| Spiddal An Spidéal |
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| — Village — | |
| Spiddal pier | |
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Spiddal
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Connacht |
| County | County Galway |
| Elevation | 5 m (16 ft) |
| Population (2006)[1] | |
| • Village | 1,357 |
| • Urban | 247 |
| • Environs | 1,110 |
| Time zone | WET (UTC+0) |
| • Summer (DST) | IST (WEST) (UTC-1) |
| Irish Grid Reference | M130225 |
Spiddal (Irish: An Spidéal, meaning "the hospital")[2][3] is a village on the shore of Galway Bay in County Galway in Ireland. It is 19 km (12 mi) west of Galway city on the R336 road. Spiddal is on the eastern side of the county's Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking district) near Connemara, and is a tourist centre with a scenic beach, harbour, and shore fishing.
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The Mac Proinnséas shop is a combined newsagent's, grocery store, post office, and petrol station opposite Cill Éinne (St. Enda's Church) in the centre of the village. There is also a pharmacy, a bank, and Feeney's butcher shop. Restaurants include a Supermacs fast food outlet and a Chinese restaurant called The Oriental Kitchen. On most weekend nights and sometimes during the week in summer, there is live traditional Irish music in the pubs, most of which double as restaurants. Hughes' pub hosts traditional music sessions where famous musicians sometimes play. An Crúiscín Lán is a hotel, pub, and restaurant. The Boluisce is a pub and seafood restaurant named after a local lake, while other pubs are An Nead and An Tobar. There is a craft centre and gallery called An Ceardlann to the east, and bed and breakfast accommodation can be found around the village.
Once a year, Spiddal welcomes thirty American students spending a semester abroad at the nearby Park Lodge Hotel. The students, from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University in Collegeville Township, Minnesota, spend the autumn months studying Irish literature and culture. The village is served by Bus Éireann route 424 from Galway City.
The local river, known variously as the Owenboliskey, Owenboliska, or Spiddal River (Irish: Abhainn Bhoth Loiscthe), flows south from Boliska Lake and enters Galway Bay at Spiddal.[4]
Each summer, groups of teenagers visit Spiddal for three week Irish courses. Like the rest of the Gaeltach, Spiddal's traffic signs are in the Irish language only; bilingual Irish-English signs are the norm in the rest of Ireland.
The Irish folk-influenced music group The Waterboys recorded part of their Fisherman's Blues album in Spiddal. The television series Ros na Rún is filmed in Spiddal and shown on TG4.
The local GAA club is CLG An Spidéal. Gaelic football and hurling are the most popular local sports, and there are also karate and sailing clubs in the village.
Spiddal Pier (Lapwing Press, 2009) is a book of poems by Deirdre Kearney, grand-daughter of Felix Kearney, one of County Tyrone's foremost songwriters and poets. The poems cover a diverse range of topics, including a visit to a death camp near Berlin, a trip to a Beijing hutong, her memories of growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and a scene she witnessed at Shannon Airport when American soldiers suddenly filled the departure lounge.
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