Galway City Busking Festival, Ireland 1985

Galway strengthens a growing reputation as a busking destination by hosting a festival for street performers.

Over 200 groups and individuals came from all of Europe for the Second International Galway Busking Festival. Many hitch-hiked for hundreds of miles in unusually good weather. According to Anthony Ryan, President of the Galway Junior Chamber of Commerce, the atmosphere in the city was electric.

Jim Fahy reports from Eyre Square where a group have come together for a spontaneous midday session. Busking is part of the annual Eyre Square Festival, with a prize of £1,000 for the best performers.

The life of a street performer may seem a precarious existence, but for Mary O’Sullivan, an accordionist from Miltown Malbay, its appeal is that:

I really enjoy playing on the street, because I love to get a crowd, you know just passing by, who suddenly stop and listen because it takes their attention and you know, that you can entertain people just like that in one moment.


An RTÉ News report from 23 August 1985. The reporter is Jim Fahy.