Free Lunchtime Concert with ConTempo at St Nicholas' Collegiate Church

What to Expect

ConTempo play a free lunchtime concert in St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church on Tuesday 1 September 2026, running from 1:10pm to 2pm. The fifty minute format is built around a working lunch hour: you can walk in from Shop Street, sit through the whole thing and be back out the door before two. There is no charge and nothing to book.

ConTempo are the string quartet in residence with Music for Galway and Galway County Council, and they have been part of the county’s musical furniture since 2003. St Nicholas’ gives them a room that flatters string playing. The church was founded in 1320 and is the largest medieval parish church still in continuous use in Ireland, all cut stone and open timber roof, with the kind of long reverberation that lets a quartet play quietly and still be heard at the back. The lunchtime slot is one of several strands in the church’s autumn music programme, which also takes in the Luminosa String Orchestra on 24 September, harpist Tríona Marshall on 26 September and a Coffee Concert with harpsichordist Michael Shields on 10 October.

Good to Know

• Date: Tuesday 1 September 2026, 1:10pm to 2pm.
• Admission is free.
• Venue: St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, Lombard Street, Galway, H91 PY20.
• Listed on the church’s own events page at stnicholas.ie/events.
• Contact: 089 489 8084 or info@stnicholas.ie.
• The church is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 6:30pm, Wednesday from 11am, and Sunday 1pm to 6:30pm.
• Seating is on church pews, so arrive a few minutes early for a clear view down the nave.

Getting There

The church sits on Lombard Street just off Shop Street, inside the pedestrianised medieval quarter, five minutes on foot from Eyre Square. There is no parking at the church. The multi-storey car parks on the edge of the city centre are the practical option, and a lunchtime slot means the walk in is short. Ceannt Station and the Eyre Square bus stops are both within a few minutes. Drivers arrive via the M6 and N6 from Dublin, the N17 from Tuam, the N18 from Ennis and Limerick, and the N59 from Connemara.