From Galway to New York: Three creatives share their happiest summer memories

L-R: Sallay Garnett, aka Loah; Amanda Bone; Ciara Elizabeth Smyth

Many of us have a memory of a perfect summer, whether it’s our first trip to the Gaeltacht or the J1 summer in the States, interrailing across Europe, or memories of an idyllic childhood summer spent in the sand dunes of Wexford with our parents long ago. 

Here, three Irish creatives muse about their favourite summer memories, from the thrill of 1990s New York to wild abandon on the streets of Galway post-break-up.

Amanda Bone; architect and broadcaster

When you finish your undergraduate degree in Architecture you are encouraged to do a year of work experience before taking on a Master’s degree.

I went to New York for a year, leaving the summer I finished my exams, and recently found a box of photos and memoirs of that glorious summer 30 years ago when I was 21.

My friends had sourced an apartment owned by a professor at NYU. He sublet the apartment but paid half the rent so we had this incredible home on Mercer Street with a pool on the roof and a concierge for a very affordable price.

I got a job at Edward I Mills & Associates on White Street in Tribeca but, as I wasn’t being paid for my work in the architectural practice, I also got a job as a waitress. I was a terrible waitress so I was soon moved to the position of hostess. It was the early 1990s and the restaurant was full of supermodels and musicians. 21-year-old me was gobsmacked by the glamour.

Every day was new in New York, every person, building, and experience was something I hadn’t seen or done before. That frisson of joy and excitement was incredible and I still feel it today when I stand on the streets of New York.

At the time, the famous Fashion Cafe, fronted by supermodels Naomi Campbell, Elle Macpherson, and Claudia Schiffer, was being designed. Despite being on the design team for the restaurant at Edward I Mills, the client clicked his fingers at me demanding coffee — it was my first experience of sexism in the workplace.

While the job in the architect’s office was very serious, working as the hostess of a restaurant meant access to every bar and nightclub in the city. It was the heyday of clubbing in New York, and the staff in hospitality looked out for each other. One night in the famous Webster Hall nightclub I was escorted onto the podium to dance. I was a terrible dancer and as I danced it dawned on me that it was drag night and they’d mistaken me for a drag queen!

Going to the beautiful Angelika Film Center in Soho was a treat. I got to see films like True Romance years before they came out in Irish cinemas. There was a bookshop on Union Square that stayed open till midnight and I often met a friend from school there. I went to a bagel place one morning and Allen Ginsberg was sitting there reading poetry. That kind of thing was not unusual at all.

A headshot of Amanda Bone taken in New York in 1993 when she was scouted by a modelling agency

Then there was the time I got scouted by a modelling agency and had a test shoot on top of a skyscraper. Another time, Linda Evangelista was in the restaurant and went outside in the torrential rain and began dancing and taking her clothes off in front of the entire restaurant.

I hung out in Sin-é and shopped for vintage on Houston, Broadway, and Canal Street. The clothes there were just unbelievable and how people dressed there was so experimental.

Back then in Ireland things weren’t like that and I loved how you could assume any identity you wanted in New York. So many places have changed in New York now, but at the time it felt very safe and was a city in which you could truly express yourself, the perfect place to transition from a teenager to an adult.

• amandabonearchitects.ie

Sallay Garnett, aka Loah; singer-songwriter and musician

My favourite holiday memory is of the summer that I went to Nice, France between 5th and 6th year of school. 

I’d saved up all my pocket money for a year to be able to go. 

We didn’t go on many foreign holidays as kids so it was the first time I ever went to a proper destination where it was hot and sunny.

We stayed with the French equivalent of the ‘Bean an Tí’ who was quite a formidable, scary French woman but we still had an amazing time going to the beach and swimming after class. 

When you’re that age you feel like you’re so grown-up but you’re not at all. It was the first time that myself and my friend experienced a sense of independence — going out in groups and being so far away from our parents. 

I thought it was so exciting, tasting pistachio ice cream for the first time — that was about the height of it — eating ice cream and wandering around.

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sallay Garnett aka Loah

I had met lots of international kids when I lived in West Africa but I had never met Europeans that weren’t Irish or English. 

Here we met Swedish people, Turkish people, Americans… it all seemed very exotic. 

While I’d experienced lots of different types of cuisine in West Africa, this was the first time I had a rare steak for example; I remember being constantly bowled over by the foreignness of it all.

It was lovely to have that freedom and to experience a different culture at that age. I definitely felt like I wasn’t as green as I had been after that trip. 

It was such a huge milestone for us at the time. Looking back it was so manageable, however, if you don’t do those things you don’t get the courage to do the next thing. 

I travel a lot with work now, take it very much in my stride, and feel continually excited by it.

It’s almost like a habit you build up. I think it’s good to experience different types of trips, getting stuck into a place for both holidays and for work.

• www.loahmusic.com

Ciara Elizabeth Smyth; playwright

My favourite summer memory is from 2018 when I was absolutely and completely heartbroken. I’d fallen for someone who was unreservedly uninterested in having a relationship with me.

At the same time, my best friend, Meg, was grieving the end of her own romantic entanglement. So Meg and I did what clever people do in a jam — we got out of Dublin.

Our remedy for heartache was a three-day trip to Galway. On the train, we drank red wine and touched plastic cups gingerly making a toast to ‘being together’ which made us both cry.

It was a strong start. Our impromptu trip turned out to be one of the best, albeit patchiest, memories that I have. Below is a non-exhaustive list of things we did together (I think).

Ciara Elizabeth Smyth and her friend on holidays in Galway

If you’re looking to create your own ‘favourite summer memory’ in Galway, may I suggest you grab your best friend to do the following:

• Crash a food and wine industry event. Drink the free bar dry and whoop loudly at all the speeches by all the people you don’t know.
• Eat chips on Shop Street.
• Laugh so hard you become in danger of wetting yourself in public.
• Break into Galway Zoo and coax a giraffe out.
• Realise Galway doesn’t have a zoo and you’ve stolen someone’s personal giraffe.
• Feed the giraffe chips on Shop Street.
• Catch a play in the Mick Lally. If nothing is on in the Mick Lally make up a play while standing outside in the rain.
• Perform the play loudly on the street with the giraffe. Make sure to drink cans of cider while you do this so the audience knows you’re serious.
• And finally, let the giraffe feed you chips on Shop Street. He wants to.
  

• Lie Low, written by Ciara Elizabeth Smyth and directed by Oisín Kearney, runs from 17-29 July on the Peacock stage of the Abbey Theatre. Tickets at www.abbeytheatre.ie.