A Writer's Guide to Galway

Galway City Library is the main branch of Galway Libraries, with study spaces and events alongside its collections. It stays open late on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It closes on Sundays and bank holiday weekends.

Westside is a Galway Libraries branch that supports literacy, learning and local initiatives. It opens late on Wednesdays and closes on Sundays and Mondays.

Graduates of the University can use the Hardiman onsite for free and borrow for a fee. External researchers with a higher-level research need can apply for paid onsite membership through the Library Membership Form. At exam time, access may be limited to registered students.

Archives and Special Collections holds more than 400 archive collections, from the fifteenth century to the present, along with rare books, maps and older newspapers. Its strengths include writing and literature in English and Irish and the folklore of the west of Ireland, and the University holds John McGahern's literary archive. Search the catalogue online first. Bona fide external researchers are welcome in the ground-floor reading room; book a reader space by email and request archival items at least 24 hours ahead.

Charlie Byrne's is an independent shop offering over 100,000 books, new and secondhand, bargain and antiquarian. Irish-language and Irish-interest books have their own sections, and so do Galway and the West of Ireland. The shop runs book clubs. It also has its own festival, Folio Festival.

Des and Maureen Kenny opened Kennys on High Street in 1940, and the family still runs it. Look here for Irish-language books and books of Irish interest. The Kenny Gallery, which the family opened in 1968 and calls the West of Ireland's first art gallery, shares the premises. The shop opens Monday to Saturday.

An Tobar Nua is a café and Christian bookshop run by a registered charity, and it overlooks the canal. Bibles and biographies share the room with breakfast and lunch. It closes on Sundays and Mondays.

PorterShed a hAon opened in 2022 in an old warehouse at Bowling Green, and hot-deskers can take a desk there. Expect 1 Gbps broadband and free coffee, with a communal kitchen and privacy booths for calls. Meeting rooms can be booked. The building has step-free access.

Coffeewerk + Press serves specialty coffee in a building four hundred years old. A design shop and a gallery are part of the business, and so is Artwerk Press, a small art publisher. The café is open seven days a week.

Corrib House serves tea in a restored 1830s Georgian townhouse beside the Salmon Weir. Almost every window looks out on the River Corrib. It closes on Mondays.

Tigh Neachtain was founded in 1894 in the former home of Richard Martin, and the pub keeps close ties to Galway's arts and music communities. Sharon Shannon is among the musicians who have played there. Lunch and light bites are served daily.

Monroe's is a bar, restaurant and live music venue on Dominick Street; check its gig listings before an evening visit. The kitchen serves day and evening menus. It is open daily.

Cúirt began in 1985 as a three-day poetry festival, and it calls itself one of Europe's oldest book festivals. Each April it now runs for a week of poetry and prose, memoir, panels and performance. The Cúirt Lecture is part of the programme.

Galway Arts Centre runs Cúirt. Its residency programme is open to artists of every discipline and career stage. A residency lasts up to four months and comes with a bursary, mentoring for emerging artists, and a desk-based studio at 47 Dominick Street. The centre teaches classes too, and its youth arts programmes include literature.

The Galway Writers' Workshop founded Crannóg in 2002, and Galway City Council supports it. Each print issue carries short fiction, poems and an author interview; Crannóg Online adds essays and reviews. New issues are launched with public readings at The Crane Bar on Sea Road.

The College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies brings researchers from around the world to Galway for short visits, between May and September, that build collaborations with University of Galway academics. The scheme particularly encourages links with the College's Signature Research Areas. Fellows receive seed funding and subsistence. They also get protected research time and access to the University's library and archival collections.

The Irish Research Council is now part of Research Ireland, formed in 2024 when the Council merged with Science Foundation Ireland. It funds researchers in all disciplines through linked schemes for postgraduate, postdoctoral and principal-investigator work. Look at New Foundations and COALESCE as well.

Lisa Frank and John Walsh founded Doire Press in Connemara in 2007. It publishes poetry, fiction and plays, and its anthologies include Galway Stories. The press looks for new and emerging writers exploring what it means to be Irish in a time of social change.

Cló Iar-Chonnacht publishes books and music in Irish from An Spidéal, west of Galway city. Its books run from fiction and non-fiction to children's and young adult titles and resources for learning and teaching Irish, and it records traditional music and song. The press also keeps an Irish-language bookshop in An Spidéal.

Wordsonthestreet has published fiction and poetry in Galway since 2006. It publishes Crannóg on the magazine's behalf.

Journal of Social Care publishes original research and critical literature reviews on social care work, along with practice reflections and book reviews; its readers are managers, practitioners and students. The editor is at the University of Galway. Technological University Dublin hosts the journal on its ARROW repository. Preparing an article for Journal of Social Care

The Arts Council gives this bursary to professional writers working mainly in English, and comic book artists and children's picture book makers can apply too. It buys time to research and write by covering financial commitments for a set period. Track record counts most in assessment. Promise and potential are weighed as well, and writers in Irish have a parallel award.

Cúirt runs this prize in poetry, short fiction and the essay, with an Irish-language category as well. It is for writers who have yet to publish a full book in the category they enter, and international writers can apply. Winners read at the next festival in Galway.

Galway City Council's Arts Office gives this bursary to creative practitioners based in Galway City. It supports new work and the growth of creative and professional practice.

Professional artists living in County Galway can apply to this scheme at any career stage and in any artform. It can fund the research, development or presentation of new work, as well as short-term mentoring, residencies and courses. Materials and outside expertise count when they are integral to making the work.

Gerry Kenny opened the bindery in 1974, and he and Caroline Kenny run it now. They bind theses, and they also make finely bound, hand-tooled leather books. It is open Monday to Friday, mornings only on Friday.