A celebration of Galway life on every plate at The Kings Head
One of Galway’s best known landmark pubs, The Kings Head has been named as a finalist for Pub of The Year with Good Food Ireland. After a judges visit, now the Pub of the Year award goes to a public vote, so The Kings Head needs Galway’s help!
Owned and run by the Grealish Family since the late 80s, this 800 year old Pub is located in the heart of Galway City’s Latin Quarter and comprises a Pub, Bistro, and LIve Venue over 3 floors.
The food at Kings Head is a celebration of the amazing ingredients that are on their doorstep. No surprise then that the menu features local seafood, lamb, beef and organic vegetables.
But it is in their dedication to the sea that the food at The Kings Head really comes to life, Crab Claws, Mussels, King Scallops, Oysters, award-winning Chowder, the catch of the day, Galway Hooker beer battered served with their signature chips (More on those later) and of course the now seasonal signature Lobster and Chips. The Chips at the Kings Head are fresh, hand cut and triple-cooked and are a stand-alone dish in themselves.
For over 20 years Head Chef Brendan Keane has led the kitchens at The Kings Head and he has along with The Grealish Family been a driving force in championing local produce and producers on their plates. Whether you’re sitting on a bar stool or in the Bistro, the food philosophy is the same – if it’s fresh local and in season, it goes on the menu ! Using Local suppliers like Ali’s Fish Market, Sloe Hill Farm, Sliabh Aughty Honey, Friendly Farmer, Éamon Giblin Game, Kelly’s Oysters, Galway Bay Seafood and they even have their own Forager in Brian Gannon. Now how many pubs have their own forager?
At the bar at The Kings Head, you will find signature whiskeys, local gins, craft beers, cocktails, mocktails and creamy pints of stout.
The Kings Head now have their very own Craft Beer appropriately named Blood Red Ale which is brewed locally by Galway Hooker in Oranmore. It’s a preservative free, small batch, traditional red ale which keeps its head, unlike a certain King !
With free Live Music every single night, Late Bars every weekend and a solid commitment to authentic local food and drinks, this historic family-run Galway Pub, surely deserves to be crowned Pub of the Year
Curator, producer, writer, and educator, Dani Gill’s, second poetry collection, Lessons in Kindness that explores identity, sexuality, strength and vulnerability is going to be on book shelves across Ireland this April.
“I chose Lessons in Kindness as my title because that was the mission of writing the book. While it sounds like a nice phrase, it is something borne out of great pain and forced overcoming. The title comes from the poem ‘Shingles’ and relates to the idea of having to learn to be compassionate with yourself and with others, in situations that could make us harden. The collection is an unraveling of stories. There is the central story of a woman (Dani) going through stages in life such as losing family members (both through death and estrangement), navigating gay relationships, and finding peace. The book is broken into four sections,” explained Dani.
Some of the themes in the collection explore the ideas of relationships, identity, sexuality, compassion, learning and faith.
Writer Elaine Feeney on Lesson in Kindness, “It is a meditative collection on the importance of the people who make us, and the kindness they leave behind. Gill writes with such a light touch, beautifully done.” And Michael Harding remarked, “Here are reflections as fragile as egg shell. They are sparse and opaque, and work like a lens, allowing the reader to be the object of their own reading. There is a sense of selfhood here which is as transient as gossamer. And what shines through is a kind of soul light. A beautiful and uplifting book.”
The collection will be officially launched in The Mick Lally Theatre on Sunday 2nd April 2023, where Dani will be Interviewed by Writer Edel Coffey.
Here Dani goes through emotions and themes within the collection surrounding Grief, Contracts, Mirrors and Truth.
Grief
Grief begins with a childhood poem featuring my grandmother and going to church with her. It begins a section of poems dealing with the loss of my grandmother (she passed away from a degenerative brain disease in 2021) and the idea of faith. My grandmother was a very kind woman, she was also a staunch Catholic. The poem deliberately brings in the imagery of faith, something that is explored throughout the collection in terms of personal journey, what we believe, right and wrong, asks, navigating.
Water Angels, Breath, Silence, Hollow are all poems set at the time or shortly after my grandmother’s death. They involve both her and my mother; the intergenerational process of grieving women.
Contracts
Contracts deals with the idea that we are often subscribed / ‘contracted’ into relationships and certain behaviours. It deals with how these are broken and interrogated. The section ends with ‘The Uprooted Tree’. A poem about becoming; the constant possibility of breaking a definition to emerge as something different.
Mirrors
The poems in Mirrors are all about the roles of others in our lives and what they mirror back to us as well as the lessons they teach us. Friendships, romantic relationships and our wider identity in the community are explored. Poems like ‘Night Walk’ and ‘Stranger on the Beach’ are about the idea that we are all connected in the fabric of humanity, that we can and should help each other.
The ‘Perspective’ poems are poems written while doing drone photography. They are about the search and capture of moments, and how the world looks through a different lens.
Truth
Truth is the final section of the collection. It discusses personal truth, spirituality without labels and a type of call to action for active allyship of the LGBTQ community. It opens with ‘For Those Who Believe in the Unseen’, a poem about our connectedness with nature. It features the sea, something I’ve written about a lot in my poetry. As a sea swimmer it is something I’ve learned from massively throughout the past decade. ‘Masks’, ‘Raise Your Spear’, ‘Power’ and ‘Choose Your Weapon’ are poems about being part of the LGBTQ community and the challenge that it brings. They are a call to action to be aware, to be active in what you believe in, and to be brave in what matters. This section is about finding my own personal truth, but also the wider context of truth for us as a community. Who are we? What do we stand for? What world do we want to live in and how do we build it?
Publication Date: April 2nd 2023. Publisher: Salmon Poetry. Lessons in Kindness, €12 will be available from all good bookstores and online via the Salmon Poetry website: www.salmonpoetry.com. For more information on Dani get social @theedanimagic (Instagram and Twitter)
PRAISE FOR THE COLLECTION:
Here are reflections as fragile as egg shell. They are sparse and opaque, and work like a lens, allowing the reader to be the object of their own reading. There is a sense of selfhood here which is as transient as gossamer. And what shines through is a kind of soul light. A beautiful and uplifting book. -Michael Harding
A beautiful account of the lives, loves and losses of three generations of women. The poems explore how interconnected those experiences are, in love, in grief, and how they move between generations like the ebb and flow of the tide. -Edel Coffey
A meditative collection on the importance of the people who make us, and the kindness they leave behind. Gill writes with such a light touch, beautifully done. -Elaine Feeney
Fast paced, challenging, truthful, in this her second collection, Dani Gill explores the demanding landscape of personal love and loss. -Mary Dorcey
Lessons in Kindness is a finely-wrought collection exploring identity, love and loss. Whether writing about the relationships that have shaped her, the experience of coming out or how to live mindfully each day, Dani Gill’s poems are imbued with a sense of rootedness in nature.
– Jane Clarke
This gentle collection orbits grief, looking for a safe place to land. The wearing and removing of masks, the fragility of life, the stillness therein. – Rita Ann Higgins.
An impressive week for Blue Teapot who welcomed Walter Balfe, QQI Head of Quality Assurance and colleagues Marie Cotter and Yvonne Agnew to join the celebrations of Blue Teapot Theatre Company in their successful re-engaging with QQI as a provider of quality assurance programme delivery.
Prior to this, Blue Teapot was a legacy provider under the FETAC umbrella on the national frameworks of qualifications. It is a significant milestone for the company which provides performing arts training at QQI Levels 2 & 3 to adults with intellectual disabilities.
The rigorous process by Quality and Qualifications Ireland recognises the high-quality work in developing, enhancing and implementing quality assurance processes. It is a benchmark that has to be achieved by all institutional and independent providers of QQI programmes, and Blue Teapot has met that threshold at first time of re-engagement.
Last year Blue Teapot shared the news they had bought their building on Munster Avenue. This was enabled by Clann Credo the Social Finance Foundation, a non-profit body that provides loan finance for community organisations around Ireland. The foundation reported a 29% increase in loans to the sector in 2022. The €26.6 million lent to 265 organisations from all 26 counties included a loan to Blue Teapot Theatre Company in Galway.
Commenting on how social finance made a difference to its operation, Blue Teapot Director, Petal Pilley, said: ‘’It has been a long-held aim to secure a permanent cultural home for Blue Teapot. Our vision is to be a centre of excellence for Disability Arts in the Western Region, this goal would not have been possible to achieve without the social finance provided through Clan Credo and facilitated by the Social Finance Foundation.’’
This year through my ongoing work with IdeasLab I was asked to moderate, MC and hold a panel discussion for International Women’s Day. As always my recommendation for this was The Mick Lally Theatre which is ran by the wonderful Siomha and is one of my favourite spaces in Galway.
We have talked alot about equality over the years and now we are looking at how we can move towards a more equitable society.
Simply put: Equality means everyone gets a shoe. Equity means everyone gets a shoe that fits.
The passionate, captivating, and creative tour de force, Noeline Kavanagh who has brought so much joy and our imaginations to life through her work with the internationally acclaimed Galway-based theatre spectacle company Macnas – Spectacle Theatre Company agreed to be our keynote speaker.
She was the first female and the youngest person at 23 to ever direct the Macnas parade which happened in 2008. It was one of the largest parades ever – with over 500 community participants in it.
Driven by love, imagination, friendship, possibility, chance, choice, challenge, Noeline Kavanagh is a person that offers and delivers so much. Her words on the night lifted the roof and everyone in the room, it was in her vulnerability and honesty we saw her true character and what an incredible person she is. A true leader.
These conversations began with defining personal success and how that is ever changing, how we can practically support each other throughout our careers, why being amped up and super charged on busy mode is so 2018 and what we have changed our minds about and why that is a very good thing. Nothing is as enjoyable as good conversation and connection with other people in real life.
Lisa Regan Public Relations (Me) handled all pre and post communications and the MC’ing duties on the evening to which I take very seriously as I love nothing more than researching and being invested in those I am talking and listening to.
Paul and Mary Grealish and the staff of The Kings Head Bistro at 15 High Street, Galway are inviting people to join them on Wednesday the 8th of March from 12.30pm to 2.30pm. They will host a lunch to celebrate International Women’s Day and to support the work of Self Help Africa with some of its Women and Family projects in Africa.
Tickets for this 3 course meal with all proceeds going to the charity are priced at €40.
International Women’s Day Lunch for Self Help Africa’ will be an opportunity for you to have fun, raise awareness and do some fundraising to support women and families living in some of the poorest communities in Africa. Self Help Africa works with these communities – provide women and families with the ability to produce more food, earn more from their farming activities and help mothers and fathers to provide a better life for their children.
One of the guest speakers at this special event in The Kings Head Bistro will be Mary Sweeney of Self Help Africa who has worked on Women and Children’s projects in Africa for the past 30 years and she will share with you her great experiences and stories of some fantastic women doing great work to make life better for their families in some of the poorest regions in our world.
IdeasLab at University of Galway are amplifying the female voice and action this International Women’s Day and you are invited to be part of the conversation.
The awe inspiring Noeline Kavanagh former Artistic Director at Macnas will deliver a Keynote speech that will lift you from your seat! Then a panel discussion with Dr Natalie Walsh, Dr Vanessa Creaven and Mary Ryan will give a real insight into career progression and how success looks and feels very differently to us all.
Fully Treat the mother in your life this year by spending time with them as you will roam through the streets of Galway enjoying the best of food, drinks and company.
The Mother’s Day Brunch kicks off in the afternoon with Galway food Tours guiding you to six of Galway’s hottest eateries and watering holes. From savoury to sweet and then a tipple of two, this afternoon will showcase how all Sundays should be spent!
Bring a friend, bring a girlfriend, treat your wife or someone who needs a day out.
See you there! Mother’s Day Tour is happening on Sunday 19th March, beginning at McCambridges on Shop Street. The tour is priced at €80. To book visit www.galwayfoodtours.com.
How it is all made? Beer in your glass, in a can, at home or enjoyed in OConnellsGalway
We never really think beyond what we are having of just how it all came together.
O’Connells Galway have been enjoying and working with The White Hag Irish Brewing Co. for years and were back with them in Sligo yesterday to sample some very exciting new flavours and some of the old favourites too.
How community development can contribute to and influence social change?
Today I began my working day talking with Anna Daly a 4th year Social Sciences at University of Galway who for her final year dissertation, wants to look at how community development can contribute to and influence social change. In particular she’s interested in how communities can promote positive climate action?
We have been working on being a dynamic, inclusive and progressive community in Galway’s Westend through the businesses, through creativity, with the wonderful residents who are the heart and soul and with ensuring we are respecting our environment.
Anna nailed all of this in her words below and its so wonderful to get validation for all the work and in terms of driving our message through PR and Marketing this was such great feedback to get.
“I think that Galway’s Westend has huge potential to be one of these dynamic communities. It’s already one of the most proactive and eclectic neighbourhoods in the city. When you walk around the Westend it’s easy to pick up a vibe which is pro local businesses, pro creativity and pro sustainability and the collective marketing of the Westend through its website and social media has explicitly identified itself as a community that really values these principles.”
Today I joined the Galway Street Art Walking Tour with Finbar247 Shane O Malley Galway City Council to explore the city and how bringing artists and local government to work together to ensure Street Art is part of our street scape. The value to society through colour, creativity and the economy is only positive.
Experience the perfect blend of food and romance with Galway Food Tours
Galway Food Tours Valentines Food Tour on February 15th offers a refreshing alternative to the traditional Valentine’s Day and post the Hallmark pressure date!
The romantically undecided can join for a fun-filled evening that will take them from Farmhouse cheese paired with delicious wine to an award-winning restaurant followed by a special seasonal Valentine’s cocktail.
“The craic, fabulous food, and romantic zing in the air have already proven successful in the love department on previous Valentine’s tours – it’s certainly one of our best! It does tend to be a little female-heavy; we get a 70% female and 30% male interest, so we want to see more men join us this year! Let’s level the playing gents – can you help?!” smiled Sheena Dignam, Romance expert and owner of Galway Food Tours.
Time & Place exhibition symbolises the impacts of relationships and memories
Galway based artist Lorraine Fletcher who creates a series of wildlife inspired prints and giftware showcasing the beauty and strength in animals through colour is launching a new collection titled Time & Place.
Time & Place has been created from her workshop at The Burren Nature Sanctuary with her trusty dog Amber, Lorraine has developed a distinct style of work. Her paintings are a combination of vivid colours and focus on the subject. Beginning with an initial sketch and finishing with an original acrylic painting. A select range of originals are then captured to produce limited edition giclee prints on fine art paper using archival inks.
The paintings within Time & Place are symbolisms of relationships and memories, the people and the impact they have had over the years. The subject matter is Irish wildlife and in particular the hare, a song written by Dick Gaughan “The Granemore Hare”,which tells a tale from where she grew up.
Expressions, stance and compositions of each piece are what tell the story of what Time +Place means to me as an artist, individual, partner, mother, friend, musician, and family explains Lorraine.
Time and Place has different meanings to the three artists within the exhibition, none of which have seen each other’s work or will not until opening night. “For me it has a strong link of home from home. I have lived in Galway since 2002 on and off going travelling but always returning. The place is Galway to Armagh and back, I could drive these roads with my eyes closed. The journey is imprinted at this stage.
Expressions and compositions are important in Lorraine’s work, with an importance on the beauty and strength in each animal, from the elegant stag to the curious and beautiful fox. If you love wildlife and colour, you have found the right place.
Time & Place exhibition will be opened in Armagh Marketplace Theatre on 11th November 2022. Lorraine has created 15 paintings all of which are acrylic on canvas or board in varying sizes. The entire collection will be available to view from www.lorrainefletcherartstudio.com.
The award-winning Galway Food Tours who guide people through the food scene of Galway have launched their craft and food tours gift vouchers. The gift vouchers can be for one of their food and experiential tours or can be out towards joining their craft tours which they launched in November 2022.
Long after the festive season, you can enjoy a craft tour in Galway. This February 12th join Galway Food tours as they take you on a journey through Galway like no other. Beginning in Galways westend, In Plamas where a coffee and sweet treat from Kai is the order of the day before heading up the town to the hear and learn from the icon that is Anne O’Maille who runs O’Máille – The Original House of Style, founded in 1938 in the heart of Galway City. Famous for their unique Hand Knitted Aran Sweaters. Proudly showcasing Top 100% Irish Weavers | Contemporary designs for Men, Women & Home in natural fiber.
Then it’s onto one the city’s most iconic restaurant spaces, Ard Bia where lunch is served. The creative juices can then be awoken with a Weave workshop where you will make a St Bridget’s cross with Sarah Jenkins in the surroundings of the Galway City Gin Distillery and talk (and drink!) about Imbolc – Early Childhood with Claire Davey.
“People want experiences now, so we wanted to bring the best of fashion, craft, and food together. We are so lucky in the west to have all these incredible people, places, and resources. So, get your friends together or come on a date with us yourself, a brilliant day eating, chatting, a tipple or two and of course having conversations, getting creative and learning from the people that are around us. Perfection,” said Sheena Dignam Owner of Galway Food Tours.
