Godoy in Ireland. Galway
I´m learning to read and write
and I like to do it on my own. All help is very welcome
Dear Fran,
This is the third instalment. I hope you are enjoying these posts about
Ireland …
«Sunday, 24th September
I am at the Sligo Bus Station. Three persons —I count
myself among them— apart from two employees. I have confidence of taking the
bus at 10:00.
Women (from a certain age) wear make-up frequently in
Ireland. The woman from Donegal did it before arriving Sligo.
The bus inspector has asked me if I needed help and
when I showed him my ticket he confirmed me ‘at ten o´clock’. What a nice
gesture!
There is a cryptic message on the glass of the main
entry. It can be read inside the station, one cannot read it outside. This
message is written from right to left. You need a mirror to solve this riddle,
although I had the time enough to decipher it:
‘My job ain´t a job,
It´s damn good time.
City to City
I´m running my rhymes.’
When I ask to the driver if the bus goes to Gaillimh,
he —without looks at me—tells me that I have to wait outside the bus. He is a
youngster who has only growed long hair on the ‘flat roof’ of his head. This
driver has been unpleasant to me.
There are some stretches of track that are no longer used
but continue parallel to the road.
There is a woman who has put make-up on completely.
Beautiful trip. Villages, rivers, pasture, cattle…
Connolly, Tobercurry, Charleston, detour to the Ireland West Airport … It is a
day like it likes me: cloudy, misty and warm.
As I am using the route number 64 I cross a lot of
populations. There is another direct route.
The same animals I saw from the train but here there
are more donkeys.
At Curry, there is a change. The young rapper leaves
and a more well-mannered man is our new driver.
The woman who had put some make-up on alights at Knock
(before she getting off she has gone back to make-up on); I am sure she will
‘knock out’ someone this evening.
It is Sunday in Knock too and the families come out in
after mass. People are relaxed and wearing new clothes. No doubt I made just
the right choice with this bus.
I ask myself how many fishing license has Ireland,
Mary. Every other minute a signal with a fish hanging from a fishing rod
encourages you to practise this pastime.
Claremorris. Any village, however small it is, has
more than one church.
Milltown. Its river and a little whitewashed wall
delimit the road. It is a ‘tidy city’.
Mayo versus Gallway. Flags duel. Maigh Eo (green and
red). Gaillimh (maroon and white). Both flags, green and red plus maroon and
white wave in some houses: don´t forget we are on the borderline and there will
be mixed marriages.
Tuam…
Smartphones, laptops and tablets used by my ‘busmates’
are gadgets that remember me that we are in 2017, if not, crossing these villages
and the music sintonized by the driver they would make me believe that I am in
the sixties.
Claregalway has a bridge which is waiting for its
river. Yes, it is a bridge over dry land. In addition with, Claregalway has a
very modern church almost the outskirts of the village.
A spectacular sightseeing tour for just 16.99 euros!
Contemporary art at the Railway Station of Galway.
 |
| From Corrib Walk |
Galway, in a sunny day, gives me a warm welcome.
People go more lightly dressed and, in the Thomas Dillon Museum´s thermometer, I
read 20ยบ C.
Mike's house (The Branches) is bright and inviting. It
has a dining room that extends in the backyard in a kind of small greenhouse
where it is a delight to start the day with the attentions of the owner. It is
a B & B well connected with the center and next to the GMIT.
Shop Street is full of people. Irish music is played
by a father —I suppose— and three children. This family of musicians has
managed to summon a crowd that makes it difficult to cross the crossroads. I
walk in the pedestrian area of the city. Further down it is sounding the Concierto de Aranjuez, it will be
because I am approaching to Spanich Arch?
 |
| Katie´s Cottage |
Monday, 25th September
I take the bus to Gort at the GMIT. At the same stop
there is an impressive blonde. She has a mask of make-up and a dazzling teeth. She
will have had to get up early to get that result.
Mary, this time I have an operative mobile phone; I
don´t want to suffer what I suffered last year when I covered the central
stages of Hadrian´s Wall. Anyway there are still many phone booths in use in
Ireland.
9:55 Gort. I
like this smell. After talking about the Thoor Ballylee with de Tourism
Information person in charge I take the Pound Road. The river goes parallel to
the path. It is stunning.
 |
| Surroundings of Thoor Ballylee |
The weather and the time allow me to reduce my hike
and feeling every contact of my feet on the ground enjoying every gait; I walk
minding like those athletes who they are seeing themselves winner and they are
near the finishing line but they don´t want the race finishes.
Mary, this smell you only feel it in the Sierra de Aracena when you are
seventeen.
I am on my way to Thoor Ballylee and a tractor drive
waves to me with hand totally open, almost touching his forehead. Tractor
drivers are more effusive.
I have just seen a man (in his seventies) whitewashing
the rear part of his cottage. He is sitting and gives the feeling that he is not
in a hurry. At the end of the day…
‘I declare this tower is my symbol’
Thoor Ballylee is an old tower sticked on the bank of
a limpid river. It is surrounded by a wild vegetation, where some trees grow
horizontally. I discover its
outbuildings, its rooms, its battlements and its strangers room, nevertheless
what I love more is —this will like you— a tiny room which is the reserved
accommodation of a privileged family of birds.
 |
| Thoor Ballylee |
While I am talking to Rena (the person in charge), she
is preparing a hot white coffee and a delicious cake. We chat a little about
the tower owner and his interests.
On the way back to Gort I have lunch at O´Grady´s.
here I know a Spanish couple, she from Barcelona, he is Galician, but is
working in Glasgow. They just come back from Moher. Fantastic!
Coole Park belonged to Lady Gregory, a friend and
adviser of William. As I am in, I can see enormous trees: fagus, fraxinus
Norway maples, oriental planes, small leaved limes… Almost all trees in Cool
Park are humongous. Almost all of them but one ‘youngster’ indian bean-tree
planted by ‘ME AND NU’ in September 1995.
 |
| Coole Park |
The Autograph Tree (Copper beech) is magnificent. I am
against marking the trees. I have never liked to engrave anywhere not even on
walls, but in defence of our protagonist, his initials scarcely are visible. I
like embracing them.
In Coole Park there is a ‘shadowdial’. Yes, this clock
has the months of the year on the ground and could have a difference of ± 5
minutes. I am standing up on 25th September and it is 4:55.
There are some alders and Australian pines dead near
the lough. At the lake, sat on a rock, a girl is reading a book.
Return to Gaillimh at 7:45.
 |
| Coole Park |
Tuesday, 26th September
The Galway Tourist Office is splendid. I wouldn´t mind
to work in this building. You must know the City very well besides you have the
possibility of knowing people.
Wandering about the streets I come across the TEACH
SOLAIS (LGBT+RESOURCE CENTRE). It is closed and I leave a message of encouragement
in the letterbox. Not far away is the City Museum.
This museum, despite it is not too much big, is very
interesting, because in a restrained space one can learn a lot.
‘When this you see remember JPK†’
This is the first I see in a ring dated in 1700s.
Ground Floor: coins, an excellent selection of chamber
pots, bone paternoster, a reliquary (this reliquary case by Richard Joyce
contains a skull believed to be that of St. Ursula, which was acquired from
Rome by Margaret Joyce. Date: 1723), cannon balls and musket balls
(Jacobite-Williamite War. 1689-91).
Why are there people who make so much noise in
museums?
There are showcases showing a lot of swords and pikes
found on the river Corrib.
Before I go up the stairs a Portuguese Faience Vase (c.
1600) holds me back. It is a decorate vase with a dragon in blue and yellow. It
is gorgeous.
First Floor. It is dedicated to the First World War
and the life in this county during the xx Century, with some rooms related to
the Independence of Ireland and Revolution in Galway.
Main Figures. Augusta Dillon (a charity worker),
Stephen Gwyn (member of Parliament), Liam Mellows (who had all kinds of pistols
and revolvers)…
Tools.
There is a grand hooker —hold it! Hold it! A hooker in
Gaillimh is a typical sailing boat, it is not what you have thought— which is
based on the lines of The Truelight (which survived 1961´s Hurricane Debbie).
 |
| Hooker |
Mary, let me transcribe you:
Among the inhabitants of the Claddag
and Galway, many are believed to be the descendants of former Spanish settlers.
It is obvious that the woman on the left of the group, with her sallow
complexion and dark eyes, is not of the same origin as the women of fair
colouring and fair or dark reddish hair whom one meets in the towns and
countryside of Ireland. (In Search
of Ireland 1913, Albert Kahn).
 |
| City Museum |
No comment.
Second Floor. The Ocean is the main protagonist. We
can see a submarine destined for knowing the Galway Bay. Creatures of the deep
and scale models in order to ‘create a current’, crank it up…
Mary, do you know how many mackerels there are in the
Atlantic stock? More than 4 mackerel for every single person on the planet!
This is an interactive way of teaching to the
children.
I say goodbye to the Museum and I head for the
Cathedral. The Cathedral of Our Assumed into Heaven and St. Nicholas is a
recent construction. It seems the work is still fresh. ‘Galway Cathedral was officially opened on 15th August 1965
—younger than us, Mary— and the
ceremonies were led by Archbishop of Boston.’
It is a harmonious church, a little cold, although it
is true that in a church the really important is the human warmth. The really
most important is that ‘from a house of Sadness, Sorrow and Despair to a house
of Hope, Peace and Joy…’ The new cathedral is put up where a jail deprived the
man of freedom.»
I am going to the dock to wait for the sunset.
The afternoon has become windy, cold and cloudy. The sunset I expected does not happen
and the colors that stain the sky are gray and bluish.
 |
| Mutton Island |
Y. a.
Mary
