In the mid fifties, the corporation began to build the houses that make up what we now know as Old Mervue. Many young families moved to the area, and for the children, the open green areas in from Plunkett Avenue, and between Clarke and McDonagh avenues, became their playgrounds. They played all kinds of games here… Gaelic football, athletics, and especially soccer. It was on these green spaces that many well-known footballers first developed and honed their skills.

Parents began to take a serious interest in the development of the game, and the idea of forming a soccer club to focus and foster the energies of their children eventually became a reality during the summer of 1960. A meeting was held in the house of Hyacinth Darcy in McDonagh Avenue, attended by Willie Kilkelly, Frank Kelly, Jimmy O’Connor, Joe Flaherty, and Tom Darcy. Also there to represent the underage section were two juvenile players, Jackie Keane and Declan McDonnell. And so, Mervue United AFC was formed. Tommy Darcy was elected chairman, Hyacinth Darcy was president, Jimmy O’Connor was the secretary, and Willie Kilkelly became treasurer. Joe Flaherty was made the club representative on the Galway FA.

Busking is the practice of performing in public places for tips or gratuities. The earliest buskers in Galway were probably singers who would sing on the street, and then knock on doors in the hope of getting money or food. In the early 20th century, Johnny Doran and his family would move around playing in different places, including the races, and then in the evening outside the Imperial Hotel. Paddy Philbin, who later became a dancing master, would dance for him and they drew big crowds. Later came the Reaney brothers who played in various locations in Galway city and county.

Many families going to the races would place themselves at The Móinín with their flasks and sandwiches. Musicians often wandered playing in their midst and hopefully collecting.

The Dunne brothers were sons of John and Mary Dunne, members of an extended family boasting many famous musicians and singers. Christy, a bachelor, played the banjo. He had knobbly fingers and played with a thimble. Joseph played the fiddle and banjo, was married, and had children. Michael played fiddle and was married. They were known as The Blind Dunnes because they all had cataracts and appeared blind. In those days it was difficult to get a job with bad eyesight. They were Travellers who went all over the country from Cork to Donegal by horse and caravan, playing at fairs and football matches, stopping at towns along the way to busk. They were a fixture in Galway for many years during the races, stayed in Joyce’s lodging house in Mary Street, and played outside Fallers in the morning, at Ballybrit in the afternoon, and outside the Oslo Hotel in the evening. They often sat in on sessions in Larry Cullen’s pub in Forster Street.

There was a very good ethnological study on the fishermen of the Claddagh published in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology in 1854, which among other things stated that: “The people of the Claddagh are, in my opinion, purely Irish, of the most ancient Celtic type. The village at the present day is like any ordinary Irish village, and that it was a mud city when Rome was being founded, is more than probable. That the Claddagh men are not Spaniards any one might see at a glance; and it is astonishing to me how the theory of their Spanish origins could have kept ground for so long. A Spanish face may still be seen in and about Galway — once in a week or so; but it appears to me that the Claddagh, above all other people, had no intermarriage with Spaniards.

“In proof of this, their present names are nearly all Irish; such as Connolly, O’Connor, O’Flaherty, O’Donohue, Murphy, Mullaly, O’Halloran, O’Donnell, Griffin, Grainey, Tierney, Rainey, Moran, Bradley, O’Rourke, O’Brien.

“The Christian names are generally scriptural; as John, James, Peter, Luke, Michael, Matthew, Paul, Joseph; also Patrick, William, Dominick, Austin, etc; Catherine, Mary, etc. But they have this remarkable peculiarity, that there are so many persons of the same name that they are distinguished (in the Irish language) by the names of fishes as thus, Jack the hake; Bill the cod; Joe the eel; Pat the trout; Mat the turbot, etc; or Jack the trout, Jack the salmon, Jack the whale, Jack the sprat, etc.