Is Galway a City in Decline?

Caller, read and weep the 413 pages https://www.nationaltransport.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/WRM-Model-Development-Report.pdf

Limerick City Centre is much bigger though.

Both City's could do with a tram line now IMHO, one LINE going East -> West for Galway and Northeast to South West for Limerick.

Should be easier for Limerick. City Centre has loads of room to facilitate this, big streets filled with car parked cars on both sides

Don't even need to go as far as a proper tram. Just have routes on fully dedicated bus lanes like the Belfast Flyer.

Limerick will never match Galway for tourism. Galway just has way more of the little streets and wild countryside that fits the idealised view of Ireland.

Newt time you walk along. look up at the first & second floors in town. Peeling paint, green algae, cracked masonry, general disrepair. Tourists notice this and it something that is talked about

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The size of both city centres is kind of irrelevant really. Limerick is lifeless in the city centre. It's a good bit behind both Galway and Cork in terms of vibrancy imo.

Whenever i've been to Limerick, the lack of buzz and an atmosphere in the centre in comparison to other cities in Ireland is always apparent to me. Saying that though Bedford Row and Little Catherine Streets are nice. I like those streets The people are friendly as well. I think post covid all of our cities and towns are in bit of a downwards spiral.

You have things like vacant retail units, and too many vaping and second hand mobile phone shops etc. Lack of a garda presence in an issue in all our cities and towns as well. Galway to be fair doesn't seem to have as bad a heroin problem in comparison to Dublin, Cork and Limerick. Granted Galway is a smaller city than the other three aforementioned cities as well.

Galway has Connemara and the Aran Islands on it's doorstep. Cork has Kinsale and West Cork in general on it's doorstep. I just think Limerick has a lot to do, before it can draw in the tourists in the way that Galway and Cork can imo.

If Galway can keep the area between Eyre Square and Spanish Arch mostly vacant free it will be doing better than most. Anything vacant outside that area and the little hospitality area around the Roisin Dubh might as well be turned to housing at this stage.

Absolutely agree. The move online, accelerated by Covid, has fundamentally changed retail. It's now only about products that need in-person experiences, right-now delivery or aren't economical to deliver, eg cups of coffee, cheap items, hairdressing / beauty services.

Even Middle Street, we should be reverting back to housing or ground-floor offices. (A good bit of it of it is alreay housing)

Not having a university means it has a brain drain. Also less multinationals set up here because of this.

Also traditionally it hasn't been on the tourist trail although it's improving in that respect.

I think Galway City would look great if had a riverfront like Limerick City .

Limerick has potential. Also it's a gateway to Cliffs of Moher, Shannon, Bunratty, Adare etc and is on the tourist trail from Kerry to Galway, so it'll always have a fair amount of tourists.

It could do with a hostel though maybe.

Its pretty dull really.

I have been there mid week a few times and its exceptionally quiet.

Small tourism potential, sure. But Galway is certainly better placed to grow tourism.

Galway City needs a Riverfront like Limerick City this would show confidence as a City .

I still think it has potential with a bit of vision.

One thing about Limerick is that pretty much all of its big amenities like Universities, Shopping centres, cinemas, sportsgrounds, theatres, venues etc are located outside the city centre.

Even the big places of employment are outside the city centre like Raheen, Shannon, Castletroy etc.

So this sucks all the energy out of the city center.

This is quite difficult to reverse. You can't move UL or Thomand Park into the city centre.

What the city centre does have though is all the pubs and clubs except the UL ones, so it's probably lively enough at night.

Yes.

If the Government really want to depressurise Dublin and Dublin Airport and land and transportation, they have simply got to provide the big infrastructure in the regional cities.

The Galway Ring Road, completion of the N40 orbital in Cork, light rail in Cork, Limerick and Galway. Heavy rail connections to Shannon and Cork Airports. High quality motorways to the seaports like Rosslare, Ringaskiddy, Foynes etc.

I know this stuff is planned, but they really must get the finger out and commit.

Still the best city/town to live in on west coast not even close

im happy out here only other place I’d want to live is dublin