From this week’s Galway City Tribune – Salthill has been awarded a Purple Flag for the first time, which is an internationally recognised thumbs up for the night-time economy.

The village now joins Galway City, which has retained the accolade since 2015.

Galway City Council said judges were impressed by Salthill’s “excellent choice of pubs and restaurants”, the number of venues promoting alcohol-free socialising and activities, and “a solid sense of community amongst the businesses there”.

Pete Kelly, manager of the business organisation, The Village Salthill, brought the UK-based judges on a tour of the resort on a Saturday evening four months ago when the place was buzzing.

“The Purple Flag is not just about everything coming alive at 12.30am. We’re different from the city in that there are no late-night bars here per se, there are other parts to it in a family-friendly resort like Salthill,” he explained.

“We brought them to Leisureland, went to a café for a coffee, had a bite to eat in a bar/restaurant, brought them to the cinema and then onto the leisure side of Seapoint – as opposed to the casino –where there are games for basketball, car driving, pool tables that help when the weather isn’t with you.

“They liked the involvement with the community Gardaí. They like how we use the park for community events such as we had on St Patrick’s weekend.”

This is a shortened preview version of this column. For more Bradley Bytes, see the April 14 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.