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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I was wandering at random around Galway city when I came across this ‘holy well’. St Augustine’s Holy Well is located on the water’s edge of Lough Atalia on the eastern edge of Galway city. This is the first time that I have seen a well in a tidal zone.

This well was one of a set of three holy wells but now it is one of only two surviving holy wells in the vicinity of Galway and has been revered by generations of locals for its healing power, particularly for those with eye problems. In 2000 the Trust's Community Employment scheme completed a major renovation of the location which involved improving access to the well, the erection of a retaining stone wall and the installation of a bench and commemorative plaque on site. A stone cross was also commissioned by the Trust to replace the concrete one which previously identified the site.

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• ZOZIMUZ VISITS A HOLY WELL IN GALWAY
• AUGUST 2016 VISIT TO GALWAY
• ZOZIMUZ VISITS GALWAY CATHEDRAL

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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