17/02/2025
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Orson Welles, soon to become one of the foremost actors and filmmakers of the 20th century, arrived to Galway in 1931 as a 16-year-old aboard the SS Baltic on a trip to travel around Europe and, breaking with his planned itinerary, decided to disembark.
'I decided impulsively to disembark at Galway. I must say I don't regret it. If I had gone on to Cobh, I should have missed Connacht entirely - the West Coast of Ireland is unknown and unbelievable.
In all Europe and the Western Hemisphere there is nothing to approach it - in this Americanised three-quarters of the globe, it is unique - the last frontier of romance.'
Welles then bought a donkey, which he named Sheeog, which he rode from Galway to Donegal and on to the Giants' Causeway in Co. Antrim. He ended up selling the donkey at Clifden Fair before making his way to the Aran Islands.
Of the people of Inisheer, Welles said:
'These are people who produced and flourished in Tutankhamen's time.
I am sure in the South Seas . . . somewhere there may be a forgotten land where eyes are as clear and hearts as open, but nowhere is candour so remarkably combined with intelligence, an intelligence which results from nearly five thousand years cultural background.
Being then fully cognisant of these several underlined wonders - you may gather that my wanderings have brought me to a kind of lost Eden rich in romance and of my little bounteous beauty... I shall find it very hard to leave cottage by the sea for the world of tram-cars and leather shoes I used to know.'
On visiting the Donahue family on the island he said:
'I know and love every spot and every soul on these isles... I left Donahue's after a time and spent an hour or so lying in the sand listening to the sounds of the night - afar off, the crying of dogs and donkeys - the mournful note of a Gaelic ballad and nearer me the wailing of the gulls and the 'wash-wash' of the quiet sea.
It was a clear night tonight - so clear that as I walked back to my village I could make out the brighter stars in the wet strand at my feet.'
For more stories of Galway, see my book 'The Little History of Galway.' In all good bookshops or at:
https://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/1867494645/little-history-galway-ireland-colm
Pictured is Orson Welles outside Leenane Hotel on his 1931 trip; around Ireland.
