Yeats Tower & Coole Park

Above taken in Coole Park not far from Thoor Ballylee, home of William Butler Yeats, below. The tower had to be restored before Yeats could live there in 1919 with his wife and daughter. Yeats mentions Ballylee in a letter to Maud Gonne in May 1918

' We hope to be in Ballylee in a month and there I dream of making a house that may encourage people to avoid ugly manufactured things - an ideal poor man's house. Except a very few things imported as models we should get all made in Galway or Limerick. I am told that our neighbours are pleased that we are not getting 'grand things but old Irish furniture

After the Yeats family moved out in 1929 it fell into disuse , but was restored as 'Yeats Tower' in 1965 and fitted out as a Yeats museum.

More from this day here

Galway Salsa Congress

They did their entire performance Blindfolded!

Adrian y Anita (Uruguay & Brasil) The strongest, most flexible and elegant woman I've ever seen.

Junior & Emily (USA). The fantastic sibling duo, have recently performed on America's got Talent and previously came second place in the World On2 Salsa Championship. She certainly can spin, Fantastic!

Henry Herrera & Partner(Miami) So much energy and fun.

The 3rd Galway Salsa Congress was a huge success, with big international stars performing and teaching all weekend. The workshops were very good and the performances were jaw dropping. I'm fairly bruised and worn out after that weekend, but looking forward to next year already :)

Thanks Anna and Vitor for putting it all together!

Sarah and Andrae

Happy Halloween!

Yummy

Can't beat a yummy hot chocolate :)

Kinvara peoples

From the festival in Kinvara. Everyone was in great form and the atmosphere was brilliant. For more go here.

Website now live

Just launched the new website for Gerry Costello, a Galway based Wedding photographer. I've been working on it for a few weeks and happy now that he is happy with it. Any feedback would be welcomed.
See the site here:
http://www.gerrycostello.ie

:)

Cruinniu na mBad 2

More from the Cruinniu na mBad festival in Kinvarra here.
Below: Raising the sail of one of the Traditional Galway hookers.

Cruinniu na mBad

Cruinniu na mBad, meaning "Gathering of the Boats", is a festival held in Kinvara, Co. Galway in August each year. It's a celebration of times past when the Galway Hookers used to transport turf/peat to Kinvara. These are a few characters I spotted in the crowd this year.

Some from tonight

The views from the bay of Renville West near where I live in Oranmore. It was nice dry evening today, but a lot of the light was gone by the time I made it here. I enjoyed taking them anyway, hope you like.

Dee :)