Seattle Galway
Sister City Association
www.SeattleGalway.org


Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin paid an official visit to Galway, Ireland, in September, 2008.

Having a Luncheon Meeting in Galway in September 2008 are, from left, Galway Mayor Pádraig Conneely, Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin, Galway City Manager Joe McGrath and Galway City Director of Services Joe O'Neill.
Click HERE or above photo to see more wonderful photos from Richard and Sue Ann Conlin's trip to Ireland in September 2008.

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SEPTEMBER 2007 TRIP TO GALWAY

Click here to see MORE PHOTOS from the Galway Visit.

In September 2007, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels spent four days leading a sister city delegation to Galway on his first ever visit to Ireland. Among the events specially organized for the Seattle delegation was a reception and dinner in their honor, and Mayor Nickels was also a special guest at the Galway Oyster Festival Parade and at the Oyster Festival’s Gala Ball. A tour of Connemara was also arranged for the Seattle visitors and the Mayor’s party also visited the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher in Co. Clare.

Despite Seattle and Galway being Sister Cities since 1986, it was the first time that a Seattle Mayor had ever visited Galway. The visit occurred 25 years after the first official Seattle Galway contact in September 1982 when a group of 18 Seattleites traveled to Ireland looking for an Irish Sister City. That group met with the Mayors of Dublin, Limerick, Waterford, and Cork, and even with Lord Iveagh, the head of Guinness! They arrived in Galway in the middle of the Oyster Festival, and had a meeting with Galway’s Deputy Mayor Mary Byrne. Upon their return to Seattle, the group’s consensus was that, of all the Irish cities visited, Galway had the most in common with Seattle. It took four more years until the Seattle Galway sister city relationship was finally formalized in 1986.

The Mayor's Visit to Tipperary

Click here to see MORE PHOTOS from the Tipperary Visit.

While in Ireland, Mayor Nickels also visited Thurles and the nearby village of Gortnahoe, Co. Tipperary. His great-great-grandparents, William and Catherine (Carney) Ryan, were born in Thurles in 1822 and they later moved to Gortnahoe from where they emigrated to the US in 1852, settling in Illinois where Greg Nickels was born in 1955. Mayor Nickels and his wife Sharon and daughter Cary were welcomed to Gortnahoe by a group of schoolchildren and parishioners led by the local Parish Priest, Canon John O’Rourke, who had done extensive research into the Mayor’s links to Gortnahoe. Mayor Nickels even met a distant relative of his, Anna Hayden, who, like the Mayor, is a descendant of the Carneys of Gortnahoe.

Later Mayor Nickels visited Thurles where his great-great-grandparents were born in 1822. He was greeted there by the Mayor of Thurles, Michel Grogan, and by the Archbishop of Cashel & Emily, Most Rev. Dermot Clifford, who gave him a tour of the Cathedral of the Assumption where the Mayor’s great-great-grandparents were baptized. He also toured the town’s Famine Museum before heading on to Galway.

For more information on the Seattle Galway Sister City Association, email seattlegalway@irishclub.org.

Click to hear "The Fields of Athenry", Co. Galway!

The Bronze Marker on the Galway Stone in Seattle with the arrow pointing in the
true direction of Galway. The monument is located at 2200 Alaskan Way, on the
east side of Alaskan Way beside the Bell Street Trolley Stop, and across from
Pier 66 on Seattle's waterfront.

Eyre Square, Galway
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MORE SISTER CITY PHOTOS

Click for
PHOTOS OF GALWAY

GALWAY,IRELAND
(Population approx. 65,000)

Galway and Seattle formalized their 
Sister City relationship in 1986.

Galway City, Capital of the West of Ireland, is now the
third largest city in the Republic of Ireland and is the
fastest-growing city in Europe. While Galway is an 
ancient city which celebrated its quincenntenial in 
1984, it is also a very modern city with three of every
four houses in Galway today having been built since 1960.

Galway is a University city with a strong local economy
with complementary business sectors including 
manufacturing industry, tourism, retail and distribution, 
education, healthcare, and services including 
financial, construction, cultural, and professional. 

The Galway area holds many attractions for both Galwegians
and visitors alike: its unique location on Galway Bay 
with Connemara and the Aran Islands to the West, its 
lively vibrant city center with traditional medieval streets,
its extensive shopping and business facilities, its youthful
population and its living culture of music, theater 
and language ensure its enduring appeal. That appeal
attracted over 1 million tourists to Galway in 2000,
with 35% of them from the US.

To mark the Seattle Galway Sister City relationship, a stone 
monument was unveiled in Galway in 1993 that carries on a
bronze marker the geophysical data of Seattle – it’s elevation,
latitude, longitude, great circle distance, true bearing and time
zone progression. Additionally, an angled facet on the side of 
the stone was cut to the precise chord angle directed from Galway 
to Seattle, and another bronze marker with an arrow indicates 
the shortest distance from Galway to Seattle through the earth. 
A similar monument was unveiled in Seattle in 2000 carrying the
geophysical data of Galway, and with an arrow pointing back
to Galway. That monument is located on the east side of
Alaskan Way at the Bell Street Trolley stop, opposite
Pier 66. An annual student-exchange exists between the
University of Washington and University College Galway. These
and other local activities strengthen the ties that bind
us to Ireland, whether they are ties of birth, of ancestry or 
of interest.

Galway Mayor Brian Walsh,
who visited Seattle in April 2006.

SEATTLE GALWAY
SISTER CITY ASSOCIATION
COMMITTEE
Mick McHugh, President
Lynne Berry, Vice-President
John Keane, Secretary
John Costello, Treasurer

For additional information on the
Seattle Galway Association,
call John Costello on 206-725-9543 
or email SeattleGalway@irishclub.org.

A Seattle-Ireland Sister City delegation in Dublin in 1982, meeting with Lord Iveagh,
the Earl of Guinness, at Guinness Brewery Headquarters in Dublin.
L-R: Robert Julien, Mick McHugh, Alf Collins, Fr. William Treacy, Tom Keefe,
Lord Iveagh, Ed Devine, John Keane

Galway Deputy-Mayor Mary O'Byrne with Seattle Deputy Mayor Tom Keefe 
in Galway in 1982, when a delegation from Seattle first visited Galway 
on a mission to select an Irish Sister City for Seattle. Also in the picture are 
Seattle delegation members Mary Shriane on left and John Keane on right.

In 1991, a Seattle-Galway Sister City delegation met with Irish President 
Mary Robinson at Áras an Uachtaráin (the Irish White House), in Dublin. 
President Robinson is on the right and also in the picture are John Keane 
on left, Maureen Keane in the background, and Maureen Peterson (in the middle)
 from the Spokane-Limerick Sister City Association.

In 1993, a stone monument was unveiled in Galway to mark the Seattle Galway
Sister City relationship. The unveiling was done by Seattle City Council President
George Benson and Galway Mayor Padraig McCormack. Above, members of the
Galway City Council in their red robes listen as George Benson, Seattle City Council
President, and Mick McHugh, the Seattle Galway Association President, answer
 questions about the significance of the monument.

A close-up view of the stone monument unveiled in Galway in 1993 to mark 
the Seattle Galway Sister City relationship. The unveiling was done by Seattle
City Council President George Benson and Galway Mayor Padraig McCormack. 

In 2000, a stone monument was unveiled in Seattle to mark the Seattle Galway Sister
City relationship. The unveiling was done by Seattle Mayor Paul Schell, Irish
Consul General Kevin Conmy and Galway Mayor Declan McDonnell, who are 
shown here examining the monument following the unveiling.

The Bronze Marker on the Galway Stone in Seattle with the arrow pointing in the
true direction of Galway. The monument is located at 2200 Alaskan Way, on the
east side of Alaskan Way beside the Bell Street Trolley Stop, and across from
Pier 66 on Seattle's waterfront.

Galway Mayor Declan McDonnell (standing at rear)
in 2000 with John Keane, Dónal McKevitt, and Mick McHugh
at a Galway Association Dinner at Bellevue's Jake O'Shaughnessey's.

Girl Scouts, Totem Council, at the Galway Stone in Seattle in March 2002. In February 
2002, this group of 17 Girl Scouts and 10 adults visited Kilkenny, Cork and Galway
 during their 10-day trip around Ireland where they met with over 120 Girl Guides.

The Girl Scout leaders at the Galway Stone in Seattle, with Irish Consul General
Donal Denham who was visiting from San Francsico..

The Front Line of March in the 2002 St. Patrick's Day Parade included Honorary 
Grand Marshals Gordon and Kitty Jacobsen, US Congressman Jim McDermott, 
Speaker Emeritus of the State House of Representatives John L O'Brien, US 
SenatorMaria Cantwell, Irish Consul General Niamh Ryan, Jim Sheehan,
Irish Government Minister Tom Kitt, and Parade Grand Marshal Tom T O'Keefe.

In March 2002, Galway Mayor Donal Lyons and US Senator Maria Cantwell
were the official starters of the St. Patrick's Day Dash in Seattle.

Irish Government Minister Tom Kitt visited Seattle as part of a delegation in
March 2002 and participated in most of the celebrations surrounding St. 
Patrick's Day 2002. He is shown here before the St. Patrick's Day Parade 
with Seattle Galway Association members Alice and Brian Gannon-McKinley.

The Mayor of Galway, Councillor Val Hanley, leads Seattle's 2003 
St. Patrick's Day Parade along with Parade Grand Marshal actor Tom Skerritt,
and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels

 Galway Mayor Val Hanley, Tom Skerritt, John Keane and Eileen Hanley
at Seattle's 2003 Irish Week Festival at the Seattle Center 

 Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels with Galway Mayor Val Hanley

John Keane, Seattle-Galway Association Secretary, Mayor Terry O'Flaherty 
of Galway, and Mick MgHugh, Seattle-Galway Association President, 
in Galway in September, 2003

PAST EVENTS

GALWAY ASSOCIATION RECEIVES 
THE SEATTLE SISTER CITIES AWARD

The Seattle Galway Sister City Association was awarded 
the Annual Seattle Sister Cities Award 
for "Best Single Project - 2000" by the City of Seattle. 
The project was the installation of a stone monument on
Seattle's waterfront, opposite Pier 66, to mark the 
Sister City bonds between Seattle and Galway (see below
for more information on the monument unveiling). 

Also vying for the award this year was the Seattle-Pecs 
Sister City Association which sent the Seattle Youth
Symphony to Hungary in 2000, but the three judges 
unanimously chose the Galway Association's project because, 
in their words, the project was "imaginative and 
innovative, setting a new trend for others; it was most 
unusual; it involved a half dozen or more community groups
and organizations; it made more people aware of the Sister
City connection; and the public location of the monument 
will continue to draw people's attention." 

Seattle Mayor Paul Schell presented a plaque to the 
Seattle Galway Association during a ceremony at
the ACT Theater. Thanks and congratulations to 
all those involved in the project.

MILLENNIUM IMAGES 
IRELAND AND AMERICA 

Fourteen Irish artists, from Galway and from
Belfast, have left Seattle following a very 
successful exhibition of their works and those
of twenty-six other Irish painters, printmakers
and fiber artists. The works were exhibited in 
the Seattle area during the month of September at
the Washington State Convention and Trade Center
and at various other locations in Seattle and 
Port Townsend. Tom Byers, the deputy Mayor of 
Seattle, represented the city at a reception at
the Gallery on September 15 and the Seattle-Galway
Association hosted a dinner for the visiting artists
the same day. For more information on the exhibitions, 
email the Seattle Galway Association. or contact
Barbara Pitts, 3515 E Marion St, Seattle, WA 98122 
or email Barbara@pitts.net

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GALWAY STONE UNVEILING

The Mayor of Galway, Councillor Declan McDonnell, 
and the Irish Consul General, Kevin Conmy, joined
Seattle Mayor Paul Schell in unveiling the Galway
Sister City Monument on Tuesday, June 27, 2000, on 
Seattle's Waterfront. After each briefly addressed
the crowd of over 100 people present, the Rev. 
Barry Keating and Fr. John Madigan gave an invocation
and the stone monument was unveiled to loud applause. 
The sculpture, carrying the name and geophysical 
data of Galway - it's longitude, latitude, distance, 
etc. - was created to acknowledge the formal ties 
of friendship between the city of Seattle and it's 
Sister City of Galway, Ireland, and is located on 
the east side of Alaskan Way near Pier 66, at 2200
Alaskan Way. It mirrors the Seattle Stone, carrying
the name and geophysical data of Seattle, which 
was unveiled in Galway in 1993 near Galway's 
waterfront on a site located between the historic 
Spanish Arch and the Jury's Inn. 
A reception was hosted after the unveiling by 
the Port of Seattle, and the Seattle Galway 
Association later hosted a dinner at F X McRory's 
to honor the Mayor and the Consul General. 
The Mayor of Galway was accompanied to Seattle by 
his wife Mary and by Robert Curley, who is an 
Administrative Officer with the City of Galway. 
The Consul General was accompanied by Eamonn McKee, 
Irish Embassey Press Officer, based in New York. 
Earlier in the day, the party from Galway and the 
Consul General were given a VIP tour of the new 
Experience Music Project, Paul Allen's new high-tech
Rock 'n Roll museum at the Seattle Center. 

Following is the inscription on the stone's descriptive
plaque, in Gaelic and in English:
____________________ 

Is cuid de bheartas marc-airde speisialta an leaht 
seo, a tógadh ag Caidreamh Cathrach Deirféarach
Seattle - Gaillimh, deartha ag an ealaiontóir 
cáiliúil Don Scott (1937-1982). 
Ar aghiaidh an leachta, tá léargas 
ar mhion-eolas tíre Chathair na Gaillimhe 
le feiscint.
Ag an am céanna, tá leacht eile 
i gCathair na Gaillimhe ar a bhfuil marcanna 
tíreolaíochta Chathair Seattle 
leagtha amach. Is comhartha poiblí iad 
an dá leacht seo a dhaingíonn an
dlúth-cheangal agus an chairdeas speisialta
atá ag fás idir muintir an dá chathair.
Is féidir linn líne fí 
or-dhíreach a tharraingt ó ghrua 
cearnach an leachta atá suite i gCathair 
Seattle go dtí an uillinn grua chomhfhreagarthach
ar aghaidh an leachta atá i gCathair na 
Gaillimhe agus ciallaíonn an líne 
seo an fhaid is gaire idi an dá chathair 
trí cheartlár an domhain.
Tógtha ag
Caidreamh Cathrach Deirféarach Seattle-Gaillimh

Meitheamh 2000
____________________ 

This stone, marked with the geophysical data of 
the city of Galway, is part of a Seattle Sister Cities
Benchmark Project designed in 1984 by Seattle artist
Don Scott (1937-1985). 

Similar to another stone in Galway marked with the
geophysical data of the city of Seattle, this stone
acknowledges the formal Sister City bonds between 
our cities and the ties of friendship between our citizens. 
The angled facet on the side of the stone marks
the chord angle through the earth from Seattle 
to Galway. This chord angle, and another on the 
corresponding stone in Galway, indicates the shortest
distance between our two cities, which is through 
the earth in the precise direction of the arrow.
Erected by 
the Seattle Galway Sister City Association 
June 2000
____________________ 

For information on the Seattle Galway Association, call John 
Costello on 206-725-9543 or email SeattleGalway@irishclub.org.

The Irish Government's International Directory 
Information About Ireland
Working in Ireland, Setting up a Business there
Visiting Ireland, Buying Irish goods, etc.

CITY OF GALWAY

The New Information Portal for Galway City

OVERVIEW OF GALWAY by Seattle's TDA

CITY OF SEATTLE WEBSITE