A Year in Review: Galway, 1991

The Galway Corporation Annual Report Series – Disclaimer

In 1991, the Galway Corporation released its first annual reportⁱ. These give details on the local councillors and city planner of the time and discuss (past, present and future) projects across Galway city. This series of blog posts will discuss some of the more noteworthy events of each year from the report’s inception till they changed to the Euro. While citations will be used to include page numbers, this series will primarily rely on information directly from the reports themselves.

Some Relevant Figures of the Time

1991 would see one city manager and two mayors over the course of the year. Seamus Keating served the entire year whereas the mayoral term saw councillor Michael D. Higgins replaced by then Alderman Michael Leahy in July 1991 (“Alderman” was a former title bestowed upon the longest serving members of the Galway Corporation instead of using the title “councillor”)ⁱⁱ.

In the beginning of the year, the four Alderman were Bridie O’Flaherty, Michael Leahy, Jimmy Brick and John Mulholland. By the latter half of the year, Michael Leahy, Martin Connolly, Michael D. Higgins and Declan McDonnell would hold the positionⁱⁱⁱ.

Roadworks

After being closed off in 1972, the road now known as Bothar na mBan would be redeveloped and reopened in 1991 to ease traffic congestion^iv. Costing £235,200, this was one half of the corporation’s overarching plan. This project was completed to complement a planned roadway connecting Prospect Hill and Forster Street. In other words, drivers and pedestrians would start to see quicker routes to travel from Forster Street to Headford Road/Woodquay^v.

Three car parks were constructed in 1991 with additional changes to parking to alleviate limited spaces. The two most efficient uses of land in this regard were the multi-storey Merchant’s Road and Eyre Square car parks. Combined, these added 1,070 spaces, making up over 1/3 of the 3,004 total dedicated car park spaces in the city by this time^vi.

Heritage Preservation

With the shopping centre in Eyre Square newly built, a collection of townhouses, shops, offices and the aforementioned multi-storey car park made excellent use of once derelict land. Better again, this construction was done in conjunction with restoration work to put the old Galway Wall on display throughout parts of the shopping centre^vii.

Unfortunately, a significant backslide has occurred to our publicly accessible heritage in recent years. Since at least late 2023, the area from Penrice’s Tower to the bottom of the stairs at Art & Hobby has been blocked off. I reached out to the Heritage Officer and the Shopping Centre to see if anything was being done to address the wall’s recent partial inaccessibility to the public. Unfortunately, neither of them responded to my enquiries.