Street art and statues in Galway

This is by NO means a comprehensive post. There was almost too much to see – sometimes we’d walk one way and I wouldn’t see something, but I’d see it when we walked the other way.

First up, wall art!

While technically not outside street wall art, I want to give s special shout-out to the Hyde Hotel. If you are quirky, like quiet rooms, appreciate a helpful and friendly desk staff, want to be given more breakfast than you can possibly put away, love little bits of art and fun, and want to be within walking distance of Shop Street, stay at the Hyde Hotel! The picture above was from the dining room, and the whole thing had little things like that around.

And then there were the statues, of which I’m sure I only got a handful.

Have statue; will pigeon.

Here are the ones in the gallery below:

• Oscar Wilde (whom I’m assuming, if you’re the type of person to read my blog, you know who that is) and Eduard Vilde (an Estonian writer from the same time period; there is a matching statue to this one in Estonia).
• The Galway Girl. There is some argument online (I know, right? Quelle surprise.) about whether this is for the modern song by Ed Sheeran (who I understand started out as a busker in Galway, or at least that’s the gossip), or to memorialize the Magdalen Laundries. I tried to find a definitive history but gave up after about twenty minutes, sorry.
• A guy with some Uilleann pipes…? I don’t remember seeing a plaque, and I can’t find anything about him online. But here he is.
• The funny thing about seeing this Heron statue – besides all the little spikes to keep actual birds away, wtf, THE IRONY – was that we’d just been watching a real live Heron that Hawk said he’d been watching (or generations of the same Heron family) for eight years.
• Pádraic Ó Conaire, an Irish writer and journalist who wrote primarily in the Irish language. This is actually a replica of the statue, because the original was beheaded in 1999. F’in vandals! So the original (now repaired) is in a museum, and the replica is out in the park.
• I have no idea what’s going on with this guy, but I seem to recall he might have been next to a church. He was rainbowy and sparkly and I loved him.

These sorts of things I saw all over Ireland, not just in Galway.

These are painted by different artists all over, as part of the Utility Box Art Program, an initiative to help beautify cities – at least, that’s what one of my cab drivers told me, and I’d love to think it true. Artists being paid to brighten up urban areas? YES PLEASE. Some are better than others, some are a little graffiti-ed over, but the more I looked for them in cities, the more I saw.

Lastly, a little bit of other random bits and bobs.

I can not express the joy I felt when I realized that hotel, around the corner from ours, changed out the dog every day.