Galway
Synge was sent to the west of Ireland by Yeats with instructions to listen, and the west gave him a language for the stage. Riders to the Sea and The Well of the Saints are built out of speech he recorded on the Aran Islands, and his travel book about those visits is one of the best accounts we have of a way of life that was already disappearing.
Galway was a merchant town with strong connections to the islands and to the Atlantic economy. The university library holds local-history and Irish-language material, and the archives are a better starting point than the tourist trail for anyone interested in what the Congested Districts actually were.
A library to check
- University of Galway Library — catalogues and digital collections, open to readers online
Books connected to Galway
- Riders to the Sea — John Millington Synge, 1904. A one-act tragedy with no wasted word, and the best introduction to Synge's ear for speech.
- The Well of the Saints — John Millington Synge, 1905. A comedy about the cost of a miracle, and Synge's most underrated play.
- The Aran Islands — John Millington Synge, 1907. A travel memoir that doubles as a writer's notebook, and the source of Synge's stage language.
A note on accuracy
We describe literary connections and public collections, not street addresses, opening hours or ticket prices. Those change and we cannot verify them for every reader. Follow the institution's own site for current visiting information.