Galway Racecourse
Records dating back to the mid thirteenth century show organised race meetings in County Galway, when, what were known as ‘horse matches’, were run under ‘King’s Plate Articles’.
The first racing festival held in Ballybrit was a two-day event beginning on Tuesday, 17th August, 1869. Forty thousand people turned up to attend the race meeting. To cater for the crowds who arrived into the city in the lead up to the festival the public park area in Eyre Square was set up as a campsite. The Galway Races have continued to form a vital part of the Irish summer and the city still comes to a standstill during the week of racing. The Galway Races are the fourth largest racing festival in the world and have been immortalised in both poetry and song.
In 1929, radio broadcasting of horse racing commenced. In the same year the Curragh, Derby and Galway Plate were broadcast on radio, and, in 1963, television broadcasting began. Corporate sponsorship of races and race days began in 1959 when the Galway Races were extended to a three-day meeting. In the following decades the Summer Festival was extended so that it is now a seven-day event.
Sometimes the most historic occasions that take place in a sporting site are not sporting events. It is estimated that 280,000 people went to Ballybrit for the papal visit in September 1979. There were 77 concelebrants, 200,000 communicants with 800 priests distributing communion and 4,000 stewards.
In June 2004 state-of-the-art facilities were added to Galway Racecourse, including a new weigh-room, media centre and administration building. Three years later Taoiseach Bertie Ahern officially opened the Killanin Stand on the 9th July, in time for the Summer Festival Meeting. The Killanin Stand, a steel structure, was built at a total cost of €22 million and designed by EPR Architects. At ground level it has a standing area with a capacity for 3,000 people.
The photographs have been supplied by the Galway Racecourse.
