Poet pushed out of the heart of Galway

ON a recent visit to the west, I was most disappointed to see the dismantling of the once-enchanting Eyre Square — former epicentre of bohemian and buoyant Galway city.

What I beheld was a trite and tacky example of the mindset of modern Ireland and this was illustrated by the horrid fountain located on the site where the Pádraic Ó Conaire monument stood.

Ah, O’Conaire, the rustic Connemara poet whose tasteful and quaint monument would always usher a warm and endearing welcome to the City of Tribes and was a heartwarming adornment to the cityscape. However, such aesthetically pleasing and fitting memorials to our cultural lexicon and poets long since gone are no longer deemed important in the Ireland of today.

A prized photograph of myself sitting on the monument, in 1976 is all I have to remind me of Eyre Square in its pristine state. What chance of someone deciding to put back the monument to wee Pádraig O’Conaire?

Roibeard McElroy

1 Oak Grove

Santry

Dublin 9