A plaque with poetry by the late Gerry Dawe has been returned to its perch in Galway City centre after spending years in ‘safe keeping’.

Galway City Council in recent weeks re-erected the limestone plaque featuring Dawe’s poem ‘The Tribune’, on the former offices of the Connacht Tribune newspaper, the focus of the work.

It was unveiled in 2013 at the façade of the newspaper’s offices and print works on Market Street, as part of the Galway Poetry Trail.

In recent years, the plaque was removed during renovation works carried out on behalf of PorterShed, the new owners of the former Tribune building.

Galway City Tourism Officer Ruairí Lehmann confirmed this week that the plaque had been re-installed in recent weeks after a longer-than-expected delay.

Distinguished poet Gerry Dawe died last May aged 72.

The poem refers to the ‘dropping-off’ of copies of the Connacht Tribune to newsagents throughout the county.

“News that travels is never late,” is among the poem’s memorable lines.

The Galway Poetry Trail is a series of plaques dotted around the city featuring writings about the places in which they are situated.

Plaques can be found on the wall of Richardson’s Pub in Eyre Square, featuring the poem ‘Men with Tired Hair’ by Rita Ann Higgins; at Nimmo’s Pier in the Claddagh, featuring ‘Galway’ by Louis McNeice; and on the Salthill Prom, featuring ‘Fear na Lasraí’ by Máirtín O’Direáin and ‘Haiku’ by Little John Nee.

It’s a joint initiative by Kennys’ Bookshop, Galway City Council and Cúirt International Festival of Literature.

It has been added to annually since the first plaque was installed in 2005.

Mr Dawe was a contributor to the Tribune’s ‘Writing in the West’ literary supplement that encouraged and promoted new writers and poets in the 1970s and 1980s.

‘The Tribune’ was part of Mr Dawe’s ‘In the Country’ sequence of poems that appeared in his second collection The Lundy Letters, published in 1985.

The Connacht Tribune is now based in Liosbán. Portershed, a new tech hub, occupies the renovated Market Street building.

Pictured: Poet Gerald Dawe unveiling the plaque at the offices of The Connacht Tribune in 2013, with the then Mayor Cllr Terry O’Flaherty and right, the plaque back to its original location at the Portershed on Market Street.