be much cheaper than a city of 1m.

Tell me how

kikilarue2 wrote: »

Go back and look at what that difference was 10 or 15 or 20 years ago. Galway used to be far more affordable than it is now by comparison with Dublin. It’s been catching up rapidly over the last few years.

A city of what, 70k people, should be much cheaper than a city of 1m.

We're not living in or talking about 10, 15 or 20 years ago.

Also, your point about 70k vs 1M would only make sense if they had the same number of dwellings available.

Wompa1

Just a few years ago there were 4 Michelin Star chefs operating in Galway City. Bananas! It is becoming quite the foodie destination, mostly thanks to JP McMahon, I'd say.

I've never been a fan of Race Week. Don't really give much of a toss for the Arts Festival either, though it's nice to have the free events that come along with it.

Eyre Square was a bag of sh1te for a lot of years after the renovation. It seems to be getting it's groove back a little now. The City Council (at least in the summer months) have been doing a good job maintaining it. There are lovely colorful flower beds in there now. They seem to clean the paving regularly too. It's pretty cool that the remenants of the city wall are right by the Square, there's also the statue in the middle and the Doorway at the top. It's a nice little park.

The Famine Walk that was opened in 2014 is lovely. If you drive 10 minutes out of the city you can get to Barna Woods and Silverstand.

Galway is a great little city. It has become very diverse in the last 10 years too.

Also, everyone hear knows the trick to McDonagh's! You don't get the fish. You get the Snackbox!

kikilarue2

Tell me how wrote: »

kikilarue2 wrote: »

Go back and look at what that difference was 10 or 15 or 20 years ago. Galway used to be far more affordable than it is now by comparison with Dublin. It’s been catching up rapidly over the last few years.

A city of what, 70k people, should be much cheaper than a city of 1m.

We're not living in or talking about 10, 15 or 20 years ago.

Also, your point about 70k vs 1M would only make sense if they had the same number of dwellings available.

My point is that Galway is a lot more expensive than it used to be - and the point about the size of the city is that a city of 1m people has a lot more going on to justify the costs. The reason a lot of people choose to live in Dublin is because that’s where most of our highly paid jobs are.

I’d rather be making 60k in Dublin paying €1600 rent than 40k in Galway paying €1200. It’s very difficult to get a highly paid job in Galway because there just aren’t that many of them - there are loads in Dublin. And the ones that are in Galway are concentrated in a handful of sectors (pharma is a big one) whereas in Dublin it’s spread across all kinds of sectors.

Last time I lived in Galway I moved down from Dublin and took a significant paycut on the basis that Galway would be much cheaper and that I’d have a much better lifestyle there. Neither turned out to be true, and I was back in Dublin in six months.

Mad_maxx

The Rape of Lucretia wrote: »

AvB on the money there. I think its a consequence of its general remoteness from any proper point of reference. When you head out a road from Galway and encounter the likes of Gort, Ballinasloe, or Tuam, its easy to understand how a desire to turn back, and the idea that Galway is the bees knees in everything, could take hold.

If you exclude the city, Galway is an unmercifull dive when it comes to towns, spent most of the last week all over Cork, loads of towns you would be more than happy to live in.

kikilarue2

Another thing I struggled with in Galway was dating. In Dublin if I was in the mood to go out with someone I can log on to an app and in all likelihood have something organised in a couple of hours.

Much more difficult in Galway. The pool is obviously a lot smaller, but the men were also a lot more awkward about online dating I felt? They’d match and message but rarely wanted to meet up.

Mad_maxx

Seathrun66 wrote: »

Before moving from London we weighed up Dublin, Cork and Limerick as options before choosing Galway. Cost and the lack of quality of life immediately excluded Dublin. It's more expensive than the city we left though there are many good points about the capital. As there are for the others.

We chose Galway for the cost, culture, friendliness and proximity to Clare, Connemara and the islands. And haven't regretted it at all.

All Irish cities have their good and bad points. But if you're happy where you're living that's all that matters.

Galway is incredibly expensive to both buy and rent, relative to the opportunities of any kind offered, it's dearer than Dublin.

As recently as 2016, Limerick was 40% cheaper than Galway, gap is less than 10% now regardless of what you see in reports.

Muahahaha

Peatys wrote: »

You think Galway is bad for being up its own arse? Try working/living in Westport.

Have to agree with Westport. Killarney the same, the locals seem to have a real sense of themselves

Mad_maxx

Seathrun66 wrote: »

National average rent (from RTB Rent Index, December 2018) - €1,122 pcm
Galway - €1,226 pcm
Dublin - €1,620 pcm

€400 per month is a significant difference. That's a €4,800 per year gap in rent. You'd need to have substantial earnings for that not to be relevant.

The average rent in Galway for a two bedroom apartment is at least 1200,never mind anything else and 400 is a small difference, London is twice as expensive as the next most expensive city in the UK

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Tell me how wrote: »

Eyre Sq has a vibrancy through being in City centre, on a thoroughfare, surrounded by restaurants/pubs and generally in any sort of good weather, has a lot if people hanging out there.
I'm not suggesting it's worth moving to Galway because of but it does engender something which not every city or town in Ireland has.

If you think shop st is the same as any main shopping street then I don't know what to say to you other than to ask a question.

Imagine you take a bus load of tourists and walk them from one end of shop st to the other just to experience it on a typical Saturday morning, and you do the same with them on O'Connell st in Limerick or, I dunno, Patrick st in Cork, which place do you think they'd choose to spend the weekend in, purely on that experience?

It is though. What do you think makes it special? I preferred Patrick’s Street in Cork. It’s connected to the English Market, Patrick’s Hill is nearby, there’s are loads of good restaurants off it and there are quirky side streets. I’d say tourists could easily prefer it to Shop Street. I know which one I preferred on first visit. And second. And so on. I don’t know enough about Limerick to say much about it.

As for Eyre Square, when I first started going to Galway on day trips as a teenager, I avoided it. I thought it was a complete hole of a park. It’s better now since it was revamped but isn’t a patch on Merrion Square Park or Stephen’s Green Park in Dublin. Both vibrant city centre parks. Then there’s the Phoenix Park and Botanic Gardens very close to the city centre. I genuinely do not understand the fuss about Eyre Square at all.

Seathrun66

kikilarue2 wrote: »

Well it wouldn’t be hard to beat the current one that’s for sure!

Thankfully I’m past the stage of my life where I’m doing room shares - the cheaper ones in Galway are all aimed at students. The difference between the price of a 2 bed apartment isn’t what it should be at all.

I’ve lived in Galway, Limerick and Dublin. I actually like them all. Each has their own personality, benefits and drawbacks.

If people like Galway best that’s grand. All I’m saying is I agree with the OP that Galway isn’t anywhere near as far ahead of other cities as it’s people would like to think it is.

This is more of a media than a local creation. I've not heard the natives saying Galway is better than elsewhere. Irish and US newspapers are the ones extolling the city's virtues, not us residents. We're happy here, but can also see the downsides. And the upsides of other cities.

rainybillwill

kikilarue2 wrote: »

Go back and look at what that difference was 10 or 15 or 20 years ago. Galway used to be far more affordable than it is now by comparison with Dublin. It’s been catching up rapidly over the last few years.

A city of what, 70k people, should be much cheaper than a city of 1m.

Galway is a rip off

Seathrun66

kikilarue2 wrote: »

Go back and look at what that difference was 10 or 15 or 20 years ago. Galway used to be far more affordable than it is now by comparison with Dublin. It’s been catching up rapidly over the last few years.

A city of what, 70k people, should be much cheaper than a city of 1m.

Irrelevant. You'd stated the rents weren't greatly different. They clearly are.

80k people.

Cost of accommodation is based on the attractiveness of the location. Not on size.

Seathrun66

kikilarue2 wrote: »

Another thing I struggled with in Galway was dating. In Dublin if I was in the mood to go out with someone I can log on to an app and in all likelihood have something organised in a couple of hours.

Much more difficult in Galway. The pool is obviously a lot smaller, but the men were also a lot more awkward about online dating I felt? They’d match and message but rarely wanted to meet up.

Really? Very easy to get chatting to people in the pubs and cafes. I'd assume the same for Limerick and Cork but don't know either well enough.

The pool is certainly smaller but there are also plenty of visiting overseas students and tourists to consider also.

Seathrun66

Mad_maxx wrote: »

The average rent in Galway for a two bedroom apartment is at least 1200,never mind anything else and 400 is a small difference, London is twice as expensive as the next most expensive city in the UK

I'd like to be on your wages.