Galway City pubs and little else

MarkY91 · 09-03-2018 01:23AM

The Spanish arch has to be the most pathetic "attraction" I've ever seen. How is this something that's mentioned in any bit of "things to see and do" googling I did if Galway city before I went? It's a good place for a weekend away on the drink/ stag or hen party.

Arghus · 09-03-2018 01:32AM

anna080 wrote: »

Never heard of race week being described as rape week or racist week and I’ve been living here near 30 years.
That’s the kind of rubbish that could damage a place.

Hate the races and all the suit wearing and fake tanning crap that goes with them, but I also have literally never heard them referred to as either term as well - and there's certainly no shortage of locals who hate the damn things.

ArtyC · 09-03-2018 01:44AM

Another Galway native , race week is not referred to as racist/ rape week in my 35 race weeks here.
Whatever your opinion on Galway I don't think it deserves this slander .

I look forward to the races and look forward to the end of them as well! Its a lot of race goers from all over- you could hardly spend just race week here and say you know Galway!!

09-03-2018 05:38AM

ArtyC wrote: »

Another Galway native , race week is not referred to as racist/ rape week in my 35 race weeks here.
Whatever your opinion on Galway I don't think it deserves this slander .

I look forward to the races and look forward to the end of them as well! Its a lot of race goers from all over- you could hardly spend just race week here and say you know Galway!!

I think the poster meant the locals called it Racist / Rape week due to the behaviour of the out of towners who come for race week.

I only thing i've ever heard it referred to, in the 7 or so years i've been here, is rag week with suits. Which to be fair is a pretty apt description.

fergiesfolly · 09-03-2018 08:01AM

jh79 wrote: »

I think the poster meant the locals called it Racist / Rape week due to the behaviour of the out of towners who come for race week.

I only thing i've ever heard it referred to, in the 7 or so years i've been here, is rag week with suits. Which to be fair is a pretty apt description.

No, we fu**ing don't.
Ever. For any reason. About locals, blow-ins or tourists.
A lot of us don't care for Race Week ( although I recognize it's value to the city and county) because of the gob****ery that goes on by people who think they're on an 18-30s club med holiday.

09-03-2018 08:24AM

fergiesfolly wrote: »

No, we fu**ing don't.
Ever. For any reason. About locals, blow-ins or tourists.
A lot of us don't care for Race Week ( although I recognize it's value to the city and county) because of the gob****ery that goes on by people who think they're on an 18-30s club med holiday.

I'm not saying that is what locals think, I'm saying that is what electro bitch meant.

Rag week with suits is the only thing i've ever heard it called.

elefant · 09-03-2018 08:48AM

MarkY91 wrote: »

The Spanish arch has to be the most pathetic "attraction" I've ever seen. How is this something that's mentioned in any bit of "things to see and do" googling I did if Galway city before I went?

They're a part of the city's heritage, to be remarked upon while you drink a couple of cans and look out at the beautiful views on the Corrib and Galway Bay.

I'm not sure what more you could expect from a 16th century wall in Galway City tbh.

LeinsterDub · 09-03-2018 09:03AM

splinter65 wrote: »

Most of these things are in most cities in Europe. Why would I trail off to Galway to do them in the never ending rain while being ripped off in every hospitality place and be shoved out by drunks on the street?

Can't you do most things in most European cities barring the famous land marks. Using your logic why go any where?

frozenfrozen · 09-03-2018 09:16AM

I must try out that pizza place in spiddal

09-03-2018 09:31AM

frozenfrozen wrote: »

I must try out that pizza place in spiddal

Tigh Giblin and the cafe in the middle of the craft shop place do great food too.

bucketybuck · 09-03-2018 09:46AM

Neyite wrote: »

Spanish Arch
Galway City Museum
Galway Fisheries Museum
National Aquarium
Salthill Prom
Diving at Blackrock tower
Award winning Restaurants
Theatre in the Town hall, Black Box Theatre, and Palais
Coral Beach
Connemara
Art Galleries
Kylemore Abbey
Corrib Cruises
Kayacking
Fishing
Hiking
Camping
Biking
Horseriding
Greyhound Stadium
Football and Rugby matches
Concerts in Pearse Stadium
Live music in most pubs
Medieval City walks
River walks
Merlin Woods
Oranmore Castle
Comedy Clubs
Shopping
GoKarting
Golf
Axe Throwing Gallery
Casino
Lapdancing clubs

That's what I got with 5 mins worth of googling.

Thats some weak sauce in fairness.

People always make that mistake when trying to justify something, they think a longer list is better. Its not, and when neutrals looking at the list see generic crap like "shopping" and "walks" they will tend to dismiss the whole list as spurious.

Butterface · 09-03-2018 10:05AM

Unless you're visiting a city for specific activities/attractions, then wandering around soaking up the atmosphere of a city is a fine way to spend a few days.

I've made many return visits to cities in Ireland, the UK, and various European countries. Normally, on the first trip you spend your time visiting their well-known attractions, and maybe some particular activities/attractions you have sought out.

The repeat trips are because you liked it first time around and with less tourist activities to do you can just hang around and soak up the atmosphere, seeking nice places to eat and drink. Or maybe return to the city if you want to go see a gig, or if there is a festival on.

It sounds like the OP was expecting Galway to have more to offer without actually researching the size and offerings of the city. Perhaps some planning as to what you wanted from your visit was needed i.e. you could have planned your visit to coincide with a gig or a festival.

Neyite · 09-03-2018 10:22AM

bucketybuck wrote: »

Thats some weak sauce in fairness.

People always make that mistake when trying to justify something, they think a longer list is better. Its not, and when neutrals looking at the list see generic crap like "shopping" and "walks" they will tend to dismiss the whole list as spurious.

The point of the list was to show that there's something of interest for most people. Shopping and walks might not be your thing, but it does appeal to others. Clubbing, casinos, any sport that involves water I've an aversion to, but I love food and I'd be spoiled for choice Galway. Someone else might be happy with a kayak and a kebab (Charcoal Grill, BTW) different strokes for different folks.

But if you are someone who has no interest in nature, history, shopping, nightlife, good food, culture, sports or anything else on the list then the problem isn't that Galway is boring.

I've zero interest in Race week. I'd characterise it as Rag Week in suits all right. But I've never seen a rape reported in the local papers during Race week, and they would be reported on if they occurred in any kind of frequency that's alluded to. It's also pretty multicultural so there's plenty of people of different nationalities here. Racism does not seem to be commonplace so if there is a spike during race week, it could be attributed to the kind of people who visit to get wankered drunk and hurl abuse at anyone in the guise of craic.

bucketybuck · 09-03-2018 10:43AM

Neyite wrote: »

But if you are someone who has no interest in nature, history, shopping, nightlife, good food, culture, sports or anything else on the list then the problem isn't that Galway is boring.

But its all so vague as to be meaningless. I could use that sentence to describe the one street ****hole I grew up in, even that place had history, it had shops, it had food, it had sports and it had all the nature you wanted right there for the taking.

Saying a place has "shopping" doesn't mean anything, everywhere has shops, and thats just one example of the inanity of such lists.

topper75 · 09-03-2018 10:44AM

Deedsie wrote: »

I have lived in both Galway and Limerick. They both have their individual positives and negatives...

I also know the two. The make a mad contrast and comparison exercise even though they are but an hour apart on the same seaboard.

The both have solid offerings but simultaneously they both have lines in BS that the liars themselves actually believe.

Limerick - the self-styled Sporting Capital of Ireland - has a fine little municipal art gallery, the longest Georgian architecture example on the island, great concert hall, an international big-prod movie studio, Daghda dance theatre, a college of art and design, and regular classical recitals in St.Marys. All of which have no real answer whatsoever in Galway.

Galway - the self-styled Cultural capital of Ireland - has a rugby team that can, and has, put the mighty Munster to the sword, a number of Parkrun events long before Limerick even got one, a state of the art running track that is actually maintained, a Gaelic football team that would wipe the floor with Limerick, a hurling team that is currently the greatest in the entire galaxy, and at one stage 3 teams (Salthill, Mervue, United) that would be eligible for topflight LoI.

Bet you never saw it that way?

09-03-2018 10:44AM

Neyite wrote: »

You don't have to. Hop on a plane to those places if you like. Don't choose to go to Galway and moan that you went to Galway.

The OP is like one of those people who will go to a foreign country and complain about the foreign food, foreign money, foreign language, foreign pubs and it being so crowded with foreigners that it was an awful kip.

We met an Irish woman in tenerife there who told us the place was full of foreigners
I just don't even

Coffee Fulled Runner · 09-03-2018 11:06AM

Deedsie wrote: »

Just on the sporting thing I def dont see it that way.

No, Limerick City is in the league of Ireland Premier league. Galway is in the first division.

Connacht had a relatively succuesful couple of seasons.
Munster well they are more succesful than Connacht no real need to list their list of honours

Limerick City have had 13 AIL winners since 1990/91 Shannon Garryown Young Munster
Galway have never won the AIL to my knowledge

Also Limerick have one more All Irelands than Galway in hurling.

And Galway United fans walked away and let their club die back in 2011 :pac:

Stab*City · 09-03-2018 11:23AM

But.. She played the fiddle in an Irish band.

Neyite · 09-03-2018 12:03PM

bucketybuck wrote: »

But its all so vague as to be meaningless. I could use that sentence to describe the one street ****hole I grew up in, even that place had history, it had shops, it had food, it had sports and it had all the nature you wanted right there for the taking.

Saying a place has "shopping" doesn't mean anything, everywhere has shops, and thats just one example of the inanity of such lists.

If you want a more specific list you could google it.

bucketybuck · 09-03-2018 12:07PM

Neyite wrote: »

If you want a more specific list you could google it.

That's inane as well. Consistent I guess.

topper75 · 09-03-2018 12:41PM

Deedsie wrote: »

Just on the sporting thing I def dont see it that way.

No, Limerick City is in the league of Ireland Premier league. Galway is in the first division.

Connacht had a relatively succuesful couple of seasons.
Munster well they are more succesful than Connacht no real need to list their list of honours

Limerick City have had 13 AIL winners since 1990/91 Shannon Garryown Young Munster
Galway have never won the AIL to my knowledge

Also Limerick have one more All Irelands than Galway in hurling.

Coffee Fulled Runner wrote: »

And Galway United fans walked away and let their club die back in 2011 :pac:

We all see things different ways - but note this:

Never in Limerick footballing history did it approach THREE teams eligible for LoI. Not once. The 'high point' was Newcastle West and the now defunct Limerick United. That is your 'sporting capital' trumped by some Macnas papier mache seaside place. It pains me to point it out but Limerick soccer is in a very bad place right now with a very tired finger in the financial dyke-hole and a recent horrid football lesson being received on the east coast in the snow and we all know it. So smugness about Galway United would be misplaced.

The idea of Connacht Rugby with its handful of clubs playing in a dog track going down to teach Munster lessons in a 26000 seater holy ground of a city who puts rugby at the centre of its PR is laughable, but this really actually happened and I saw it with my own eyes. Talk about being beaten at your own game. It was the sporting equivalent of a Limerick street theatre outfit getting top billing at the Galway Arts festival.

It is almost a full decade now since any Limerick club in rugby lifted the trophy.

Limerick's most recent hurling triumph is not remembered by many posters here. It was long before most of us were even born.

A brand that is built on the past is a questionable one wouldn't you say, be it self-styled or otherwise?

Chrongen · 09-03-2018 12:46PM

bodhrandude wrote: »

Next to Roisin Dubh in Lower Dominick st, formally Taylor's Bar which was a brilliant pub with the nuttiest, spaciest trad sessions and a rather cool beer garden to have a sneaky spliff.

Sally Long's has the best juke box in the world and I'm well travelled.

biko · 09-03-2018 12:53PM

If you're still thinking of coming to Galway

strangers-we-dont-take-kindly-to-their-types-round-ere.jpg

Subcomandante Marcos · 09-03-2018 12:54PM

_Dara_ wrote: »

Well, the Guggenheim is in a small industrial city on the Atlantic coast of Spain so...

Bilbao metro area is over 1 million people, it's as big as Dublin and over 14 times the population of Galway.

Subcomandante Marcos · 09-03-2018 12:57PM

_Dara_ wrote: »

It is indeed. For Spain, that's small.

It's the 8th biggest city in a country of 40+ million people. It's not really comparable.

Subcomandante Marcos · 09-03-2018 01:06PM

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Think that comes from the large population of crusties in the city.

It's not meant as a slight against the average hard working Galwegian.

Incorrect, the term graveyard of ambition comes from the idea that people would go to Galway to study or work as a regional manager in a national business and never want to leave.

Young professionals would be sent by banks or government departments to gain experience and when the time came where they'd be offered a promotion and higher wages in Dublin they'd turn the offer down because they wanted to stay in Galway, or students would graduate and rather than take higher paying jobs in other towns or cities would take what they could get I. Galway because they wanted to stay.

It's not a slight on anyone, it's meant as a way of saying the city has a quality that will suck you in and make you not want to leave.

Subcomandante Marcos · 09-03-2018 01:06PM

biko wrote: »

If you're still thinking of coming to Galway

As long as they stay on quay Street it's grand.

Chrongen · 09-03-2018 01:16PM

In defence of Galway, I lived there for a year and must say that it was a happy year.

My job was stressful and I didn't like it. Sometimes I'd leave work pissed off on Friday and make it back into the town and once I got into Galway town/city my bad mood evaporated. If anything Galway is an antidote to stress.

My girlfriend would say "it's a lovely evening, drop your bag off and get out of my sight, I'll be cooking and doing some internet stuff for the next couple of hours" so I'd just mooch on down to the Corrib and wander around all the odd little weirs there and look at the swans and their new cygnets, then go to Monroe's for a pint. Then up along shop street and have another along the way and finally over to sally's and sit outside with the paper. Usually had to take photos for tourists in front of their mural rock wall of fame.

Saturday's were always lazy. I'd lie in bed till noon and then get up and go upstairs to the living room (upside down apartment) and look out at the bay while watching football focus and eating my rasher sambo and tea. Sky would be broody. Girlfriend would say "storm coming, it's going to fcuking sh1t rain". I'd say "Perfect I'm off down to the Dock 1 pub to sit by the fire and watch the weather come in and go into convulsions as it hits land for the first time over the Atlantic." She'd say "I'll be down in an hour" see you then.

No pressure ever on those weekends.

aidoh · 09-03-2018 01:18PM

There's a 2 week sweet spot in April / May just after the students finally fvck off and right before the Americans and French swarm in, where Galway is actually very nice and peaceful (and often there's more than 3 days in a row with no rain).

For the other 50 weeks of the year the "city" is, in fact, a miserable dreary sh!thole infested with loud drunks, Spanish hippies, and loud drunk Spanish hippies.

Far worse places in Ireland tbf but I agree it's mainly a patchwork of pubs. Once you've done the aquarium and the 'lets-pack-everything-into-the-one-building' museum once, there's nothing left to do other than pubs / restaurants (in the "city", that is).

If you take a 20 minute drive north or west of the "city", however, you're almost guaranteed to wind up somewhere stunningly beautiful.

The JFK mural in the cathedral is also good for a laugh.

Tsipras · 09-03-2018 01:57PM

jh79 wrote: »

Mekhi Broad Clergyman wrote: »

Race week is also known as Rape Week and Racist Week, to give you an idea what it's like to live through it as a local btw. Not the best crowd.

Never heard that at all as long as i have lived there.

Connemara is the most racist place i've ever encountered in Ireland. The n word was completely socially acceptable from Spiddal to Carraroe.

I was watching England play in the world cup in a pub in Inverin and the entire pub cheered when a local called Sturridge a black bastard when he scored. I hadn't heard stuff like that in a pub since the early 90's.

Bull****

Galway City pubs and little else

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