Town Crier Liam Silke is a popular sight at special occasions in Galway City.  Wearing medieval clothing and ringing a bell, his booming voice alerts people to what’s happening. He’s been doing this since the 1980s when he returned to his home town after a successful hospitality career in the UK and Dublin. He shares the joys and sorrows of his life with BERNIE Ní FHLATHARTA.

Once upon a time the Town Crier was the be-all and end all of any self-respecting town, as this was how public announcements were made, long before newspapers, broadcasters or social media provided round-the-clock news.

There are no official town criers left in Ireland and Liam Silke in Galway City is rare in that he still dons the medieval jacquard jacket (or frock coat) and tricorn hat, and rings a bell to mark special occasions.

Just turned 84, it’s some feat for Liam whose booming voice still stops people in their tracks.

Of course, the town crier’s services are no longer required from a practical point of view but the sight of Liam in full character on the city streets is an impressive one.

And while he doesn’t take himself too seriously, he enjoys the role and intends continuing it as long as he’s wanted.

Liam returned to his native city in 1989 to take up a lectureship in GMIT (now ATU) after a successful hospitality career in the UK and Dublin, including years as a restaurateur in Dalkey. There, he founded the King of Dalkey Festival, helping to put the seaside village on the map when it was Dún Laoghaire’s poor relation.

Liam has good memories of those years in the 1970s and ’80s, when he and his wife Niamh were rearing their three children and enjoying the fruits of their hard work.

It feels like another time, a different world, he says, adding that he was lucky to have found a new chapter on his return to Galway.

Liam was one of seven boys (a brother Patrick died in infancy) born into a family that ran a wholesale business and a sweet factory in the city. They also had a restaurant called The Marian Restaurant on William Street, where Liam was introduced to hospitality. He worked in all the businesses but this was his favourite.

“I started working in the family business during school holidays. We all worked in the family business,” he says.

“I was educated in The Bish and was a boarder in Mungret College in Limerick and, as a very young man, just turning 16, I joined the FCA and was commissioned in 1961 to Collins Barracks in Cork.”

He also went to university, where he studied Arts and Commerce, ‘as Gaeilge’.

“The Gaeilge wasn’t my strong point and after enjoying almost a year playing rugby for the college, I applied for a place in the Shannon School of Hospitality,” he recalls.

He loved his Shannon years. As well as giving him a great education, it was where he met his future wife and mother of his children. After graduating, they went their separate ways but met again by chance in London when both were based there.

He completed internships in Switzerland and Sweden before moving to England, where he got a job with the Trust House Forte Hotel Group in the 1960s, becoming its senior trouble-shooter.

His eight years with Trust House Forte gave him great experience of life as well as the hotel business.

“I loved it. They had 124 hotels all over Scotland, England and Wales and I was constantly travelling until I was offered a managership in the Royal Hotel Great Yarmouth.”

He stayed there for two years.

“I used to plan my life ahead, giving jobs five to seven years. By then I was married to Niamh and starting our family, and my wife decided we should return to Ireland.”

He got a job with the Burlington Hotel in 1972 and oversaw the opening of what was then the country’s biggest conference centre. He continued with the Doyle group until he opened his own restaurant, Nieve’s, in Dalkey in 1978. The family left their house in Dún Laoghaire to live above the restaurant, which they operated for 16 years.

The move to become his own boss was instigated by a violent incident at a hunt ball in the hotel where Liam worked. Without raking over old coals, it left him feeling vulnerable, as his managerial post included overseeing drink-fuelled events.

The incident left him angry, not only at the man who assaulted him but at the judicial system, including the Gardaí.

“I knew it was time to change. We lived in Dún Laoghaire but I used to drink in Dalkey. I got to know the village and when the one good restaurant there closed, I saw the opportunity.”

Pictured: Town Crier Liam Silke. PHOTO: JOE O’SHAUGHNESSY.