Heritage Week Talk: Digitising a Unique Heritage Collection

What to Expect

Between the 1970s and the early 2000s, William Henry and John Monahan recorded roughly 180 historical and cultural lectures in Galway, capturing academics and authors of local and national standing on cassette. Galway City Museum has since received Heritage Council funding to digitise the tapes, clean up the audio and build a bilingual searchable catalogue so the collection can be used by researchers and the public for free. This talk, on Saturday 15 August 2026 from 12pm to 1pm, is where the project gets explained.

Brendan McGowan, the museum’s Education Officer, and local historian and author William Henry present it together, which means you get the archival side and the original recordist’s side in the same hour. They cover the background to the collection, how the digitisation was actually done and what happens to the archive next. It is an illustrated talk aimed at adults, and it opens the museum’s National Heritage Week programme, which continues the same day with a biodiversity walk at Grattan Beach at 1pm and a talk on sean-nos song manuscripts from Pennsylvania at 3pm.

Good to Know

• Date: Saturday 15 August 2026, 12pm to 1pm.
• Venue: Galway City Museum, Spanish Parade, Galway, H91 CX5P.
• Speakers: Brendan McGowan, Education Officer, and William Henry, historian and author.
• Admission is free but places are limited and advance booking is recommended.
• Book by email to Museum@GalwayCity.ie or by phone on 091 532460.
• Suitable for adults.
• Part of Galway City Museum’s National Heritage Week 2026 programme.

Getting There

Galway City Museum is on Spanish Parade beside the Spanish Arch, at the river end of Quay Street and a five minute walk from Shop Street. There is no museum car park. Use the multi-storey car parks around the edge of the city centre and walk in, and allow extra time on a Saturday in August when the centre is at its busiest. Ceannt Station and the Eyre Square bus stops are both about ten minutes away on foot. Drivers arrive on the M6 and N6 from Dublin, the N17 from Tuam, the N18 from Ennis and Limerick, and the N59 from Connemara.