Galway Girl

"Galway Girl" or "The Galway Girl" is a song written by Steve Earle and recorded with Irish musician Sharon Shannon, which was featured on Earle's 2000 album Transcendental Blues.

A cover version of the song by Mundy and Shannon reached number one and became the most downloaded song of 2008 in Ireland, and has gone on to become the eighth highest selling single in Irish chart history.

Plot

"Galway Girl" tells the semi-autobiographical story of the singer's reaction to a beautiful black haired blue eyed girl he meets in Galway, Ireland. Local references include Salthill and The Long Walk.

References in popular culture

"Galway Girl" featured in the 2008 Bulmers cider advertising campaign.

The song appears in the 2007 film P.S. I Love You, where Gerard Butler's character sings the song for Hilary Swank's character. This was also sung by Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character to Swank.

The song featured in the TV series Treme (in episode 9 of the second series, entitled "What Is New Orleans?"). It was performed by Steve Earle (in his role of Harley, a street musician) with Lucia Micarelli and Spider Stacy (of The Pogues) accompanying him on violin and pennywhistle.

Galway

Galway (/ˈɡɔːlweɪ/; Irish: Gaillimh, pronounced [ˈɡalʲɪvʲ]) is a city in the West of Ireland in the province of Connacht. Galway City Council is the local authority for the city. Galway lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay and is surrounded by County Galway. It is the fourth most populous urban area in the Republic of Ireland and the sixth most populous city in the island of Ireland.

According to the 2011 Irish Census, Galway city has a population of 75,528; however, the rural county agglomeration is far bigger.

Name

The city's name is from the river Gaillimh (River Corrib) that formed the western boundary of the earliest settlement, which was called Dún Bhun na Gaillimhe ("Fort at the mouth of the Gaillimh"). The word Gaillimh means "stony" as in "stony river" (the mythical and alternative derivations are given in History of Galway). Historically, the name was Anglicised as Galliv, which is closer to the Irish pronunciation as is the city's name in Latin, Galvia.

Galway (Dáil Éireann constituency)

Galway was a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas from 1921 to 1937. The method of election was the single transferable vote form of proportional representation (PR-STV).

History

It was the largest constituency in Ireland, electing 7 deputies (Teachtaí Dála, commonly known as TDs) to the Dáil in 1921 and 1922, and 9 from 1923 to 1937. The constituency was created in 1921 as a 7 seater, under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, for the 1921 elections to the House of Commons of Southern Ireland. That House had only a brief existence, as only four members took their seats, the remainder forming the 2nd Dáil.

Under the Electoral Act 1923, it became a 9 seat constituency for the 1923 general election to the 4th Dáil. Its representation remained at 9 seats until its abolition for the 1937 general election, under the Electoral (Revision of Constituencies) Act 1935.

Boundaries

Some Dáil Éireann constituencies extend cross the county boundaries, to ensure a reasonably consistent ratio of electors to TDs. The mathematics make this less likely to be necessary in a large constituency such as this one, and the 1923 Act defined the boundaries of the Galway constituency simply as: "The administrative county of Galway." No boundary revisions took place until the abolition of the constituency under the 1935 Act.

Galway sheep

The Galway is a breed of domestic sheep originating in Galway, in the west of Ireland. They are a large polled white-faced sheep, having a characteristic bob of wool on the head and wool on the legs. The outer lips are of a dark colour and dark spots on the ears are common. The average litter size is 1.45 in pedigree flocks. While a major proportion of ewes within the bred weigh 80–85 kg and have a litter size of 1.3, there is wide variation to be found.

This breed is primarily raised for meat.

History

The Galway breed was developed in the West of Ireland, as a result of the importation of English Longwools from the late 17th century onwards. From the middle of the 18th century Robert Bakewell's Dishley Leicester, also known as the New or Improved Leicester, was exported to Ireland in large numbers, in particular to the estate of Bakewell's associate, Lord Roscommon, later Lord Sheffield. A frequent claim is that the Galway is our only native breed and in 1999 there were less than 1000 true to type Galway sheep in 39 pedigree flocks (a big increase from the 14 breeders in 1990). Practically all the breeders are west of the Shannon. The breed which developed was for many years known as the Roscommon, and a Flock Book of Roscommon Long-Wool Sheep was established in 1895, surviving until at least the 1920s. The Roscommon was a large, white-faced polled breed and, though classified as Longwool, did not have the very long staple characteristic of breeds such as the Lincoln and Leicester Longwool. It bore,as the Galway does, an almost uncanny resemblance to surviving prints and paintings of Bakewell's sheep, being perhaps, closer to the Dishley breed than any of the English breeds which were influenced by Bakewell's stock.