Galway as it looks, feels and changes now.

Construction works beside Comerford House at Spanish Arch, Galway City Galway City Museum beside Spanish Arch, Galway City

Galway Now

The Old Museum Meets the New

Spanish Arch, Galway City — September 2026

I walked down to Spanish Arch to see for myself what is happening around Galway City Museum. The barriers are up, construction equipment is on site, and a familiar part of Galway is beginning another transformation.

The two photographs above tell an important part of the story. The small white building beside Spanish Arch is Comerford House, the former home of Galway City Museum. In 2007, the purpose-built Galway City Museum opened nearby, becoming the museum Galway knows today.

Now the old and the new are being brought together.

A major redevelopment of Galway City Museum is underway. The project includes a new three-storey extension designed to connect the existing museum with historic Comerford House, creating a larger integrated museum complex at Spanish Arch.

Standing there, however, the interesting thing wasn't an architectural drawing of what the finished development might eventually look like.

It was seeing the beginning.

Fencing now cuts across part of the familiar open space. Construction materials and machinery occupy areas where people normally walk, while visitors continue to sit, talk and move through Spanish Arch around the work.

One photograph looks towards Comerford House and the construction area. The other looks towards the larger museum that replaced it. For years these buildings represented two different periods in the life of Galway City Museum. The redevelopment now underway will bring those periods together.

These photographs aren't of the finished redevelopment. They record what this part of Galway looked like while the transformation was just beginning.

Photographs and observation: Bam Artiste

Middle Arch, Claddagh — 14 September 2026, Galway City

Galway Seen

He's Still Sitting There

Middle Arch, Claddagh — 14 September 2026

I went walking around Galway this morning looking for something worth stopping to notice.

And there he was.

Sitting beside the Corrib, arms resting across his satchel, apparently watching Galway go by.

He is Seated Figure, a monumental sculpture by British artist Sean Henry. The work was installed at Middle Arch in June as part of the build-up to Galway International Arts Festival 2026 and Henry's exhibition, Presence.

When the sculpture arrived, it was reported that it would remain here until the festival ended in late July.

It is now September.

And he's still sitting there.

Maybe that's what caught my attention more than anything else. Festivals arrive, transform Galway for a few weeks, and then disappear. Posters come down. Venues return to normal. Crowds move on.

But occasionally something seems to linger behind.

Today people walked past him, stopped beside him and looked out across the water. Meanwhile he remained exactly where I found him — a silent visitor who, at least for now, appears to have stayed in Galway a little longer than expected... no more than most of us.

Photograph and observation: Bam Artiste

Middle Arch, Claddagh — 14 September 2026, Galway City

Galway Now

Investigating Tomorrow's Floods — In Today's Rain

Raven Terrace, Galway City — 14 September 2026

It had been raining in Galway all day when I walked down to Raven Terrace.

The road was closed. Red barriers stretched across the wet street, machinery occupied part of the roadway and workers in rain gear continued working while the rain came down around them.

There was a certain irony in what I was looking at.

The work taking place at Raven Terrace is part of site investigations connected with plans for flood relief in Galway — preparations intended to help the city deal with water in the future.

And here they were doing it in today's rain.

Galway City Council announced the temporary closure of Raven Terrace from 14 to 18 September to allow site investigation works for a flood relief system to be carried out.

Standing there made the official description feel much less abstract. The road surface was shining with rain. Water ran along the street. Workers moved between the barriers and equipment while pedestrians made their way around the works beneath umbrellas and hoods.

One of the workers noticed me taking photographs and, despite working outside in the rain, looked across and gave me a thumbs-up.

That small moment somehow suited the scene.

Flood protection is something usually discussed in plans, reports and future tense. But today, on Raven Terrace, part of that preparation was happening in front of me — barriers up, machinery working and Galway rain falling on everybody involved.

Photograph and observation: Bam Artiste

Memorial to Isabella Copland at St Nicholas' Collegiate Church in Galway City

Bam's Galway

I Went Looking for Galway — And Found Jamaica

St Nicholas' Collegiate Church, Galway City — 14 September 2026

I wasn't looking for Jamaica.

I was walking through Galway City when I wandered into the grounds of St Nicholas' Collegiate Church and began looking at some of the old memorials.

Then three words caught my attention.

“Island of Jamaica.”

The weathered memorial is dedicated to Mrs Isabella Copland, widow of William Copland, and describes her as formerly of the Island of Jamaica. She died on 10 March 1837, aged 71.

I stopped.

Jamaica is where I came from. Galway is where I now live. And here, in the middle of the city, I had unexpectedly stumbled across a connection between the two.

I don't know Isabella Copland's full story, or exactly what brought her from Jamaica into the history of Galway. The stone itself raises more questions than it answers.

But perhaps that is part of what makes walking through an old city interesting. Sometimes you go looking for Galway and find something you never expected to be looking for at all.

Photograph and observation: Bam Artiste

Galway photograph

People of Galway

Someone From the City

The people encountered around Galway are part of the story of the city.

Galway City

Galway photograph

Living Galway

The City Changes

Watching the small changes that gradually reshape Galway.

Galway City

Galway photograph

Bam's Galway

From Where I Was Standing

A personal observation from life in Galway.

Galway City