Heritage Week Talks at Galway City Museum

What to Expect

Galway City Museum programmes two talks for National Heritage Week on Saturday 15 August 2026, both free and both in the museum on Spanish Parade. The first runs from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM and covers the digitisation of a unique heritage collection: roughly 180 historical and cultural lectures recorded between the 1970s and the early 2000s, an archive of spoken material that would otherwise sit unheard on obsolete tape.

The second talk, from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM, looks at sean-nos song in Pennsylvania between 1884 and 1935 through the Reverend Daniel J. Murphy manuscripts. Murphy transcribed more than 1,200 sean-nos songs among the Irish emigrant communities of the American northeast, a body of material that records what people were actually singing rather than what collectors in Ireland thought they should be. Both talks sit alongside the museum’s current exhibitions, including Survivor Stories, made with the University of Galway, and Faces of Galway 1988 to 1989, an outdoor photography show by Suzanne Ahearne. Places at Heritage Week events at the museum are limited and advance booking is recommended.

Good to Know

• Saturday 15 August 2026 at Galway City Museum, Spanish Parade.
• Talk 1, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM: Digitising a Unique Heritage Collection.
• Talk 2, 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM: Sean-nos song in Pennsylvania 1884 to 1935, the Reverend Daniel J. Murphy Manuscripts.
• Free admission, but places are limited and booking ahead is recommended.
• Bookings and queries: Museum@GalwayCity.ie or 091 532460.
• Part of National Heritage Week. The museum’s permanent galleries and current exhibitions are also free.

Getting There

Galway City Museum is on Spanish Parade beside the Spanish Arch, at the point where the Corrib meets Galway Bay, about seven minutes’ walk from Eyre Square down Shop Street and Quay Street. It is entirely in the pedestrianised core, so there is no parking at the door. The nearest options are the Jury’s, Corrib Great Southern and Eyre Square Centre car parks, all within ten minutes on foot. City bus routes from Salthill, Knocknacarra, Renmore, Oranmore and Ballybrit all serve Eyre Square, and Ceannt bus and rail station is about a ten minute walk away.