Village hall

Halla Rónáin, the village hall in Kilronan / Cíll Rónáin on Inis Mór, in September 2007.  Because it was there, and looking remarkably un-1966-ish.

Swan House, home of Kumar's Taste of Asia and more

This building at the "junction of Flood Street and Fish Market"   (the latter usually known as Spanish Parade) has previously been described by Buildings of Ireland as a 

... substantially intact medieval house; it has many early features including a steeply pitched roof, a double-light ogee-headed window and a pointed doorway in the gable with a moulded chamfered surround having stops with an interlace pattern.

It's called Swan House - I don't know why.  There are some suggestions that it's the oldest building in the city.  Despite the prominent location, it's rarely noticed.

It looks really historic, as well as perhaps neglected, but is also really hard to photograph, not the least due to the power-pole on the corner.  This shot in mid-July 2026 is the best I've managed.   Fleeting beauty, it is not.  History, it is.

It's had an Indian restaurant on the ground floor for well over 20 years, and there are on-line hints of short-term let apartments upstairs (though the look of the place makes that hard to believe.)

Sullivan's Hotel, Gort, 2026

In 2017, I took a quick-pic of this hotel in Gort and shared it on Maps.  You can see that picture here.

Nine years later, I was back in Market Square, and thought I'd try for version 2.  Nicer colour scheme this time, and a different Trip Advisor sign out front. But the same solid, independent, small town hotel look and feel.

The new look makes the old name (Lally Royal Hotel) less prominent, but actually a little easier to read.

Last man standing

This lad kept a weary eye on Eyre Square while the arts festival came and went. 

Officially he's an artwork by ...

Sculptor Sean Henry [who] is internationally renowned for his quietly monumental figures, which transform the everyday into something uncanny and deeply human. Working at unexpected scales and with subtly altered proportions, his sculptures capture solitary men and women in moments of pause, vulnerability and reflection, inviting viewers to look closely, and to recognise themselves.

But I've been calling him "Don't mess with me"

Sally Swan plots her escape from the Festival Garden

After two weeks listening to the pretentious matcha-latte set by day and horrendous Heineken-heads by night, Sally Swan decided she had Had Enough!!!

Having lost the vigour of her younger days, she simply  lurked quietly, plotting:  "Just as soon as one of those lads open the gate, I am GONE!  Straight ahead ....ready, steady .... "

Vancouver Art Gallery with Hotel Vancouver in the background

 Pictured in June 2007, this is outside the Vancouver Art Gallery in Canada, with Hotel Vancouver in the background.   Many other pictures in the internet show the steps covered in people:  they look like a great place to sit and watch the world go by. 

The last bar in Bohermore

 

Bravely painted in bright orangey-pink, the last remaining bar in Bohermore sits nestled in between sedately painted houses, and serves great food as well.

Depth in the hills of Clare

 

The hills of Clare usually look quite flat against the horizon.  But once in a while, you see them must as the final licks of sun are hitting some of the hills and suddenly they have depth across the water.

Turn of the century brutalism?

I suspect these apartments are nicer on the inside, even, or perhaps especially,  on a sunny day.   And at last you have great viewss and a cinema, supermarket, gym and physio in the complex.  But sill, the look is architecturally "interesting". 

White Sails at Canada Place

 

Another view of Vancouver's Canada Place ferry terminal + convention centre in June 2007  This is one part of the roof constructed to look like white sails  (actually made from fiberglass and teflon coated sheets, stretched across steel cables and are supported by 40-ft steel masts).

A very blank canvas

It's the end of Arts Week, and the wall above The Barber's chair is still empty.   Surely someone was supposed to paint a mural there.

Nine and Fifty Swans

This pretty shop in a side street in Gort, Galway, Ireland says it stocks stuff that is "handmade, vintage and beautifully useful"  photographed in June 2026

My Shop ... Granny Likes It.

 

This gift shop in Galway, Ireland says it features the best of Irish design.   It looks like it was named as a joke- and the joke stuck.   It's quite hard to get a good picture of but I spotted this on day in later March 2026.

What came behind Whale Street?

Captain Ahab and his crew in their glory

This year, I hid behind a mobile street-diversion sign, and got some great close-up photos of Galway International Arts Festival parade.   The parade title is Whale Street, and it is apparently a "thrilling outdoor reimagining of Moby Dick, that transforms the city into a vast, moving stage as ... Captain Ahab and his crew" persue Moby Dick, who nevertheless stops frequently to spray the crowd and play music.

Photos above start at the end of the parade, and go thru to the beginning.

Setting sun over the bay

On this evening in early July 2026,  it felt like the setting sun over the hills of Clare was drawing the sea out of Galway Bay.

Delightful daisies

These determinedly cheerful Dorotheanthus bellidiformis, aka Livingstone daisies, were spotted in a corner in Doughiska one sunny day.

Industrial estate hoodlum

Saw this ldistingushed gentleman in an industrial estate on the east of Galway city this evening.  Google tells me he's a hooded crow, aka a hoodie.

Not a great pic, he was a bit camera shy.  But I don't think I've seen one before.

Arthur Colahan Memorial

 

The words of Arthur Colahan's sentimental ode to Galway Bay, in Irish and English now grace this rather unimposing pair of plaques on the beachfront in Upper Salthill Road.

King of the funfair

The ferris wheel is King of the funfair!

This year's Salthill-funfair seems a little more restrained and tasteful - or maybe I was just seeing it in a  lovely sunset on a hot, sleepy day.

Lampoon Castle

I took a quick-pic of this interesting-looking building in Cambridge, Massachusetts in June 2007 - knowing only that it looked really cute, and made me think of Little Toot the tug-boat.

Thanks to the magic of Google image search, I now know that:

• It's the Harvard Lampoon Building, fondly known as the "Lampoon Castle" and headquarters of a Harvard University under-grad humour magazine.
• It was designed by architect and Lampoon co-founder Edmund M. Wheelwright in 1909, as a mock mock Flemish castle fronted by a human head wearing a helmet or bowler hat, it is an example of the building function driving form. 

Celebrating Galway's Seagulls?

The Claddagh Icon is a public artwork in Galway near Claddagh Quay.  It normally blends into the grey background.  Except when the sun strikes it at just the right angle, which I happened while I was strolling past one day in October 2017.

Officially it's a Galway Hooker (ie traditional sailing boat) and a cormorant with the sun as a backdrop of the sun. But it could become known as the Seagull Monument.

Carrolls with window boxes

The flowering window boxes above this pub were just a at the right stage - blooming without overwhelming the elegance of old stone building, and giving the impression that the whole place is being cared for.  But the grass growing out of the chimney brings things back 

Minature megalithic mushrooms

Spotted these impressive mushroom-esque monsters  in Briarhill Business Park one afternoon after a  recent heatwave.

Acting the goat in Gort

 

The perfectly purple 💜 Goats Lane Cafe is in Gort, Co Galway.   And they make lovely coffee.