Famous QUOTES from Ireland’s county GALWAY

“You will sit and watch the moonrise over Claddagh / And watch the barefoot gossoons at their play” — Galway Bay
“Her beauty fairly took my breath away / She wore no jewels, nor costly diamonds” — The Galway Shawl
There is a feel about Galway you can wear around your shoulders like a cloak. It hangs in the air with its dampness; it walks the cobblestone streets and stands in the doorways of its gray stone buildings.” — Claire Fullerton, from her novel Dancing to an Irish Reel (2015)
“To journey to Aran is to step into a world apart, where the sea and stone speak louder than human voices, and every wave carries a tale of endurance.” – Emily Lawless (1845-1913).
Connemara, for landscape loveliness, there are parts of Ireland that surpass those of any country of the world. – Samuel Carter Hall and Anna Maria Hall, Ireland, its scenery and character (1841-43)
“Deirtear nar cheart an doras a bheith dúnta Oidhche Nodlag.” – Irish proverb (1938 schools folklore collection, collected by Cáit Breathnach from Brighid Naoidh in An Léim Thiar, Co. Galway, Translation: “It is not right for a door to be closed on Christmas night.”).
“I know a town tormented by the sea, / And there time goes slow. / That the people see it flow. / And watch it drowsily…” — Mary Devenport O’Neill, from her poem “Galway”.
“When I was a child and came with my elders to Galway for their salmon fishing in the river that rushes past the gaol, I used to look with awe at the window where men were hung, and the dark, closed gate.” — Lady Gregory, Coole Park, Galway.
“Rain on Rahoon falls softly, softly falling, / Where my dark lover lies. / Sad is his voice that calls me, sadly calling, / At grey moonrise.” — James Joyce, from his poem “She Weeps Over Rahoon,” inspired by Nora Barnacle’s home in Galway.
“I love to go to Galway, to the west, / To see the sea, to see the ships, / To hear the Irish language spoken, / To feel the wind upon my lips.” — Máirtín Ó Direáin, (translated from Irish).
The reader may form some idea of the barren aspect of the county; and, at the same time, of its surpassing grandeur-for wild and rude magnificence it is, indeed, unequalled in Ireland; it presents a succession of mountains, down every one of which rushes some rapid river, supplying a lake in the valley, that again sends forth its current, tributary to the sea, which may be almost said to surround it for the extensive loughs that bound it on the east and south are nearly as effectual barriers as the Atlantic, that washes its northern, western, and southwestern coasts. – Samuel Carter Hall and Anna Maria Hall, Ireland, its scenery and character (1841-43)
“The islands of Aran where the air is truly delightful and where there are so many stones to split that it is a real pleasure.” –James Joyce, Letter to Lucia Joyce, Paris, 28 March 1935
“The absence of the heavy boot of Europe has preserved to these people the agile walk of the wild animal, while the general simplicity of their lives has given them many other points of physical perfection. Their way of life has never been acted on by anything much more artificial than the nests and burrows of the creatures that live round them. here a touch of the refinement of old societies is blended, with singular effect, among the qualities of the wild animal.” J.M. Synge, The Aran Islands, 1911
“I am delighted to be back home in Galway, the place I first came to as a 19-year-old in 1960. It’s here where my heart is and will forever be.” — Máire Mhac an tSaoi (1922–2021).
“There is a feel about Galway you can wear around your shoulders like a cloak. It hangs in the air with its dampness; it walks the cobblestone streets and stands in the doorways of its gray stone buildings.” — Claire Fullerton (contemporary novelist).
Galway City is a wholesome, glittering, bright-minded, narrowribbed laughing kind of city. Irish-speaking Connemara keeps the mi11-whee1o f the town gaily revolving. Its many links with Spain are probably authentic but over-stressed – Bryan MacMahon 1909-1998), Here’s Ireland (1971).
“Galway is the Venice of the West.” —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939).
“The Yanks and the Europeans come to Aran, thinking it’s frozen in time, but they leave with a story or two, and that’s the real treasure of the place.” – Breandán Ó hEithir (1930-1990).
The county of Galway is entered on passing over the bridge that crosses the Shannon at Ballinasloe. From this pretty and prosperous town, where the grand cattle fair of Ireland is held, two great roads branch off, the north leading to Mayo through Tuam, the west through Aughrim and Loughrea to Galway town. – Samuel Carter Hall and Anna Maria Hall, Ireland, its scenery and character (1841-43)
West of the Shannon may be said, Whatever comes into your head;/ But you can do, and chance your luck Whatever you like West of the Suck./ There’s something sleeping in my breast That wakens only in the West;/ There’s something in the core of me That needs the West to set it free./ And I can see that river flow Beside the town of Ballinasloc To bound a country that is worth
“I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.” John O’Donohue
The half of Heaven, the whole of Earth./ As often as I take the road Beyond the Suck, I wish to God That it were but a one-way track/ Which I might take and not come back. – Oliver St John Gogarty, ‘Connemara’,
“No hissinge serpent there doth ‘bide/ noe toadc, nor spider, adder nor yet snake/ noc stinging venom’d thinge may there partake the sweete and pleasures of that happy soyle there they doc live without or care or toy!/ they neither plant, nor sowe, nor till the ground nor with a hedge their own encompass rounde all things are common, there they nothing wantce they feeleno penurie or pynchingc scante;” – Gervase Markham, A Newt Metamorphosis (Connemara), c. 1600
There are few things in the world more delightful than a drive at sunset, in a bright autumn cJcning, among the mountains and lakes of Connwmarr, A friend of ours describes the air of his favourite place by saying it is like breathing champagne. – Harriet Martineau, letters from Ireland, 1852
When it is stated that, throughout the town of Galway, you cannot get a cigar which costs more than twopence, Londoners may imagine the strangeness and remoteness of the place. – W.M. Thackeray, The Irish Sketch Book of 1842, 1843
Straight steep streets, remarkable old city; how in such a stony country it exists! Port wine and Spanish and French articles inwards, cattle outwards and scantlings of com; no other port for so many miles of country; enough of stony country, even that will make a kind of feast. – Thomas Carlyle, Reminiscences of an Irish Journey in 1849, 1882
Claddagh as like Madagascar as England. A kind of charm in that poor savage freedom. – Thomas Carlyle, Reminiscences of an Irish Journey in 1849, 1882
The difficulty seems to lie in the absence of a middle class of society. The people are, in this, like the buildings. – Harriet Martineau, Letters from Ireland, 1852
Oh the crossbones of Galway,/ The hollow grey houses,/ The rubbish and sewage/ The grass-grown pier,/ And the dredger grumbling /All night in the harbour/ The war came down on us here. – Louis MacNiece August-September 1939
Lough Corrib drives its wedge deep into county Galway and splits it into two separate areas that diverge widely in texture and configuration: the east is a fertile plain stretching over low stone walls to the Shannon, while the Irish-speaking west (Connemara) is distinguished by peaks called the Twelve Pins with winding valleys between and swaths of bogland that move moodily to an indented coastline. Everywhere there are merry rivers, islands, and lakes. – Bryan MacMahon 1909-1998), Here’s Ireland (1971).
The tourist on approaching Galway town perceives other evidence that he is in a peculiar district; the dark features and coal-black hair of the people indicate their Spanish descent; and they are, for the most, so finely formed, so naturally graceful, that almost every peasant girl might serve as a model for the sculptor. Passing along the narrow streets, he is startled by greater singularities; houses with remains of “jalousies,” and arched gateways elaborately carved, mingled with modern buildings, indicating the comparatively unchanged “aspect” of the inhabitants and their dwellings; such, for example, as this ancient gateway, through which is seen the aged, venerable, and most interesting church, full of the very singular and picturesque remains of antiquity.* – Samuel Carter Hall and Anna Maria Hall, Ireland, its scenery and character (1841-43)
At Mass in the local church, the following morning, the priest gave a scholarly sermon, semantic and dialectic aeons removed from the Kiltartanese the Abbey Theatre-conditioned enquirer expects to find in the south of Galwa – Bryan MacMahon 1909-1998), Here’s Ireland (1971).
“The road through Connemara is a poem in itself, with its wild hills and loughs, where the traveller feels the pulse of Ireland’s ancient heart.” – William Bulfin (1863-1910).
“Colombia was a revelation, colours and chaos so different from Aran, yet the people’s stories felt like they could’ve been told by my own neighbours.” – Breandán Ó hEithir (1930-1990).
“Every article on the Aran islands has an almost personal character, which gives this simple life, where all art is unknown, something of the artistic beauty of medieval life.” – John Millington Synge (1871-1909).
“In Connemara the scenery is superb but the silence is always shocking. Any man who comes to Connemara for a rest is crazy. It is a great thing to keep sane here, let alone rest.” Stephen Rynne (1901–80).
Now when the buildings of all Europe don their sackcloth/ And the places and the plazas prepare for raiders, all lamps hidden, ~ Night spreads her spangled quilt of silk on Galway City.– Leslie Daien (1912-1964)
“Connemara in Co. Galway is wild and beautiful. There are great walks in the hills, deserted beaches for wild swimming, or just relax and enjoy the views.” – Marian Keyes.
The mountain rocks enclosing it on either side, the mighty hills towering over them, and still further back the lofty Muckanaght looking down upon a combination of sea glories, such as defy description; the view is terminated by the island of Inish Turk, which seems to enclose it, giving to the majestic river the character of a lake – Samuel Carter Hall and Anna Maria Hall, Ireland, its scenery and character (1841-43)
East Galway is flat. At evening the setting sun strikes in raddle-red through the lace of its stone walls. Excellent tillage country, its main towns, Athenry, Ballinasloe, and Tuam, draw sustenance from the good earth. – Bryan MacMahon 1909-1998), Here’s Ireland (1971).
“To know a place truly, one must linger where the wind carries its secrets and the earth holds its memories, as in the wild gardens of Connemara.” – Emily Lawless (1845-1913).
“The only two powers that trouble the deeps are religion and love, the others make a little trouble on the surface.”. — William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), in essays on the Irish west.
“To Be Carved on a Stone at Thoor Ballylee: I, the poet William Yeats, / With old age and wisdom come, / To tower and castle set my name.”— William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), from his poem inscribed at Thoor Ballylee.
“The Galway Plains, there is still in truth upon these great level plains a people, a community bound together by imaginative possessions.” — William Butler Yeats (1865–1939).
O’ Kelly has manure that is neither sand nor lime But fine straight soldiers who’ld do deeds with the pike. They have been left in Aughrim, file on bloody file, Set out like so much horseflesh on which hungry dogs could dine. Och, Ochone. – Requiem for Aughrim.
There were multitudes from Aran and members from New Quay shore/ The boys from Connemara and the Clare unmarried maidens/ There were people from Cork city who were loyal, true and faithful/ That brought home Fenian prisoners from dying in foreign nations. – Galway races.

Famous quotes from Ireland’s counties

Antrim – Armagh – Carlow – Cavan – Clare – Cork – Derry – Donegal – Down – Dublin – Fermanagh – Galway – Kerry – Kildare – Kilkenny – Laois – Leitrim – Limerick – Longford – Louth – Mayo – Meath – Monaghan – Offaly – Roscommon – Sligo – Tipperary – Tyrone – Waterford – Westmeath – Wexford – Wicklow

Musicians

Novelists

Poets

Writers

County Galway:

Ireland’s county Galway offers a delightful mix of cultural heritage and coastal beauty, with Galway City’s Latin Quarter showcasing historic streets and traditional music venues. The Connemara National Park provides hiking trails through rugged mountains and bogs, while the Aran Islands offer ancient stone forts like Dún Aonghasa. Other favourite stop is ithe Kylemore Abbey’s Victorian gardens and coastal cliffs. Galway is Ireland’s second largest county by size (5,939 sq km) and fifth largest by population (277,737). Population peaked at 440,198 in 1841 and reached its lowest point, 148,340 in 1966. In terms of hospitality, Galway is Ireland’s third most visited tourist county with around 1,028,000 international visitors per year.

Introduction – Adventure – Anthem – Archaeology – Attractions – Awards – Birdwatching – Camping – Castles – Churches – Contact list – Cycling – Dining – Equestrian – Festivals – Fishing – Folklore – Gardens – Golf – Graveyards – Happening – Haunted – Highest – Hiking – History – Holy Wells – Hotels – Hotels top 8 – Hunting & shooting – Instagrammable – Itineraries – Largest town – Luxury – MICE – Movies – Music – Name – New – Novelists – Off the beaten track – Poets – Pubs – Quotes – Random Facts – Restaurant Awards – Sacred Places – Saints – Songs – Spas – Sports – Sunsets – Sustainable – Things to do – Towns – Video – Villages – Walking – Wanderlist – Weddings – Wild swimming – Writers – 1837 – 1846 – 1852 – 1909 – 1955 – 1980 –