13 minute read
Galway City in focus
REGIONAL FOCUS: GALWAY CITY COUNCIL
Galway city socioeconomic profile
With an area of around 54km2, Galway is the fifth biggest city in Ireland after Dublin, Belfast, Cork, and Limerick, as well as the fifth most populous, and is the only city in Connacht. Predominantly a student city, it has the highest per capita student population in the State.
The city has been relatively prosperous throughout the last decade and is the most diverse city in the State as well as being a hub of Irish culture as the city with the highest daily use of Gaeilge.
Transport can be regarded as the city’s point for improvement, although its connectivity has been improved since the construction of the M6 motorway connecting Galway city with Dublin. Galway is the most isolated city in the State from an airport, a legacy of the 2008 recession when Galway Airport, which once facilitated 300,000 users per year, was closed in 2011.
The city’s harbour has applied for permits to expand pending the approval of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, although this process has been ongoing since 2014 and will not be completed until 2032 at the earliest.
Demographics
Housing
Galway city population: 83,456 Galway most multi-cultural city in the State: 18.6 per cent ‘non-Irish’ 30 per cent families with lone parents – state average of 25 per cent
55 per cent of population has a third-level qualification 8.6 per cent of people with no formal education
Source: Galway City Council
Average house price in the Galway city: €354,569 Average house price in the State: €311,514 National average rent: €1,618 per month Average rent Galway: €1,663 per month
Source: Daft.ie
Third-level education
Approximately 29,000 full-time students 17,318 University of Galway students 12,000 Atlantic Technological University students 45.5 per cent of population with third-level education
Connectivity and transport
Nearest commercial airports: Shannon Airport: 85km Ireland West Knock Airport: 89km Dublin Airport: 227km 23 per cent of population commute to work on foot 5 per cent commute by bicycle 8 per cent commute by bus/coach Less than 1 per cent commute by train 60 per cent commute by car/van 3-hour train journey from Ceannt Station to Dublin Heuston, six times daily Galway harbour can accommodate vessels with up to 10,000 tonnes deadweight (DWT) Inner dock of harbour can accommodate up to nine vessels at any time 3,691 users of Galway Harbour in 2017 Galway Harbour handled 1 per cent – 604,000 tonnes – of Ireland’s sea freight in 2017
Source: CSO
Economic activity
€18,873,525 paid in Covid-19 business restart grant schemes €38,721,060 allocated to housing and building in the local budget 2022 €103,577,762 total spending in the local budget 2022 524 people employed by Galway City Council This represents a 20 per cent decrease since 2013 €53 million granted in infrastructure funding from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage 44,376 people working in Galway city Labour force participation rate 61 per cent Over half (22,105) of workers in Galway city commute to their jobs
Source: 2016 Cencus, Galway City Council
Galway City Council REGIONAL FOCUS:
Mirror Pavilion, Leaf Work by John Gerrard in Deirgimleach, Conamara
Credit: Ros Kavanagh/Galway International Arts Festival.
Change for the Galway International Arts Festival
John Crumlish, CEO of the Galway International Arts Festival, talks to eolas Magazine about the operation of the festival, challenges for the arts industry from Covid, and his favourite parts of the job.
Crumlish is originally from Donegal, but having studied for his bachelor’s degree in the University of Galway, then known as University College Galway, he returned to Ulster, studying for his master’s at Ulster University and working in Derry, before returning to Galway city for a summer holiday and being “seduced by the arts scene in the city”.
“I suppose you should say I ran away with the circus. It was the end of the ‘80s, and to see the can-do things in Galway at a time when the country was not at its greatest was eye opening, especially with the band scene which was starting to kick off. “Nobody had ever seen the kind of work that the art festival was bringing in as there were not any venues at the time. It was a great place to be a really buzzing at the time.”
Crumlish says that he could not get the city “fully out of my system” and references the Eagles’ hit “Hotel California”, saying: “You can check out any time you any time you want but you can never leave.” “I think it’s a welcoming city, since medieval time it was a trading town and as a result there has always been a very welcoming nature to the place. It is very seductive,” he elaborates.
REGIONAL FOCUS: Galway City Council
which no one had heard of back then. Shows were always large scale, outdoors and with a lot of free work. Over the years, it has always been about ‘what is possible’ and always thinking big; Galway has always had that feel to it. We can take over the centre of town; it is our stage to play on whereas that cannot be done in Dublin.”
Another identifying feature is that the arts scene in Galway is reflective of the city’s proximity to Gaeltacht Conamara agus Árainn, with the complementary connection to Irish tradition, in addition to reflecting the international vibrancy of the city. It is in striking a balance here that Galway International Arts Festival strikes the balance of its existence in bringing the international to Galway, but also bringing Galway to the international stage.
“There is not a big problem of moving between from traditional arts to someone like [English electronic musician] Jon Hopkins, the festival is always multidisciplinary. Our job is to provide the best possible art experience for as many people as possible. Whether you are from Oileáin Árann or Ottawa, there should be something in our programme which suits you.”
This approach has helped the festival attract ever-increasing numbers, and its multidisciplinary offering of music, drama, art installations, political talks, literary readings and everything in between sees the festival attract “the culturally curious and tourists” alike.
The Arts Festival has been boosted by international exhibitions of works, such as Mirror Pavilion Leaf Work by the artist John Gerrard, in locations such as New York, Guangzhou, Sydney, and London, efforts which were outdoors and thus not stopped by the Covid-19 pandemic. Crumlish states that this has allowed the festival to develop relationships with high-profile artists both domestically and internationally. “That was a big change,” Crumlish says. “We decided that we needed to get outside Galway and for longer than two weeks. We had realised that social media was going to become huge, and we needed things to talk about; these were cultural billboards.”
The industry today faces a number of challenges, including, Crumlish states: “There have been a lot of people changing careers because of big companies in the city that are advertising well-paying jobs, people are moving away from their passions a looking after their first needs, paying their mortgages.”
Galway also suffered uniquely from the pandemic and its associated lockdowns: designated the European City of Culture for 2020, the events and festivals planned withered to nothingness; one such victim was the 2020 Galway International Arts Festival, due to be “the biggest festival we had ever done”.
He adds: “I cannot see costs and Covid changing that much between now and the 2023 festival and it is very hard to budget. There are problems around supply chains; we get stuff from all over the world and even domestically it is hard to find suppliers.
“The other thing is that we have all been in a holding pattern for three years, we have to tip toe to the future and accept that this situation might not change for the foreseeable future. The holding pattern is over. Next year we need to build on this year’s success, and we want to revive the development work and projects that were stunted by Covid.”
Galway City Council REGIONAL FOCUS:
Galway city: A student perspective
As a student leader amid an unparalleled housing crisis, Sai Gujulla, the Students’ Union president at the University of Galway, discusses tackling the housing crisis, priorities for the year ahead, and how the Covid19 pandemic changed student life in Galway city.
Sai Gujulla Students’ Union president University of Galway
Gujulla states that the housing crisis in Galway city has been particularly challenging this year due to a chronic shortage of supply, exacerbated by graduates remaining in their accommodation, with some new students often forced to live peripherally in neighbouring regions.
Whilst some students’ unions pursue an activist approach to their policies, Gujulla opts for a cooperative approach with the university, which he states has resulted in the implementation of the ‘change’ platform on which he campaigned, as well as delivering a rent freeze on student accommodation.
“[The university] is open to change this year which the SU welcomes. The students have a president who will be happy to take part in any protest about housing.
“The university is building more accommodation on campus. It is also engaging with landlords in relation to the rent-a-room scheme, ensuring that tenancy rights are in place, as well as engaging with local hotels and bed and breakfasts,” he outlines.
Gujulla became president of the Students’ Union in July 2022. When asked about his priorities for the year ahead, he indicates that he wants to oversee the implementation of incremental yet significant changes for students in the University of Galway.
“For instance, our students did not have on-campus access to microwaves until last early September 2022, as a result of lingering Covid restrictions. The kind of change we are bringing is about following up and making things happen. “We want to establish noncommercial spaces which will hopefully be created in the James Hardiman Library this year. Additionally, our students deserve a reading week; we are the only university in Ireland that does not guarantee a midsemester break.”
Gujulla outlines an environmental scheme which he hopes to see implemented: “We are in talks with the university over a 2GoCup scheme which will allow students to rent a cup when they get a coffee and receive €1 when it is returned.”
Gujulla has experienced the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic in his time as a student, which he believes led to a “huge drop in student engagement” across the university.
“If someone wanted to host an event, they had to get permission two weeks in advance and a proper room with sanitizers had to be booked. When students are hosting events like that, on top of their studies, they just do not have enough time or enough coordination to do it.”
However, the SU president does note that university sports teams are “in recovery” and that societies are “now fully up and running again”.
Likewise, he reiterates the importance of housing Galway’s student population, and collaboration with the Students’ Union of the Atlantic Technological University as “they are facing similar problems with us with housing and services on their own campuses”.
Galway City is the third most visited city in the State, only after Cork and Dublin, and the Galway Tourism Strategy aims to increase the number of visiters to the city by 20 per cent by 2025, which will increase money generated by tourism by 25 per cent, giving the sector a value of €735 million.
The tourism sector has been tested due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the strategy has endured and 2021 saw the construction of the new Galway City Museum, the establishment of a new water activity tourism hub, and, though not exhasustively, the Galway Brand Development project.
Galway is Ireland's only bilingual city and served as European Capital of Culture 2020; a significant recognition of its vibrant arts and cultural scene. The Gaeltacht areas and Irish speaking communities in Galway make it a uniquely bilingual region which fosters Irish language heritage and culture in many forms that have influenced daily life, from culture and traditions, music, language, dialect, and the vernacular buildings. Galway’s tourism sector was once supported through a regional airport, Galway Airport, which used to have over 300,000 passengers using it per year, but this airport was closed for commercial operations in 2011 following the financial crash and the subsequently decline in aviation usage.
Visitors to Galway can still avail of the relatively nearby Ireland West Airport Knock and Shannon Airport. Additionally, the construction of the M6 motorway between Galway and Dublin means that flying to Dublin Airport is now a feasible option for visitors to Galway.
The strategic priorities are to: increase visitor numbers by 20 per cent by 2025 and increase the value of tourism to Galway
by 25 per cent, being worth €735 million by 2025; successfully manage the city’s reputation; support expanding or emerging tourism businesses to create excellent products and experiences; attract further investment; guide, develop and provide sustainable, world-class tourism experiences, suitable for the market and Galway’s communities; support local communities as ambassadors of the region; and work in partnership with stakeholders and engage with the industry.
Reputation management and marketing
The strategy includes three particular action plans which the Council hopes will help it to meet the targets for 2025, the first of which is centred on enhancing the reputation of Galway city as a destination and ensuring that there is an adequate marketing programme which can deliver this.
By 2025, the Council hopes to stablish and facilitate a high level Galway marketing/development group that will plan, track, and review progress and develop an annual action plan based on research findings. This group will then produce an annual report based on industry and visitor surveys that will highlight gaps and improvements needed in the tourism sector.
The action plan further outlines details to improve Galway city as a corporate destination, as well as encourage the city as a place with a four-day itinerary. To achieve this, Galway aims to develop an international marketing strategy for Galway in conjunction with Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland.
Working with social influencers as well as traditional media outlets to increase the awareness of Galway as a destination, the plan further aims to develop transport links to Galway, supporting airlines and the regional airports on destinations campaigns that highlight Galway in international markets with direct access to the west.
Capacity building and engagement
The strategy aims to enhance opportunities to promote training and up-skilling that is needed amongst tourism providers. Working with Fáilte Ireland, the Council will develop local training programmes and encourage tourism businesses to take up training opportunities already available. It will additionally strengthen the links between tourism businesses, training providers, colleges, and universities.
To build capacity in the local community, the action plan says it will continue to support local initiatives Pride of Place, Tidy Towns, Purple Flag, and similar opportunities for community groups to learn from each other.
Developing experiences
To develop the experiences of visitors to the city, the strategy outlines the ambition to collaborate with industry partners in proposals for infrastructure projects such as Wild Atlantic Way Discovery Points and Loops, development of greenways, camper van facilities and private led projects that will enhance the Galway Tourism experience, and will support businesses to develop cycle tourism experiences as the cycle network and greenways progress in the city.
