The Creatures in My Mind, a colourful and curious collection of watercolour paintings of humanoids by Lily Johnston, will open in the Courthouse Gallery in Kinvara this Friday, July 18, at 7pm.

The works on show “straddle the line between dream and reality, vulnerability and voyeurism”, according to Lily, who describes her paintings as “curious and deeply personal”.

Through this collection of otherworldly humanoid figures, mythical creatures and fantastical settings, Lily is inviting viewers into a surreal psychological landscape – one shaped by imagination, introspection and a search for solace through creative expression.

“These paintings come from somewhere between curiosity of the unknown and making sense of the past,” the artist says. “They are versions of myself and others – sometimes watching, sometimes being watched. Painting them is how I cope with my internal and external anxieties. It’s how I make sense of everything I carry inside.”

Each piece in The Creatures in My Mind offers a glimpse into this internal dialogue, she adds of the “soft, fluid forms that simultaneously soothe and unsettle.

“These figures are expressive but ambiguous, like characters from dreams half-remembered”.

What begins as an intimate exploration of Lily’s own inner turmoil unfolds into a shared emotional experience – one that she hopes will resonates with anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed, isolated or lost in a dream.

Her favourite medium is watercolour and she feels the mix of bright colours, washed-out tones and miniscule details in the work “adds to the mystical ambiance of each piece”.

The Creatures in My Mind explores identity, other dimensions and the therapeutic process of making art. It’s “an invitation to pause, look closer, and connect with the quietly strange beauty of the human condition”.

The show runs in Kinvara’s Courthouse space from this Saturday, July 19, until Saturday, July 27, 11am to 5pm daily.

Pictured: Kinvara artist Lily Johnston: ‘Painting is  how I make sense of everything I carry inside.’

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

You’d almost admire the neck with which Galway City Council offers retrospective justification for its ill-thought-out multi-million-euro move to Crown Square.

The local authority’s latest ‘evidence’ to support its purchase of a new headquarters in Mervue, was contained in propaganda issued last week.

It was all part of a media charm offensive – that included guided tours for reporters of the building shell – ahead of another crucial vote by councillors to approve more borrowing last Monday.

An unknown chunk of that new €60m loan will fit out the building the Council purchased in 2022, also with borrowed money to be repaid by its long-suffering citizens.

The press release said: “The need for new civic offices was identified in a Local Government Audit Service 2017 Value for Money Report, which found that City Hall was over-capacity compared to other local authorities, at 2017 staffing levels – which have since increased.”

Let’s leave aside, for now, a report in last week’s Galway City Tribune, in which trade union Fórsa claimed the new offices won’t be big enough to accommodate the Council’s expanding workforce.

You’d have to wonder why this 2017 Value for Money report wasn’t shared with the public or councillors immediately before they voted to borrow €45.5m to buy the building three years ago.

It was not mentioned during the Monday, July 2022 meeting when councillors approved the loan; nor was it contained in a report ‘Office Accommodation Proposals’, circulated to councillors on the Friday before that meeting.

Perhaps it was referenced at individual meetings that the then Chief Executive Brendan McGrath had with each councillor ahead of that vote, which, we know through Freedom of Information (FOI), were not minuted.

Imagine some poor civil servant was tasked with trawling through official documents and reports. And imagine they stumbled across something from eight years ago – and from five years before the vote to approve the loan to buy the building – which the Council has now introduced for the first time in public discourse,  to portray that moving out of College Road was the plan all along, since 2017?

Sorry now, that might wash with naïve councillors who’d cling to anything to justify their decisions, but the public will not tolerate rewriting history.

The facts are that councillors were given a report recommending the purchase of Crown Square on Friday July 8. Three days later, they approved a loan that saddled Galway’s citizens with 30 years of debt, costing €1.6m in yearly repayments for a building that has since lost €8m in value.

And they’ll pay for it through increased property tax, increased commercial rates and increased rent on social housing.

The Council didn’t have public consultation and did not invite public Expressions of Interest to see what other buildings were out there before it purchased Crown.

Last Monday, it doubled down on that decision, by approving another loan, which will cost €93m, or €3.1m per annum for 30 years.

That the Council bundled the new HQ’s fit-out costs in with other infrastructure projects – sweeteners to make the decision more palatable – was a cynical act by an organisation that is losing trust of the people it is employed to serve.

Pictured: An image of the Council Chamber sent out as part of Galway City Council’s charm offensive last week.

Fiona Murtagh is well used to making a splash in the world of rowing, having claimed medals at national, European, World, and Olympic levels, but she did so in an unusual fashion at the Irish Rowing Championships last weekend.

The Galway woman – who won Olympic bronze with fellow Galwegian, the now-retired Aifric Keogh, as part of the Irish crew in the Women’s 4s at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 – was leading the way in the final of the women’s single sculls in the Sunday morning session when misfortune struck.

Rowing in what was a strong crosswind, she was about 500 metres from the finish line when she lost the grip on one of her oars after it clipped the water, and her boat tipped over. There was some concern as for a short spell she appeared to have been caught under the boat, before surfacing and then being taken out of the water.

“My blade [oar] clipped the water and just shot out of my hand. It was like a bullet. And by the time I realised it was out of my hand, my face was in the water,” she explained of the incident.

“My heel restraint was quite tight, so my ankle got stuck. I was stuck under the boat for a bit, which was a little bit scary. But the safety launches are great.

“That was my first flip in a single. And it’s been captured on TG4 and on YouTube and on national television – we can teach the kids flip drills [with the video],” she laughed.

However, in a display of her undoubted class as an athlete, she came back to race in the women’s eight final for University of Galway in the evening session, and stroked them to a victory over a Skibbereen/Trinity composite.

That women’s eight win was not the only Galway success over the weekend, which opened on Friday with Siobhan McCrohan of Tribesman BC claiming the second title of the day, crossing the finish line first in the Women’s Lightweight Single Sculls. She went on to finish seocnd in that race in which Murtagh capsized.

The evening session on day one saw eight finals taking place, with Galway success in two of them: Coláiste Iognáid won the Men’s Junior 18 double sculls final; while University of Galway took gold in the Men’s Club 4s.

There were three Galway wins on Saturday, with Zach Meegan of University of Galway taking the Men’s Intermediate Single Sculls in the morning session; the college club took the Men’s Intermediate Double Sculls; and Galway RC landed the Women’s Junior 16 8s, later in the day.

The final day of racing saw Coláiste Iognáid take the Men’s Junior 18 4+ title; and University of Galway won both the Men’s Intermediate Double Sculls and the Men’s Intermediate 4s; before Murtagh rounded off a bizarre weekend by leading home the college club in the Women’s Senior 8s in the Sunday evening session.

Pictured: Fiona Murtagh pictured after the Women’s Single Sculls semi-final at the 2025 World Rowing Cup in Lucerne last month. Photo: Benedict Tufnell/Sportsfile.