Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Galway – the city of rain and self-aggrandisement?

  • 29-07-2019 11:02am
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 1,794 ✭✭✭Aongus Von Bismarck


    I was reading the Irish papers this morning after my 10k run, and saw that the annual Galway Racing festival is about to begin. This means a week of lazy colour pieces about the ‘craic’, and the sight of helicopters landing and taking off being compared to the Vietnam War. We will also be bombarded with photographs of overweight men with red faces, dressed in cheap suits and sunglasses, clutching plastic pint glasses and gurning at the camera.

    Now I’m a Galwegian by birth myself, and retain an affection for the place. However is there any other city that has such a collectivised sense of self-importance about itself? It’s a small, parochial backwater with a 3rd rate university, a handful of mediocre pubs in the ‘Latin Quarter’, and several pretty decent restaurants in fairness. Yet you’d think you were heading to Berlin circa 1925 by the way some of the locals go on about the place. Some of them seem to think they are living in some rich melting pot of ideas where they are always on the edge of some new cultural movement. Meanwhile most of them are like Syd Barrett in 1972 without the prior success.

    I don’t think anything sums up this hubris about the place better than an article I read about the place in the Independent earlier this year. Some guy called Gugai McNamara was going on about the vibe on Galway’s ‘West End’, and how he doesn’t cross the river after 6PM as there’s so much to do. The ‘West End’ is made up of about 6 pubs, and one of those dreadful stores selling used records and comic books. It’s to culture what Supermacs is to fine dining.

    Does anywhere else in Ireland (or indeed Europe) have locals with such an inflated sense of importance about where they are from? I think the incessant rain and damp is doing something to their brains to be honest.


«13456715

Comments

  • Posts: 0 Eva Drab Armada


    Great to crack a few tins on the Spanish Arch of a summer's evening.


  • Registered Users Posts: 20,392 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Criticism is cheap.


  • Registered Users Posts: 21,489 ✭✭✭✭Tell me how


    AvB talking about self-aggrandisement.

    Alanis Morrissette will re-release a song to capture this.


  • Moderators, Music Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,717 Mod ✭✭✭✭Boom_Bap


    What time did you do the 10km in though?


  • Registered Users Posts: 923 ✭✭✭Salvation Tambourine


    AvB talking about self-aggrandisement.

    Alanis Morrissette will re-release a song to capture this.

    Before or after her 10k run?


  • Advertisement
  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,850 ✭✭✭Stop moaning ffs


    OP has clearly never been to Cork or encountered anyone from there :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,803 ✭✭✭gifted


    Von Bismarck .......pure galway surname....


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,630 ✭✭✭Woke Hogan


    Some people in Galway City are very smug about their little town. The way they go on you'd swear they were wine drinking members of the literati, as opposed to intellectually shallow pissheads. They don't even read books.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,350 ✭✭✭corner of hells


    I was reading the Irish papers this morning after my 10k run, and saw that the annual Galway Racing festival is about to begin. This means a week of lazy colour pieces about the ‘craic’, and the sight of helicopters landing and taking off being compared to the Vietnam War. We will also be bombarded with photographs of overweight men with red faces, dressed in cheap suits and sunglasses, clutching plastic pint glasses and gurning at the camera.

    Now I’m a Galwegian by birth myself, and retain an affection for the place. However is there any other city that has such a collectivised sense of self-importance about itself? It’s a small, parochial backwater with a 3rd rate university, a handful of mediocre pubs in the ‘Latin Quarter’, and several pretty decent restaurants in fairness. Yet you’d think you were heading to Berlin circa 1925 by the way some of the locals go on about the place. Some of them seem to think they are living in some rich melting pot of ideas where they are always on the edge of some new cultural movement. Meanwhile most of them are like Syd Barrett in 1972 without the prior success.

    I don’t think anything sums up this hubris about the place better than an article I read about the place in the Independent earlier this year. Some guy called Gugai McNamara was going on about the vibe on Galway’s ‘West End’, and how he doesn’t cross the river after 6PM as there’s so much to do. The ‘West End’ is made up of about 6 pubs, and one of those dreadful stores selling used records and comic books. It’s to culture what Supermacs is to fine dining.

    Does anywhere else in Ireland (or indeed Europe) have locals with such an inflated sense of importance about where they are from? I think the incessant rain and damp is doing something to their brains to be honest.

    There'll because bloke called Woke Hogan who'll be along shortly , he manage to crowbar Dublin into the conversation, he does a bit of running too.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,632 ✭✭✭I see sheep


    Galway is class. Anyone who says otherwise is jealous.


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,630 ✭✭✭Woke Hogan


    There'll because bloke called Woke Hogan who'll be along shortly , he manage to crowbar Dublin into the conversation, he does a bit of running too.
    Too slow, buddy. You should try a bit of running yourself.


  • Posts: 5,121 Freya Fat Range


    Welcome back AvB. Will you be getting home this summer?


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,850 ✭✭✭Stop moaning ffs


    I’m a dub born and bred and dragged up and can happily say Galway is a brilliant town.

    I hold no truck with crystals and vibes maaaan but Galway just has a great energy and lovely atmosphere all times of the day and night all year round.

    Lived there for two years and would move back in a heartbeat.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,315 ✭✭✭fergiesfolly


    There'll be as many anti-Galway threads as anti-traveller threads soon.

    AvB, you're missed down here in Ireland's capital of culture.
    Drop down come time and we'll schmooze the Latin Quarter, quaff a few craft ales and listen to some beatnik jazz funk poetry, man.
    Then we'll saunter up to Supermacs for a shnackbox, lay a few bets on the nags up in Ballybrit and take in some knacker fighting in Eyre Square

    Galway...something for everyone.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,850 ✭✭✭Stop moaning ffs


    There'll be as many anti-Galway threads as anti-traveller threads soon.

    AvB, you're missed down here in Ireland's capital of culture.
    Drop down come time and we'll schmooze the Latin Quarter, quaff a few craft ales and listen to some beatnik jazz funk poetry, man.
    Then we'll saunter up to Supermacs for a shnackbox, lay a few bets on the nags up in Ballybrit and take in some knacker fighting in Eyre Square

    Galway...something for everyone.


    Supermacs..not mcdonaghs?

    Are you even from Galway? ;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,055 ✭✭✭JohnnyFlash


    Supermacs..not mcdonaghs?

    Are you even from Galway? ;)

    McDonaghs is the most overrated fish and chip shop in Ireland. Been trading on its reputation for 20 years now.


  • Posts: 0 Eva Drab Armada


    McDonaghs is the most overrated fish and chip shop in Ireland. Been trading on its reputation for 20 years now.

    Hark! The final judgement has been passed.

    Lovely feed whenever I stop in.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,850 ✭✭✭Stop moaning ffs


    McDonaghs is the most overrated fish and chip shop in Ireland. Been trading on its reputation for 20 years now.

    Are you not in Beijing or something?

    Or is it cos mcdonaghs had a FF poster in the window last GE?


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,907 ✭✭✭Stevieluvsye


    I'm from Dublin and personally i think Galway is the nicest and most welcoming county in Ireland. The OP only dreams of being from D4 who is obviously more intellectually astute than their other Galwegians


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,615 ✭✭✭El Tarangu


    McDonaghs is the most overrated fish and chip shop in Ireland. Been trading on its reputation for 20 years now.


    I've been to Galway a few times, and always have a nice time when I'm there - but indeed, this fish & chop left me non-plussed, completely unremarkable, like any other sit-down fish and chips place I have been to.

    Also the Spanish Arch - I wasn't expecting the Brandenburg gate or the Arc de Cinquantainaire, but this was a not-that-old piece of wall attached to some sheds...


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 14,243 ✭✭✭✭Arghus


    I like living in Galway.

    Though I could do without the galway races.

    And McDonagh's is definitely overrated.


  • Registered Users Posts: 229 ✭✭Mr.Maroon


    The only problem Galway has now is it's being overrun with Mayogrants.


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,460 ✭✭✭✭Ush1


    Good town for a p*ss-up, wouldn't live there myself though.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,055 ✭✭✭JohnnyFlash


    Are you not in Beijing or something?

    Or is it cos mcdonaghs had a FF poster in the window last GE?

    What are you on about? The place serves greasy undercooked chips and overpriced fish. Hooked serves way better fish and chips. McDonaghs is a tourist trap.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,281 ✭✭✭CrankyHaus


    Easily one of the nicest cities and counties in Ireland. A bit of a victim of its own success in terms of how jammers it can get at this time of year, I'd probably stay away until it's quieter.

    AVB is kind of right that its self-appointed spokespeople can overegg the pudding about its cultural laurels. No really significant music, literature or other form of art has emerged from Galway City in my lifetime, it's just relied on its inherited cultural heritage as a marketing tool to get more and more tourists in for piss-ups.

    Any place that presents a post-pub chipper as one of its foremost attractions can hardly pretend to be on a par with Florence under the Medici. A pity as Galway has lots of good restaurants, even for fast food, I found Dough Bros excellent.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,046 ✭✭✭Berserker


    OP has clearly never been to Cork or encountered anyone from there :)

    Cork people are great. I'd happily move to Cork. Wild horses wouldn't drag me to Galway or Mayo. Both places are overpriced and over-hyped. Stayed in a hotel in Westport for a wedding a few years ago and the cheeky gits were charging €7 for a cheese sandwich. Can't fathom what attracts people to Galway.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,850 ✭✭✭Stop moaning ffs


    What are you on about? The place serves greasy undercooked chips and overpriced fish. Hooked serves way better fish and chips. McDonaghs is a tourist trap.

    They’re installing a swing I hear. You will no doubt visit just for that. And the claim when you fall off it cos you were reaching for the vinegar but you were holding your chips and garlic mayo


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,124 ✭✭✭NabyLadistheman


    Gugai McNamara

    Is this person a fairy form Galway?


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,226 ✭✭✭cgcsb


    I was reading the Irish papers this morning after my 10k run, and saw that the annual Galway Racing festival is about to begin. This means a week of lazy colour pieces about the ‘craic’, and the sight of helicopters landing and taking off being compared to the Vietnam War. We will also be bombarded with photographs of overweight men with red faces, dressed in cheap suits and sunglasses, clutching plastic pint glasses and gurning at the camera.

    Now I’m a Galwegian by birth myself, and retain an affection for the place. However is there any other city that has such a collectivised sense of self-importance about itself? It’s a small, parochial backwater with a 3rd rate university, a handful of mediocre pubs in the ‘Latin Quarter’, and several pretty decent restaurants in fairness. Yet you’d think you were heading to Berlin circa 1925 by the way some of the locals go on about the place. Some of them seem to think they are living in some rich melting pot of ideas where they are always on the edge of some new cultural movement. Meanwhile most of them are like Syd Barrett in 1972 without the prior success.

    I don’t think anything sums up this hubris about the place better than an article I read about the place in the Independent earlier this year. Some guy called Gugai McNamara was going on about the vibe on Galway’s ‘West End’, and how he doesn’t cross the river after 6PM as there’s so much to do. The ‘West End’ is made up of about 6 pubs, and one of those dreadful stores selling used records and comic books. It’s to culture what Supermacs is to fine dining.

    I loved how you were doing your worst in terms of negativity, but then had to relent when it came to restaurants. :D

    Maybe get out for some fresh air and perspective. It doesn't have to be negative all the time. People talking trash in the paper about the 'west end' is a global phenomenon, led by estate agents and the like. You had the 'central park' thing in suburban Sandyford a few years ago. In Belfast 'Tribeca' is the new loan word from NYC.
    Does anywhere else in Ireland (or indeed Europe) have locals with such an inflated sense of importance about where they are from? I think the incessant rain and damp is doing something to their brains to be honest.

    In France pretty much every town has a similar view of self.


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,046 ✭✭✭Berserker


    cgcsb wrote: »
    In France pretty much every town has a similar view of self.

    Northern Italy is like that also. Wild horses would drag be back to Milan.


This discussion has been closed.
Advertisement