[05/02, 09:35] Hoppy - Ireland: Galway old school would be ideal if you have it
[05/02, 12:41] Hoppy - Ireland: Basically what I said before were the answers
If the Adare - Foynes road is anything to go by it will be 4 more years before it starts and you’ll need Pat McDonagh to be hosting the Ryder cup in Connemara before they even agree to do a bit of it.
Galway Harbour expansion approved on same day Ring Road gets go-ahead!
By Dara Bradley
Newsroom Journalist
Published 9th Apr 2026, 13:40 BST
Updated 9th Apr 2026, 14:52 BST
Galway Harbour: The expanded deepwater port as envisaged in the plans submitted over a decade ago. | Galway Harbour
Planning permission has been granted for the extension of Galway Harbour in another major decision for the city announced today (April 9).
An Coimisiún Pleanála approved the harbour expansion on the same day it gave the go-ahead for the Galway City Ring Road. (Read more about that decision here: Planning permission approved for Galway Ring Road)
Both projects have the potential to transform Galway and the West of Ireland.
The harbour expansion plans were designed to facilitate larger ships docking in Galway – including cruise ships – and to free-up the inner dock for recreational and leisure facilities.
Like the Ring Road, plans to expand Galway Harbour have been decades in the making.
They were previously stalled due to the environmental impact on Galway Bay. This latest decision confirms the Special Area of Conservation within Galway Bay will be affected but the development is necessary “for imperative reasons of overriding public interest”.
The proposed development includes reclaiming approximately 27 hectares from the foreshore and seabed to be redeveloped for “harbour related business”.
It includes quay walls, breakwaters and wave walls to create commercial quays and a deep-water docking facility, extending southwards into Galway Bay.
It also includes dredging to create a new approach channel to the commercial quays and the deep-water docking facility berths.
The proposals include a new marina on the western side, fishing quays, a slipway for a lifeboat station and a nautical centre on the eastern side of the site.
There will be a twin track freight rail link from the existing Galway to Dublin rail line to the commercial quays, including embankments and a rail over-bridge to the existing service road.
It will also include more harbour-related buildings, including four-storey port offices, as well as additional car parking.
The proposal includes the construction and improvement of access roads, such as the “realignment of the road under Lough Atalia Rail Bridge”, which is a protected structure, and other road realignment and improvements, including traffic lights at Dock Road and Bóthar na Long.
The site is sensitive environmentally and within a Special Area of Conservation but An Coimisiún Pleanála said it was “satisfied beyond reasonable scientific doubt that the proposed development, including the mitigation measures … would not adversely affect the integrity of the European Sites, or any other European Site, with the exception of Galway Bay Complex Special Area of Conservation, either alone or in combination with other plans or projects, in view of the Sites’ conservation objectives”.
The Commission confirmed its original conclusion that the integrity of the Galway Bay Complex Special Area of Conservation would be adversely affected by the proposed development but it approved it “for imperative reasons of overriding public interest”.
This was “the need to ensure the continued operation of Galway as a regional port and the long-term social or economic benefits of the proposed development.”
Galway West TD John Connolly (FF) has welcomed the grant of approval for harbour expansion and Ring Road.
Was out in Galway city / Hibernoland / Disneyland last night. Not for me, though I am hitting 50. Modus operandi of the pubs seems to be pack them in, put on some shite covers bands, charge well for a pint, and you might even get it in a plastic glass. Is there anywhere in the city where you can just sit down and have a chat without it being wall to wall tourist tack diddlee eye toora loora?
What were the toilets like, mate?
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I managed to have a shit in one early enough in the evening. I was letting fly in trap 5 and some roasters outside were roaring at me listening to me farting away, scuttering the bowl. Twas gas. I gave them the line “wherever you may be, in a church or a chapel, lift up your leg and give it a rattle”, which went down well with them in fairness. I’m sure a few of those lads roaring at me were stinking up the terraces in Dr Hyde Park today.
Some amount of G4 poshos at the rugby as well.
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Galway by-election hopeful Noel Thomas objects to €10m expansion plans for Salthill GAA club
Summarise
Galway West by-election candidate Noel Thomas has defended his objection to plans for a state-of-the-art sports grounds for Galway City’s biggest GAA club.
Salthill Knocknacarra lodged a planning application in February for three flood-lit pitches and other facilities at a 22-acre site, as part of a €10m development for the club.
Mr Thomas is among a number of objectors to the plans, which have become a point of contention between two of the city’s biggest population areas ahead of the Galway West by-election later this month.
There are concerns in the neighbouring parish of Rahoon that the development will encroach on their catchment area and affect their club.
Mr Thomas is the only politician to object to the plans.
“Rahoon Club is – as the crow flies – only a stone’s throw from where they want to put their development. And there’s no point in pretending that it’s not going to have an effect on the Rahoon Club,” Mr Thomas told the Irish Independent.
If this goes ahead, they will take numbers from Rahoon Club
“I’m very much involved in my own local club in Moycullen, so I understand myself how hard it is to keep clubs going, and in order to keep the club going, and to stay successful, you need to have the numbers,” he said. “If this goes ahead, they will take numbers from Rahoon Club, which is something I just don’t like to see.”
Mr Thomas is the Independent Ireland candidate for the upcoming by-election on May 22.
Salthill Knocknacarra GAA club sought final approval from its membership earlier this year for the €10m expansion of facilities on a new site, which would include the development of three new pitches and a clubhouse.
The club’s development committee unveiled plans in February for the development. The 12.5-acre site is located in Mincloon, a few miles north of its current grounds beside Pearse Stadium in Salthill.
Currently, the club, whose senior men’s football team won the All-Ireland title in 2006, have one pitch of their own, The Prairie, adjacent to Pearse Stadium. There is also an existing clubhouse visible on one side of Galway GAA’s primary ground.
To accommodate growth in the number of members and teams over the last number of years, the club has found itself increasingly dependent on rental facilities around the city, some of which are run by the local authority.
Salthill Knocknacarra is one of the largest clubs outside Dublin, with over 2,200 members and 65 teams. The recent GAA Demographics report highlighted a dearth of facilities in urban areas as one of the greatest challenges.
Last month, planners gave the club six months to reply to its request for more information on its plans.
Planners requested further information on 13 points contained in Salthill Knocknacarra’s planning application, including clarity on many sub-sections.
One area highlighted in the FI request was in relation to the design being “not consistent” with the Galway City Ring Road.
Is the expansion in Rahoon parish?
I wouldn’t consider the relative strengths of GAA clubs to be a valid planning consideration.
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The illegal occupation of Mincloon is no laughing matter lads. Fuck Culhane and his gang of greedy yuppy bastards.
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I’d a fair idea which side of this argument you would be coming down on.
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It’s a crazy world when I’m arm in arm with Moyculleners over any issue.
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You’re some divil.
PJ Flaherty’s is potentially finito. Means that Ward’s will be a no-go immediately after a split season match in Tornado Alley.
Some rumour a while back that McGinns are taking over but they’re stripping taps and everything today.
Salthill’s pitch plan could become political football in Galway West Bye-Election
By Dara Bradley
Newsroom Journalist
Published 8th May 2026, 09:50 BST
A section of the crowd at a Salthill/Knocknacarra GAA Club event in February where its Mincloon pitch plans were unveiled. Will it become a Bye-Election issue? | SKGAA
Maybe Galway City Council’s request for Further Information took the sting out of it, but Salthill/Knocknacarra GAA Club’s new pitch development plans could become a Bye-Election issue in the city’s western suburbs.
The issues affecting voters across the constituency fall into broad categories: cost-of-living, housing, traffic, health, the economy, and immigration. But in each area of Galway West, hyper-local issues can sway undecided voters.
How candidates approach those local issues can be the difference between them getting a number one, three, five or 15 preference vote in a contest where transfers will prove crucial.
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One hyper-local issue in Galway City is SKGAA’s plans for new pitches in Mincloon. Regular Tribune readers know that the club has applied for planning permission for a new sports development to accommodate its growing membership.
Neighbouring clubs Rahoon/Newcastle, St Michael’s and Cumann Peile Bearna/Na Forbacha have reservations about it being located in the parish of Rahoon.
They’re concerned that Salthill/Knocknacarra GAA Club will become a ‘super club’, attracting young players from their areas to join SKGAA rather than their clubs due to the location of these planned modern facilities.
We won’t get into the merits or otherwise of the planning application, but the politics around the controversy is interesting.
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Mayor of Galway, Councillor Mike Cubbard – who lives in Rahoon – recently appeared in an SKGAA Club video endorsing the pitches plan. Will that backfire when he’s looking for votes among GAA supporting voters in Rahoon, Newcastle, Bearna, Na Forbacha and Westside?
Conversely, Independent Ireland’s Bye-Election candidate, County Councillor Noel Thomas, in Maigh Cuilinn, lodged a formal “strong objection” to the plans, in which he did not mince his words opposing the SKGAA development. Will that suppress his vote in Salthill and Knocknacarra?
Most candidates steered clear of this issue, although Fianna Fáil’s Cillian Keane issued a general statement implying he would not object to housing, roads or sports facilities.
Hyper local issues like SKGAA’s pitch plans have the potential to become political footballs – and banana skins – in the race to fill Catherine Connolly’s seat.
Mike “Kitchen” Cubbard is already fucked over giving himself a nice fancy gaff. He should be cuter than to back SKGAA here or even get involved.
You’d do well to find worse acting than the first minute of that.
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Agreed - Irish people should be more angry at lying, grifting Yankbrain cunts like the lying, grifting cunt that runs that YouTube channel hoping to attract fascist American $$$$$$.
Much more angry.
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