The Galway Identity

Dave Van Ronk · 24-09-2011 12:07pm #1

Been living in Galway for going on 5 years now. Previously lived in Cork, Tipp & Limerick where a strong identity exists in accent & mannerisms, but i've never identified a discernible Galway character.

Maybe I'm missing it, but do people originally from outside of Galway believe there to be a true Galway identity?

Robbo · 24-09-2011 12:11pm

If you don't have a semi-autistic obsession with the notion of "blow ins", you can't really be from Galway.

Sponge Bob · 24-09-2011 12:47pm

Robbo wrote: »

If you don't have a semi-autistic obsession with the notion of "blow ins", you can't really be from Galway.

'Real' Galway people won't drink out the country, ie Salthill

parrai · 24-09-2011 12:50pm

Dave Van Ronk wrote: »

Been living in Galway for going on 5 years now. Previously lived in Cork, Tipp & Limerick where a strong identity exists in accent & mannerisms, but i've never identified a discernible Galway character.

Maybe I'm missing it, but do people originally from outside of Galway believe there to be a true Galway identity?

I think that Galway has a history of 'bohemian' characters, as in alot of people from alot of places come here, and are attracted to the 'atmosphere' of the city...

From this viewpoint, it may be hard to find real 'Galwegians' as it's a bit of a multicultural 'pot' if you will...

The City Of The Tribes is, after all, what Galway is called

http://www.galwayonline.com/faq/tribes.htm

Samich · 24-09-2011 12:54pm

Met Warty Nora?

Dave Van Ronk · 24-09-2011 6:03pm

Samich wrote: »

Met Warty Nora?

No but ive seen the knacker dwarf:D

Mrs OBumble · 24-09-2011 6:44pm

It's been a trading port since 15-whatever ... the Galway city identity is a mix of astute business type and artistic/crusty/hippy/alternative/drop-out.

As opposed to the culchie's from the whest - and opinions differ re how far over the river you need to go for the "west" to start.

snubbleste · 24-09-2011 8:03pm

Galway - graveyard of ambition.
Get your t-shirt now.

25-09-2011 12:17am

snubbleste wrote: »

Galway - graveyard of ambition.
Get your t-shirt now.

what a ridiculous phrase

darraghking22 · 26-09-2011 12:30am

well then head off somewhere else!!

xflyer · 26-09-2011 2:31pm

Been living in Galway for going on 5 years now. Previously lived in Cork, Tipp & Limerick where a strong identity exists in accent & mannerisms, but i've never identified a discernible Galway character.

I think perhaps the three places mentioned might suffer from an excess of accent and mannerisms. To that you can add Kerry.

I too have lived here for a similar length of time and it always surprised at how mild the Galway city accent is. Maybe it because of it's more outward looking character. It's a town people come to live in and a college town. It is also one of the main 'English' towns historically. Maybe that has something to do with it. After all the tribes were in fact English originally.

Although I would say now that it's easily the most Irish town in the country. Outside Gaeltacht areas you rarely hear Irish spoken routinely to the extent it is in Galway.

There is too much character in many parts of the country. People identify more with their town and country than they do as Irish. While it exists in Galway it's not as strong as somewhere like Cork. Which sometimes seems more like a semi independent state with peculiar dialect all of it's own.

It's ironic really 'The City of the Tribes' is easily the least tribal town outside of Dublin.

BESman · 26-09-2011 4:20pm

I've been saying this for a long time, finally someone else has picked up on it. I'm from Galway, but its only when you've lived in other parts of the country that you notice:

a) Almost non-existent accent

b) Very few indigenous phrases or slang

c) lack of collective identity

Some other posters on here I think have correctly laid this down to a history of 'bohemian' characters, i.e. a lot of students and artistic types tend to move to Galway for the atmosphere and culture that exists in the city which you won't find anywhere else. It would be interesting to find a study on migration patterns within Ireland (i.e. from one county to another, not country) but I would say Galway must have among the highest numbers of Irish people living here from other counties, excluding Dublin. For this reason, the city is a bit of a melting pot of other Irish counties and I think the collective identity is diluted as a result. Not that this is a bad thing.

Can be a little frustrating though the way some people treat the city as a "passing through" zone, maybe through their student years in particular. Can result in a more flippant attitude to the area and its people because in their minds, they're only here for the 3/4 years to have the craic and don't really consider any long term consequences.

Also, am I the only one that thinks the city has a staggering amount of Donegal and Monaghan migrants????!!! Galway might not have an accent, but in 10 years we might begin developing a northern twang...

Mars Bar · 26-09-2011 4:50pm

Galway City residents actually do have a bit of an accent.

Never really noticed it until Saturday evening when I was in the pub for the United match in Tuam and there was a Liverpool fan on his own near us. We had never seen him before so we were asking him what brought him here and we knew straight away he was from Galway and we were right.
There definitely is an accent there, not very strong but it's identifiable.

Pure Sound · 26-09-2011 7:02pm

We say Gawlway everywhere else in Ireland calls it Gallway

couldntthink · 26-09-2011 7:12pm

No accent? Have you ever heard someone from Castlepark talking? Or the westside townies.

I don't really notice a major accent from proper galway people though. But I met an Italian guy in South Africa and when he spoke I couldn't believe it. He sounded like he was from Galway but with an Italian twang. He learnt English in Galway and it made me think. Maybe people from galway do have an accent.

ErnieBert · 26-09-2011 7:12pm

snubbleste wrote: »

Galway - graveyard of ambition.
Get your t-shirt now.

Go back to Sligo.

Mars Bar · 26-09-2011 8:43pm

We Need Community wrote: »

We say Gawlway everywhere else in Ireland calls it Gallway

Haha, yeah! Although I tend to leave out the middle "L" and say Gaw-way.

thesandeman · 26-09-2011 9:00pm

Has anyone heard the Libyan rebel/freedom fighter on the radio?
He was a doctor in Ballinasloe. (his wife is still there). I think he might have trained here and he has the most Galway accent I have ever heard in my life.

Mr Keek · 27-09-2011 2:26am

Galway definitely has an accent, I worked in a call center and my Galway/Tuam accent was regularly commented on. Galway as a county has some really strong accents too, very easy to spot some some one from Athenry, Loughrea side of the county to some one from the likes of the Connemara areas. Even my home town of Tuam has a strong accent and we have very big vocabulary of local slang too.

At work you can easy spot some of the Galway city people by their accents too. especially the people.from Westside and from around Ballybane and Mervue.

agreed its not as strong as other accents around the country but we definitely have an easily identifiable accent. When I was in the call center, I'd know i was speaking with a Galway person before I asked for the address.

Gambas · 27-09-2011 3:45pm

Dave Van Ronk wrote: »

Been living in Galway for going on 5 years now. Previously lived in Cork, Tipp & Limerick where a strong identity exists in accent & mannerisms, but i've never identified a discernible Galway character.

Maybe I'm missing it, but do people originally from outside of Galway believe there to be a true Galway identity?

It's an anti-identity when compared with Cork, Limerick and Kerry. The signature is the absence of the expression dje-nah? from the end of every utterance. Dje-nah?

That and the fact that Limerick and Cork cities haven't grown as rapidly in the past few generations, so Galway has a smaller core of urban 'working class' relative to the overall population. This is the group that tends to be the most likely to live all their lives within a few miles of where they were born and have the strongest 'local' (not a positive thing IMO) identity.