G is for Galway

Paula invites you to visit Galway in the west of Ireland, which features in all her 'Irish' books.  

Galway lies on the River Corrib where it enters Galway Bay. The Irish name for the river is Gaillimhe, meaning stony river, and the original settlement was called Dun Bhun na Gaillimhe, ‘fort at the mouth of the Gaillimhe.’

One of Galway’s nicknames is ‘City of the Fourteen Tribes’ which refers to the merchant families who controlled the city in the Middle Ages. They are remembered in the flags which fly in Eyre Square in the centre of the city, and also in the names of the roundabouts (traffic circles) on the Galway ring road.

The city thrived on international trade in the Middle Ages, especially with France and Spain, and the ‘Spanish Arch’ was constructed near the harbour in the 16th century.

There is also a legend that Christopher Columbus visited Galway. Several years later, he wrote a note in his copy of Imago Mundi, saying, ‘Men of Cathay have come from the west. We have seen many signs. And especially in Galway in Ireland, a man and a woman of extraordinary appearance have come to land on two tree trunks.’ It is said that this is what persuaded him to sail across the Atlantic, having seen the signs of a land beyond the ocean. This monument was presented by the city of Genoa to Galway on the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America.

Adjacent to the city is Claddagh, originally a small fishing village outside the city walls. The thatched cottages were demolished in the 1930s, and colour washed stone houses now line the quayside.

And, of course, there is Galway Bay, one of the largest inlets on the west coast of Ireland. About 30 miles long, and between 6 and 19 miles wide, it separates County Galway in the north and County Clare in the south. Here’s the view of the bay from one of the hotels I stayed at on the promenade at Salthill, Galway’s seaside suburb.

From one of our favourite restaurants on the coast, a few miles west of Galway, we once saw a beautiful rainbow over the bay (but not the pot of gold at the rainbow’s end!).

And here, near the western end, is where the bay meets the Atlantic. If you sailed due west from here, you’d reach Goose Bay in Labrador.

One of my favourite Irish songs starts:

“If you ever go across the sea to Ireland

Then maybe at the closing of your day

You will sit and watch the moon rise over Claddagh

Or see the sun go down on Galway Bay.”

One evening we hoped to see the sun set on the bay, but got stuck in a traffic jam on the way. Watching the sun go down on the Galway Ring Road isn’t quite the same! But the next evening, we reached the small beach at Furbo in time to see the sun going down on Galway Bay, one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen.

S is for Skelleen, the village in 'Irish Intrigue'.

Paula likes ‘inventing’ places.

Skelleen is a village in Connemara, County Galway. Well, no, actually, it isn’t – because I invented it, mainly for my Irish Intrigue story, although it also had a few mentions in Irish Secrets. However, it wasn’t a complete invention. In fact, it’s an amalgam of a couple of Irish villages. Although I knew where I wanted Skelleen to be situated, I needed it to be somewhat larger than the village in that position which has a population of only about 200. So I ‘combined’ it with another larger village about 20 miles away (in County Mayo).



First village, in Connemara

Second village, in County Mayo 

The advantage of doing this, of course, is that you can ‘move’ buildings around to suit your story! By the time I finished Irish Intrigue, I had a clear picture in my mind of ‘my’ village, even though it was drawn from two different sources. The pub (Connolly’s) in my story came from the Galway village, the church from the other village (sorry, I don't have a photo of the church)
.

The ‘Now and Forever’ house in the story was a figment of my own imagination, a grey stone cottage with two storeys – but the idea came from The Quiet Man cottage in the Mayo village, where we saw Maureen O’Hara’s signature in the guest book (and if you’ve read Irish Intrigue, you’ll understand the significance of that!).

Slightly blurred, sorry, but the signature is on the bottom line!
 

Blending factual places with your own imagination can be useful because you have carte blanche to add/delete whatever you wish - as long as you stay true to the character and atmosphere of the place. Obviously, you can't add a tattoo parlour or a strip club to a village like this, but I did add a children’s playground at one end of the village, and the children’s school in my story wasn’t anything like the schools in either of the villages.

 

But, in one of the villages, there was a bridge spanning the point where a small river reaches the head of the lough (pronounced 'lock' by the way!), which I mentioned several times. Anyone who is familiar with this area of Connemara will probably know which lough I called Skelleen Lough (even though it isn't even called a lough in 'real' life!).



The view of the river and lough from the bridge -
and that low cloud was a rainstorm moving up the lough toward us -
we watched it approach and then got soaked as we ran to the pub!



 

An interesting couple of days!

Paula reflects on a series of (almost) unrelated events.

 

Last month, I was invited by an indie publisher in Ireland to take part (as one of the hosts) in a St. Patrick’s Day Extravaganza on Facebook, as she knew I had recently had an Irish romance novel published. That was amazingly generous of her, as I’m not one of her authors, so many thanks to Kemberlee for inviting me!

Also, my own publisher (at my request) put ‘Irish Inheritance’ on sale at 99 cents (or 77 pence in the UK) on Amazon for the St Patrick’s Day weekend.

I spent most of Monday at the computer i.e. over 12 hours barring a couple of short breaks (I did have to eat at some point!)

I hasten to add that I wasn’t advertising my book non-stop, although I did post one cliff-hanger excerpt and, from time-to-time, posted the Amazon link about the special St. Patrick’s Day offer for my book.

The rest of the time I spent uploading photos, sometimes to illustrate the beautiful Irish scenery, especially in Connemara, sometimes with quiz questions attached (e.g. which American’s ancestral home was this?), and sometimes with a bit of information attached (e.g. about the Christopher Columbus memorial in Galway). All that actually took far more time than promoting my own book. 

I also responded to many of the other participants and visitors (over 200 in total) to the event, including spending an inordinate amount of time trying to guess where someone’s photo had been taken in Ireland!

Okay, I had a blast – and I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

The results? Well, quite a few downloads. Not enough to take me into the higher echelons of Amazon rankings, but hey, that’s just a dream, isn’t it? Certainly more than I’ve sold before in one weekend (although that’s not really saying much!)

More importantly, I’ve already heard from a couple of people who downloaded the book saying how much they are enjoying it, and how they find it intriguing. One person ‘complained’ she couldn’t put it down even though she had jobs to do!

Today I posted a thank you (on FB) to those who had bought it, and was delighted when about a dozen people shared this on their own FB pages (thank you, Jen!)

One of the messages I received was from a FB acquaintance who lives in the Lake District. Never one to miss a chance(!), I told her about ‘Fragrance of Violets’ (which is set in the Lake District), and I think she may buy it too.

Another contact I made as a result of the event was a friend of a friend, who lives in Dublin, and who has said she will ask around in Dublin and also in Galway (where she has some family/friends) about possible book signing opportunities. Actually the best book signing would be in the bookstore in Dalkey (near Dublin) as my hero and heroine go into that shop in the story! Whether any Irish book signing opportunity will arise is in the lap of the gods, of course (or maybe in the lap of the ‘little people’!) but I can hope.

So, all in all, Monday was a good day! Obviously, I couldn't spend each day doing this kind of networking/promotion of myself or one of my books, otherwise I wouldn’t have time to do any of my own writing, but once in a while it is real fun to do.

Today, as a footnote to all that, I had a phone call from a friend who has bought all the paperbacks of my novel, saying that her daughter wanted to buy all the paperbacks too. The daughter has read all my books on her Kindle, so I was quite surprised. But when I emailed the daughter to thank her, she said she wanted the signed copies on her book shelf –so she can show off to her friends that she has books signed by the author!

Oh, and another friend who has recently bought ‘Her Only Option’ sent me a message saying, “One night I am happily cruising the Nile and then BANG all hell breaks loose, and I don't know who the baddy(ies) is/ are. My poor old brain is suspecting nearly everyone!”

I think my main feeling today is, ‘At least some people are reading my books!’ It's a good feeling. J