Galway: A City of Touring, Songs, and Pink People

Today, Friday, July 25th, we visited the city of Galway to celebrate my birthday because the weather forecast says that it’s going to rain on my actual birthday. We decided to do a walking tour around the city to learn more about it’s fascinating history. Our tour guide was a man named Connor, and he told us some really cool stories. We thought we’d share our favourites!

A Little History….

Before when Ireland was controlled by the Normans, there were 14 families who were in charge of different things to help run Ireland. Strangely enough, only two of the families were actually Irish. The other families were French!

This isn’t any monkey business!

Miss Lynch was living in Ireland and dating a Spanish man who had to go back to his home country quite often. To make sure that she didn’t get lonely, he gave her two gifts: a baby and a monkey. Miss Lynch had to take care of the newborn baby and the monkey, but she was getting along just fine. But then, one day, her house caught on fire and she wasn’t able to get her baby or her monkey and she was very distressed. Then, a furry shape came crawling out of the window and started crawling down the house. Unfortunately, the monkey was so overwhelmed by its burns, that it fell and passed away. But the monkey landed on its back, and in its arms was the baby, who was still alive. This story isn’t verified, but it is very heart-warming. Today on the restored Lynch house, there is a carving of the monkey and the baby. Also, when I went to do some more research online, I found a bunch of people with the last name Lynch had commented on a website, so I assume they are descendants of the baby!

Fountain of Bubbles!

There is a fountain in Eyre Square, also known as John F. Kennedy Memorial Park, that is supposed to signify the old Irish fishing boats called “hookers”. It is no longer a fountain, because some university students poured laundry detergent into the fountain and made a huge bubbly mess! So if you ever go to Eyre Square and notice the water-less fountain, now you know why!

“So I took her hand and I gave her a twirl, and I lost my heart to a Galway girl….”

There is a song about Galway called “Galway Girl“. It is a really big hit; in fact is the eighth highest selling single on the Irish charts! It has been sung by many singers, and is in the movie “P.S. I Love You“. When we were going to Kilkenny on a tour, our bus driver sang the song and I recorded it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the whole beginning verse of the song.

Take a listen….

After our tour, we went back to Eyre Square because there was a show as part of Galway’s Arts Festival. We came to see a show called “The Invasion”. What happened was very unexpected; from different points around the park came these people who were completely pink. Even their hair was pink! The pink people were interacting with the crowd and doing things like stealing hats and giving them to other people, jumping onto people’s backs, and other crazy things like that! Zoe and I found it a bit unnerving but amusing at the same time because they weren’t talking; they were making these strange noises instead!

One of the pink people!

Group shot!

The pink people making mischief!

Overall, Galway is a very nice little city where everyone knows each other, and I think that is really neat. It would be nice if Toronto was like that.

I would like to live in Galway so that I could be a Galway girl too! Ay-I-ay-I-ay!