Wild Geese East Galway Task Force
The village is coming back, like it or not!
The village is coming back, like it or not!
The Wild Geese East Galway taskforce have been working with Booniverse Limited over the past two years with a view to raising the profiles of the main towns and environs of East Galway.
Our goal is to have all our towns and villages hosted on the xplore local app.
Portumna was the first Galway town to join our platform. Gort, Kinvara, Athenry, Loughrea and Tuam to follow.
Download the xplore local here:👇😍👇
Our communities, towns, and villages are struggling. What’s missing is a fresh approach born from a different perspective and a completely new philosophy.
The Wild Geese are a can-do bunch with an agile approach on the ground.
We augment what we can do rather than think about what others are not doing, or what can’t be done.
We see the world through rose coloured glasses oh yes we do - we are relentlessly ambitious for our communities. Our mission is to realise the full potential of our towns and villages.
New ways of working are now opening up to local communities. People are actively searching for sustainable towns to live, work and participate locally. Once novel ideas are now mainstream.
Remote working, co-working spaces, digital threads connecting our towns and villages.
Unity is our strength. Knowledge is our power and Attitude is absolutely everything.
No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world
Gort, Gort Inse Guaire, takes its name from gort (a meadow), ‘inse’ (island) and Guaire Aidne mac Colmain, the sixth century King of Connacht.
Within a 10-mile radius of Gort you will find Coole Park, once Lady Gregory's sanctuary for the leaders of the Irish literary revival; Thoor Ballylee, the tower of inspiration for William Butler Yeats; Kilmacduagh, a sacred site with some of the finest monastic remnants in Ireland; Kinvara, an inviting fishing village; and the Burren, the dramatic limestone landscape sloping westward into the Atlantic.
Whats not to like about Gorgeous Gort?
Athenry, Baile Atha Ri, town of the ford of the King, is a medieval town, the earliest remaining building is Athenry Castle which was built sometime before 1240 by Meyler de Bermingham. In 1241, the Dominican Priory was founded, becoming an important center for learning and teaching.
The medieval walls around Athenry are among the best preserved in Ireland with 70% of original circuit still standing, along with some of the original towers and the original North gate.
In the centre of the town is the 'square'; where markets were held from the 17th century onwards and where the town's late 15th century 'Market Cross' is still located.
The town is also well known by virtue of the song “The Fields of Atheny”
Loughrea, Loch Riach, the town of of the grey speckled lake, lies north of wooded hills, the Slieve Aughty mountains, and on the northern shore of the the lake from which it takes its name.
The town is located within an area that was historically called Triacha Maenmaig.
The town was founded in 1236 by Richard de Burgo, an Anglo-Norman knight who built a castle along an ancient route between the River Shannon and the west coast. Today the remains of the medieval town wall, medieval priory, moat and a town gate are all still to be seen.
Loughrea was at the centre of the Gaelic Revival towards the end of the nineteenth century. The various elements of this revival in the town included Celtic-Revival Art, the Irish Literary Revival, Gaelic Athletics and the Irish language revival.
Portumna meaning 'the landing place of the oak' is a picturesque market town in the south-east of County Galway, perched where the River Shannon enters Lough Derg. This historic crossing point over the River Shannon between counties Tipperary and Galway has a long history of bridges and ferry crossings.
On the edge of the town lies Portumna Castle and Portumna forest park which is located on the northern shore of Lough Derg. The park spans almost 1,500 acres and formed part of the lands of the Earl of Clanricarde, who was seated at Portumna Castle.
Today, Portumna Castle and grounds have been restored for visitors and is a heritage museum of the Flight of the Wild Geese.
Kinvara - Cinn Mhara, meaning "head of the sea", also spelled Kinvarra, is a seaport village located in the southwest of County Galway, Ireland.
The village lies at the head of Kinvara Bay, an inlet in the south-eastern corner of Galway Bay, and in the north of the barony of Kiltartan, close to The Burren.
Kinvara is home every year to two festivals, Fleadh na gCuach - The Cuckoo Festival - an Irish music festival and the Cruinniú na mBád Gathering of the boats and a muse for writers, songwriters and musicians in search of inspiration.
Kinvara does not disappoint!
“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.”
― Herman Melville
