How would rejuvenate Galway City?

Woodquay is historically a market area! (when it wasn't under water 😂)

I think the city is fabulous. After living in different countries in different continents and in many counties in Ireland, I find Galway city a wonderful place to live and walk around. Potential improvements from my obsevations would be: 1. The ring road must be built. The traffic is torture. 2. The docks and the harbour area could be developed. The docks is a huge almost empty area in the city centre with magnificent views. 3. If there was a market in Woodquay in the past it would be nice to see it revived. (A highlight of Cork city is The English Market). 4. The east side of the corrib, across from Dangan could be developed as a walkway. 5. Some watersports / picnic areas around Lough Atalia (or is it polluted?).

The state of the footpaths around town, you are absolutely right. An awful lot of the disrepair that I see is from cars and delivery trucks pulling up on the kerbs that were not designed to take their load. There's zero enforcement of this though.

On points 1 and 4, If the Ring Road were to proceed, that area around Dangan/Menlo will be a huge road.

I totally agree on points 2 and 3 - allowing car storage to take over the docks and the square in Woodquay is an awful shame, they could be a wonderful public space instead. I think there are plans to remove the parking in the square in Woodquay as part of BusConnects, but I could be wrong there?

On point 5, yes, unfortunately Lough Atalia is manky, I often have visions of rafts, and water sports. The waterside could definitely be better used as a recreation/socialising spot though, it could be so much nicer than it is.

Yesterday Tuesday saw the Derry Galway bus eireann coach being attended to by a mechanic in one of the rear tyres in Sligo bus station.About twenty minutes later saw the same bus disgorge its passengers in Sligo bus station with the mechanic taking the bus to the garage.This would make a poor first time impression for tourists using this service from other venues the Derry Galway bus eireann service is always busy in both directions

Is that to accomodate dropped kerbs?

I presume it is but it's completely unnecessary. You can facilitate car access without having the entire footpath slant so that it's a slip hazard on frosty days and acts like a rollercoaster if you're pushing a child's buggy or an a bike on the cycle lane (Doughiska for example).

This is how they've been doing it in northern Europe for decades and, if builders where actually following the latest design manual, it is how they should be doing it in Ireland.

But this is what we have also got in Ireland, and it's what we're mostly still getting, even though the manual says it should be otherwise.

https://www.galwaycity.ie/news/2025/salthill-village-and-seafront-framework-plan-survey

fyi, few days left to leave a submission

Looks like Claremont, Rahoon? Have same issue in Shantalla, Council "repaired" footpaths on Davis and Colmcille Roads in recent years but what we now have are now actually downgrades of what was there before with this slantly slope which as you rightly point are hazardous in the ice and also when very wet. Especially for the elderly who need flat surfaced footpaths This current generation of Galway City employees struggle so badly with the Basic 101 urban stuff.

A food court would be amazing - something similar to the Seven Dials in London.

An unpopular opinion on Boards, I imagine, would be to bring in some large retailers that actually attract customers. This would be Zara, H&M, Sephora etc. I actually think a Uniqlo in Galway (none in Ireland?) would do amazing with the weather we get.

Someone pointed out the cost of parking in the city center. This is definitely too high for day-trippers.

A rejuvenated Spanish Arch would be nice too - other than removing the orange balloon as suggested here, not sure what else can be done to improve the area's attractiveness?

You can't "bring in" large retailers. They have to want to go there and all evidence points to them abandoning or ignoring city centres of Galway's size.

Yes, sorry, poor choice of wording with the "bring in". Are some of those large retailers not franchised? A quick google search shows up that Zara might:
https://zarafranchising.com/

Would make great business you'd imagine.

Regarding the size of Galway - Athlone has both Zara and H&M.

There's a H&M in Athlone, so that's not true.

Yes of course there are examples of some being around. Limerick has a River Island.

But the overall trend is that new shops of this type are not popping up in small city centres. There certainly won't be enough to do much for a centre.

I highly doubt the rent part is true. Zara and H&M pay big rents in big cities but they have the footfall to cover this. The footfall in Galway would dwarf what there is in Athlone. And I can only imagine Galway City Council would love to have a big name retailer in the city as it would bring even more people in. I'd say the biggest factor is the correct premises hasn't appeared for them to open up in Galway, plus the traffic situation.