A 23-year-old man has died following a single vehicle crash in Shannongrove, Banagher. The crash took place at approximately 00.05 yesterday morning.

Gardaí have said that that the 23-year-old man was fatally injured when the car he was driving collided with a wall. He was the sole occupant of the vehicle.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene and his body was taken to Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe.

The flags are flying.

Galway Pride festival began today with an enormous LGBT pride flag being unfurled at Eyre Square at 1.30pm.

There are a plethora of events planned throughout the week, and tonight sees the celebrations hit the Róisín Dubh with the official launch party beginning at 7.30pm.

The biggest event of the week will be the parade, beginning at 2pm on Saturday.

Grand Marshall for this year’s celebrations is Cameron Keighron, who described it an an ‘honour’ to have been given the position.

“I hope to give visibility to the most margianliaed sections of our community and use this opportunity to highlight the fights that lie ahead,” he said.

Pride is a celebration of our diversity and I am excited to share it with you,” Mr Keighron added.

The Guards aren’t known for their good sense of humour.

And this week, they have hammered that fact home, with possibly the poorest tweet we have ever seen.

Obviously, the Races is a week of craic and drink and well-dressed individuals from far and wide.

It seems that the Gardaí, caught up in this positive atmosphere, decided to try an alternative way of getting their message across, with this shockingly un-punny tweet.

Looking for a few 'Tips' for the #GalwayRaces.? Get on all of these and you’re onto a winner! #TipTuesday Don't gamble with road safety pic.twitter.com/e9HTPKN441

— An Garda Síochána (@GardaTraffic) August 1, 2017

Though reaction to the tweet appeared to be largely positive, this is probably because most people coudn’t be bothered even commenting on such nonsense.

Stick to policing lads, yeah? Comedy really ain’t your bag.

Galway’s Shop Street is ripping up its cobble stones, because too many people are tripping over them.

The casualties include a woman in her sixties who broke her two front teeth and another woman in her eighties who broke her cheekbone.

The number of people getting hurt has increased since the council started doing repairs on the paving which was laid down 20 years ago.

The Irish edition of The Times says the city council is looking at other options for the pedestrian area but work is unlikely to start this year.

€10,000 has been approved for the controversial greenway between Galway and Dublin.

The greenway came under the spotlight earlier this month over concerns that compulsory purchase orders could be used to force farmers to divide up their land for the development of the route.

Nationally, a substantial €11.4 million has been approved for the funding of 219 rural recreational developments, the Department of Rural and Community Development also announced.

As well as greenways, the multi-million euro package will also be used to support ‘small scale’ projects like blueways and tourism trails, which have a maximum funding of €10,000.

This will also fund some ‘large scale’ national projects, including €1 million for the Slieve Bloom Mountain Bike Trail – the highest amount available.

The Gaza Kids to Ireland are coming back to Galway!

A group of children from the Palestinian territory will be playing in Kinvara on Monday, 31st July at 3pm, in what will once again be a joyous occasion.

Incidentally, Kinvara became the first town in Ireland to boycott Israeli goods, as pro-Palestinian activist Joe Loughlane recently pointed out in an interview .

Kids from Al Helal Academy in the Gaza Strip, described by some as an ‘open-air prison’, will be playing matches in many towns and cities across Ireland in the coming days.

After being in Ballybrack, Co. Dublin today, they will make their way west tomorrow, and take to Killina pitch in the afternoon.

Last year, Israel blocked the children from leaving Gaza for their scheduled trip, and they were required to postpone and reschedule their entire trip when their permits were finally granted in late July.

But upon arriving in Ireland, the trip was successful, highlighted by thier meeting with President Michael D. Higgins.

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JP McMahon has backtracked on his promise to close his Galway restaurants during this years races, however his Michelin starred restaurant Anair will close.

The chef and restaurateur took to Twitter last year to vent his anger at the behaviour of some during one of  Galway’s busiest periods.

Abusive customers. Drunk and disrespectful. People pissing and vomiting on door. I'll close the restaurants for #GalwayRaces next year.

— Jp McMahon (@mistereatgalway) July 29, 2016

McMahon said that after eight people did not show up, which is one third of his small restaurant, it was not worth it to open this year.

Aniar is renowned for its high-class food and wine and during the Galway Races, and its big window facing Dominic Street Lower can sometimes be a window to another world from the fine-dining experience inside.

Did JP Make the right call? Share and tell us what you think.

The city and suburbs are top of the tree in Ireland when it comes to single people, new census figures have revealed, with over half of residents unmarried.

There were 66,461 persons aged 15 or over in the settlement of Galway city and suburbs of which 35,278 (53.1%) had a marital status of single.

There were 17,119 (54.1%) single males and 18,159 (52.1%) single females – leaving a total surplus of 1,040 gentlemen!

Nationally,  41.1% of the population aged 15 and over, accounting for 1,544,862 people, were single.  Over one-third of single people (36%) lived in cities, 34% lived in rural areas with remaining 30% in urban areas excluding cities.

Just under 40% of people living in Tuam are single, while the figure for Cliften is just over 40%, which is more in line with the national average.

Remarkably, two-thirds of Barna residents are married, with only 238 (33.3%) single males and 257 (32.8%) single females.

It must be remembered however that ‘single’ actually means unmarried, and the true number of singles is rising and falling every day.

And to those approaching their 53rd birthday: well, 53 is the peak age for separation and divorce.

Take from that what you like!

There has been an extraordinary deterioration of the homelessness situation  in Galway, where there are now 50 people sleeping rough each night.

There are also in the region of 50 homeless families, including up to 100 children, and 45 single person households in emergency accommodation in the city.

“This is an unprecedented situation in Galway,” explained Martin O’Connor of COPE Galway.

“The most obvious manifestation of the crisis are the numbers of people who can be seen bedding down in shop doorways in the city centre at night time but what most people in our community don’t realise is that there are so many people, families and single person households, trapped in emergency accommodation for weeks and months at a time as they cannot find and secure housing”.

Mr O’Connor went on to explain that homeless services in the city are stretched to breaking point and that there are very real concerns about the coming autumn and winter period and how the city can address this situation.  “There is a lot of really good work happening in terms of intervening early to help prevent someone becoming homeless and there is a steady stream of allocations of social housing, but it feels that this is hardly making a dent on the large numbers coming through our doors”, he said.

COPE Galway is calling on Minister Donohoe and his colleagues in Government to take whatever measures are necessary to build additional social housing, including increasing the capital budget provision and both resourcing and supporting local housing authorities and approved housing bodies to build this housing.

They also see scope for further measures to be taken to support households who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to compete in the private rental housing market.

“Shortage of supply of housing generally in Galway and, in particular, the shortage of supply of social housing is indisputable at this point and the only way that this can be addressed is through the building of more housing,” O’Connor said.

“We know that there are a range of challenges and obstacles that have to be overcome to bring this necessary additional social housing on stream but ways have to be found to overcome these. Budget 2018 represents an opportunity for Government to clearly demonstrate their commitment and intent to get one with providing these badly needed additional homes for its citizens,” added the COPE spokesperson.

The government is being hypocritical when it comes to voting rights for emigrants, according to Sinn Féin Diaspora spokesperson, Trevor Ó Clochartaigh.

The Galway senator has criticised Fine Gael for advocating the retention of EU voting rights for Irish people in Britain, whilst remaining silent on the prospect of extending the franchise for Presidential elections in Ireland.

Speaking after a number of meetings with representatives of the Irish community in London earlier this week, Ó Clochartaigh said: “It is high time that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirmed his commitment on the government promise to hold a referendum to extend voting rights to Irish citizens abroad and in the north in Presidential elections.”

Extending the franchise to Irish citizens abroad has for some time been a key priority for the senator.

Many other democracies allow their citizens abroad to vote at embassies and other official buildings during elections; however successive Irish governments have been reluctant to do the same.

One obvious reason would be that many in the North would presumably vote for a Sinn Féin candidate in a Presidential election, which is arguably one of the reasons the party is pushing the issue.

Added to this, many Irish citizens abroad have been forced to emigrate during the recession, and would be unlikely to vote for government parties’ candidates.

“[Leo Varadkar] has been very quiet on this since Enda Kenny made a grand announcement in the White House on St. Patricks Day. Minister Simon Coveney also gave a rousing speech at the Global Civic Forum early this year stating that he fully supported the campaign as well. But Taoiseach Varadkar has not responded to Sinn Féin calls to clarify where he stands and the new Minister of State for the Diaspora is extremely quiet on the issue as well,” Ó Clochartaigh said.

“I am concerned that this issue is not a priority for Leo Varadkar and his new cabinet and we need a renewed campaign to ensure that they fulfil the commitment that has been given to the Irish abroad and outline what model they propose and when the legislation will be brought before the Houses of the Oireachtas to facilitate the holding of a referendum to facilitate the Irish electorate making the aspiration a reality if they so wish,” added the senator.

Increased security measures have been taken to ensure public safety during this years Galway Races, from Monday 31st July to Sunday 6th August, following a review of safety procedures with the relevant authorities.

There will be more extensive, bag and physical search procedures for all patrons and staff at all racecourse entrances and there will be a stronger Garda presence throughout the racecourse.

An official statement warned that backpacks and large bags will not be allowed into the racecourse this year and only small bags measuring no bigger than A4 (29.7cm x 21cm) will be permitted to the racecourse and may be subject to search procedures.

There will also be no bag storage facilities in or around the racecourse.

It has also been noted that it is inevitable that access to the racecourse this year will take longer than normal and the Galway Races is asking for understanding, patience and cooperation with its security personnel.

Galway County Council has issued a statement advising people about what to do when faced with suspected bogus callers. The statememnt was released following concerns that people have been receiveing phonecalls from people pretending to be from the Council and Irish water.

The statement read:

“It has been reported from time to time that people are receiving phone calls from people saying they are from the County Council or Irish Water.

“In the event that this happens please ask them for their name and their contact number and tell them that you are going to make contact with the County Council (091 509000) or Irish Water (1850 278278) to verify their identity before you will deal with them.

“If in any further doubt ring your local Garda station and inform them of the call.

“If a person calls unexpectedly and asks to be let into your house please adopt the same approach and do not let anyone in until you are satisfied as to their bona fides.

“A County Council or Irish Water employee will rarely require access to your home so be immediately suspicious and close the door unless you are expecting the person to call.”

Always be vigilant out there folks!