How to make friends in Galway?

flowerpot

This may be a stupid subject title but let me explain my situation and maybe someone has been in a similar position and can offer some advice.

My partner and I moved to galway 5 years ago after a return from abroad. We had never lived here , knew no one but didnt want to go back to Dublin where we had lived for years and wanted out of the rat race and Galway seemed to be the perfect place. And it is a great town I love it . However, we just never seemed to make friends here. Both of us always have had an abundance of friends and it is something that just happened naturally through work etc and to be honest something we never had to think about. But it just didnt happen here. Dont get me wrong we're not billy no mates but any friends we have are friends that we have from years ago and not friends we made here. Yeah sure we have friends while we're at work but we wouldnt meet up with them socially outside work.Everyone has their own things going on at the weekends etc and everyone has their own groups of friends/family to catch up with . To be honest I ve just found Galway to be really clicky ! and probally cause a lot of people seem to be from here so they dont really need to make friends they have their childhood friends

Now the situation is we have 3 small children ( under 3) and want to buy a house and put down roots. We've saved up , good time to buy and just want my 3 children to have a great life. We both have good jobs in Galway and although we have each other and our children we do need other people as well. We're sociable people. Obviously we can't go out drinking or socialising at night for a couple of years as our kids are so young.
I suppose after all this rendition. My question is , can anyone recommend a nice area ( small village/townsland with local school where we can be a part of a small community and get to know neighbours etc. ).
Perhaps when our childen go to school we will meet other parents etc naturally, or perhaps we should think of moving back to where we are from and forget about Galway as an option. I have a friend who moved to galway years ago when her kids were small and she did tell me they spent a good few lonley years at the begining and it takes a long time to establish yourself here but it does happen. Anyway sorry this wasnt meant to be so long . But any suggestions would be great.

dec25532

Not stupid at all. I presume you are in Galway city where it is often very difficult to get to know people and there are a lot of cliques as you have discovered. I also presume you want to move out of the city to a more rural location but not that far. Commuting and job location are factors that have to be considered. This link might be of use.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055705784

It all depends which side of the city you want to commute from and that would be the easiest accessable to work. You don't state that. Places like Moycullen, Claregalway, Oranmore, Athenry and Headford are all satellite towns/villages of Galway city and are great places to live.

Are you in the city or somewhere in the county?
Do you or your partner commute?

Given the nature of rural life there aren't many social outlets - sports, pub, church, the odd local association.

Once your children are in school you will meet others.

In the city 1/4 were born outside of Ireland (don't ask me to back that statistic up - I read it somewhere) - people tend to stick to their own groups as foreigners / blow ins are judged to be transient.

I can't give much advice - do you have interests or hobbies you can take up? With 3 under 3 I doubt you have much spare time.

Azelfafage

This problem is common across the entire industrial western world.

Work occupies 7am to 6pm.

We live in suburban houses with nobody in them from 9-to-5.

We dont meet neighbours.

The "Post Industrial Society" will hopefully restore the "Primordial Village".

In the meantime:

"Get Drunk in the Local".

Then you will meet friends galore.

Then you can pick between them.

Eezy Peezy.

.

xp90

Its easy:

One of these:



A bit of this:



Top it off outside this place at 3AM:

Azelfafage

Anyway,

Nobody meets friends sitting inside suburban houses looking at telly.

The French and Italians live in cafes when they are not working.


.
.

dec25532

Can't see this couple living it up in the GPO and then gorging burgers and chips in Supermacs afterwards. There is a happy medium out there somewhere but agree with previous poster, they have to get out. Regardless of where they are living.

tribesman44

i feel your pain. im an american living in galway. i am unemployed so i cant meet people in work. money is tight for me and my wife, so cant meet people at a pub or anything. my life basically consists of working out, going on the internet and playing xbox, lol. its a sad state of affairs. it doesnt help that i live in the most clicky village in galway (possibly ireland).

Mrs OBumble

Galway is a hard place to meet friends (as opposed to acquaintances) in, because so many people are only here for a few years: the long-term locals don't bother with newbies 'cos they won't be here for long, and the newbies are very come-and-go.

Also, I hate to tell you, but meeting new people gets harder as you get older. It seems that once people get a certain number of friends, they lose energy for making more. Possibly this gets better once you get into your 50s, and children are grown-up.

Now ... some concrete advice for you:

Find one hobby each, and join a club. Something (or things) with activities on different days/nights, so he goes while she does childcare one night, and vice versa another night. This can be anything (sports, music, book-club, whatever) - just make sure it's a club (ie on-going) not classes (ie one-off). Get as involved in the club/organisation as your time commitments allow (yes, I know it's challenging with kids).

Are you even vaguely religious? Try to find a church that is welcoming, and start going there. (Doughiska catholic parish is ... I think St Nicholas CoI in town is ... many aren't ... good luck!). You don't even have to be that committed to the religious side, welcoming ones will be happy to be friendly no matter where you're at.

Take the kids to the playground, and while they play try to get chatting with other parents there. (Yes, this sounds very random, but friends with kids tell me it works).

Good luck

1perriwinkle

Hi,
I feel your pain! We had 6 moves in 2 years when the kids were small and it was HARD meeting new people:eek: but then we were in England at the time which was far away from friendly Irish people

However, we've settled down now, in lovely Athenry and I can really recommend it as a place to live. Lovely country/community feel to the town still, lots of young families, great schools and playgroups. But has all the things you'd want like afterschool stuff for kids, a local hotel with gym/pool, playground, castle (!), library, supermarket etc etc

My 2 are in a great Gaelscoil and the parents are all very friendly. Plus it's only 20 mins to Galway (Briarhill) and will be less when the M6 opens in a few months time. And it's on the train route to Dublin etc. And very, very good value in houses too. I could go on for quite a while about how great it is but I'd only bore you and sicken everyone else lol!

Anyway, take a spin out here someday and see what you're missing :pac:

Jaden

I had the same problem. I solved it by moving to Dublin.

MayoForSam

Yeah, myself and the missus are not from Galway originally, we lived in Tuam town for a few years and hardly got to know anyone. Then we moved a few miles out the country, close to plenty of new houses with other blow-ins, the locals were very friendly and very soon we got to know everyone around the place. Having kids going to the local school was a great ice-breaker too.

In the town the esates were full of people who didn't know each other and couldn't be bothered making the effort, out here you kinda get drawn in to the community because critical mass has already been established.

The odd visit to the local pub pays dividends too for getting all the gossip .

Hey tribesman44, drop me a friend request on XBL (see my sig below), you're out my way and I've just got MW2. Not sure you could get decent BB in Kilkerrin.

tribesman44

MayoForSam wrote: »

Yeah, myself and the missus are not from Galway originally, we lived in Tuam town for a few years and hardly got to know anyone. Then we moved a few miles out the country, close to plenty of new houses with other blow-ins, the locals were very friendly and very soon we got to know everyone around the place. Having kids going to the local school was a great ice-breaker too.

In the town the esates were full of people who didn't know each other and couldn't be bothered making the effort, out here you kinda get drawn in to the community because critical mass has already been established.

The odd visit to the local pub pays dividends too for getting all the gossip .

Hey tribesman44, drop me a friend request on XBL (see my sig below), you're out my way and I've just got MW2. Not sure you could get decent BB in Kilkerrin.

hey there. just sent you a friend request on XBL. my name is brettie vedder we have good wireless internet out here. took a long time to find one though! been playing mw2 and have great connection speeds. im getting tuned up by the pros too...fun stuffffff

MayoForSam

I guess you're into Pearl Jam so . Invite accepted.

tribesman44

MayoForSam wrote: »

I guess you're into Pearl Jam so . Invite accepted.

my favorite band...tied with the beatles :0

LFC Murphy

Moved to a town myself and wife, knew NOBODY and spent 2 years that way, joined a gaa club a few miles outside town and get on great now.

Clubs are best way to go, you have put yourself out there and get involved, 2 years of thinking "we'll be fine, we'll make friends soon" doesn't work. Trust me it'll be fun. We started this 8 months ago just and haven't looked back. It still make us laugh when we now walk into a shop etc and people say hello.

Look take our advice, bite the bullet and get out into the community.

And the best of luck