EYRE SQUARE
Keeping the lens free of water drops was close to impossible.
I visited Galway in September and to say the least the weather was horrible as it rained most of the time making it very difficulty for me to take photograph the city. I visited Salthill twice on the second day and the weather was so bad that I had no option but to return to my hotel.
Eyre Square, also known as John F. Kennedy Memorial Park is an inner-city public park in Galway, Ireland. The park is within the city centre, adjoining the nearby shopping area of William Street and Shop Street.
A controversial and massively over-budget redevelopment of the square began in 2004. There was considerable unease in the city when it was reported that the original building contractors, Samuel Kingston Construction Ltd, had left the site and were not returning. After many long delays the square finally reopened on 13 April 2006 having astonishingly cost over €20 million to redevelop. Despite an unpopular reception by Galway locals, the finished square received the Irish Landscape Institute Design Award in 2007.
Before the most recent, controversial re-landscaping, the park used to house two large cast-iron cannons which were presented in recognition of the service of the Connaught Rangers, an Irish Regiment in the British Army, in the Crimean War. A statue of Irish language writer Pádraic Ó Conaire was erected in his memory in 1935. However, during the redevelopment works, this was removed and it now resides in the Galway City Museum in the Spanish Arch area of the city. There is a portrait bust of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in the park, and a statue of Liam Mellows (1892–1992), a hero of the War of Independence, in the car park to the east of the Browne doorway.
The Browne doorway is also another attraction in Eyre Square; it was originally the doorway of the Browne family's home on Lower Abbeygate Street, but was moved in 1905 from Abbeygate Street to Eyre Square. Recently it has had to be shored up, buttressed and encased in plexiglass due to neglect. The name of the Browne family is also featured on one of the fourteen flags near the Browne doorway and the Quincentennial Fountain. These flags represent the Tribes of Galway, fourteen merchant families who dominated the political, commercial, and social life of the city of Galway in western Ireland between the mid-13th and late 19th centuries.
I visited Galway in September and to say the least the weather was horrible as it rained most of the time making it very difficulty for me to take photograph the city. I visited Salthill twice on the second day and the weather was so bad that I had no option but to return to my hotel.
Eyre Square, also known as John F. Kennedy Memorial Park is an inner-city public park in Galway, Ireland. The park is within the city centre, adjoining the nearby shopping area of William Street and Shop Street.
A controversial and massively over-budget redevelopment of the square began in 2004. There was considerable unease in the city when it was reported that the original building contractors, Samuel Kingston Construction Ltd, had left the site and were not returning. After many long delays the square finally reopened on 13 April 2006 having astonishingly cost over €20 million to redevelop. Despite an unpopular reception by Galway locals, the finished square received the Irish Landscape Institute Design Award in 2007.
Before the most recent, controversial re-landscaping, the park used to house two large cast-iron cannons which were presented in recognition of the service of the Connaught Rangers, an Irish Regiment in the British Army, in the Crimean War. A statue of Irish language writer Pádraic Ó Conaire was erected in his memory in 1935. However, during the redevelopment works, this was removed and it now resides in the Galway City Museum in the Spanish Arch area of the city. There is a portrait bust of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in the park, and a statue of Liam Mellows (1892–1992), a hero of the War of Independence, in the car park to the east of the Browne doorway.
The Browne doorway is also another attraction in Eyre Square; it was originally the doorway of the Browne family's home on Lower Abbeygate Street, but was moved in 1905 from Abbeygate Street to Eyre Square. Recently it has had to be shored up, buttressed and encased in plexiglass due to neglect. The name of the Browne family is also featured on one of the fourteen flags near the Browne doorway and the Quincentennial Fountain. These flags represent the Tribes of Galway, fourteen merchant families who dominated the political, commercial, and social life of the city of Galway in western Ireland between the mid-13th and late 19th centuries.
