THE WATERWAYS OF GALWAY - GALWAY TO CLIFDEN VIADUCT

Just upstream of the Corrib Rowing & Yacht Club clubhouse are the remains of the viaduct that carried the Galway to Clifden Railway over the Corrib.

The Galway to Clifden railway line opened on July 1st 1895. Built by Midland Great Western Railway Company (MGWR), the line had stations at Moycullen, Oughterard, Maam Cross, Recess and Ballynahinch.

It consisted of 30 bridges including a steel viaduct over the River Corrib in Galway. The last service departed from Clifden in April 1935. Although the Corrib is one of Ireland's shortest rivers, it has a mean long-term flow rate of 104.8 m3/s, making it Ireland's second-largest river (by flow), only surpassed by the River Shannon.

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THE ABBEY OF SAINT FRANCIS IS GALWAY

The Abbey of St Francis was built in 1836 and dedicated to ‘The Immaculate Conception’ - the first church in Ireland to bear this title.

The Abbey was founded in 1296 on St. Stephen’s Island where the present courthouse is situated.

In 1660 a church was erected on the present site of the Abbey, and a Novitiate in 1774. In 1781 the church was rebuilt and around 1836 the present church was opened. The present friary was built or rebuilt in 1820, and renovated in 1970s. The Abbey became the first Franciscan parish in modern Ireland in 1971.

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THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHING STREET ART IN GALWAY

Galway was full of young Asian girls having a good time photographing everything that they saw. Of course I was doing much the same.

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• STREET ART IN GALWAY CITY - AUGUST 2016 
• STREET ART IN BELFAST - PHOTOGRAPHED BY WILLIAM MURPHY 
• STREET ART IN WATERFORD - 2016 VISIT 
• STREET ART AND URBAN CULTURE IN DUBLIN

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Oscar & Eduard Wilde [Public Art In Galway And Tartu]

I have seen this described as ‘Oscar Wilde And Someone Else’ but this installation is much more interesting and complicated than that. 

In my photographs [viewing from the front] the Irish writer Oscar Wilde is to the left and the Estonian writer Eduard Wilde is to the right. They appear to be conversing, but the two men are not related and never met.

The Eduard Wilde statue was presented to Galway when Estonia joined the EU in 2004. The sculpture is located in front of a Lazlo Jewellers shop in William Street. There is an exact copy of the sculpture in Tartu in Estonian.

The sculpture in front of Café Wilde (sculptor T Kirsipuu, 1999) is a fun speculation about literary history. Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), who was born in Ireland, and Estonian writer Eduard Vilde (1856-1933), both of the same generation, sit on a bench together. Sculptor Tiiu Kirsipuu, who modelled the writers according to photos, has noted that the year she had in mind when she created the sculpture was 1890, when the two Wildes could have met for a witty chat.

 ZOZIMUZ VISITS GALWAY

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