Galway 2020 gets off to a suitably stormy start. Plus, the home-improving power of Parasite
Thanks to Ed Sheeran’s song Galway Girl, this year’s European capital of culture has widespread name recognition. And for the first time,
Brussels has selected both a city and its surrounding county. The hope is that Galway will fare better than
UK city of culture Derry over the
Irish border, did in 2013. Visitor numbers there were disappointing, with little subsequent “cultural legacy”.
Galway 2020 kicks off today, International Women’s Day, with Margaret Atwood and Jan Carson among the writers and artists talking under the banner of “Wild Atlantic Women”. Having just been to Galway, I can vouch that the coast is very wild, and from Saturday, Savage Beauty, an ambitious light display over a huge area of the Connemara mountains, will run until St Patrick’s Day.