On this day…
A decade on from the arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race into Galway harbour, we can look back with inflated chests as Galwegians came out in their thousands to welcome the 7 Volvo formula 1 racing yachts into our historic harbour.
The nation was on the flat of its back financially, the talk of the ECB, the IMF (Troika) and the bailout was all that could be heard of the airwaves. Yet, the Volvo Ocean Race gave hope to many businesses in that it would inject a much welcomed fiscal syringe full into the economic muscle of the west of Ireland.
For 14 days of uninterrupted blissful sunshine, Galway was the centre of the universe as far as we were concerned and the harbour and city rolled out the red carpet, togged in its Sunday best and amidst the heavy burden of national debt, put on a show that rocked the socks off Volvo management, to the point that they [Volvo] declared Ireland’s stopover in Galway, the most successful in its 36 year history.
Sit back and enjoy this short movie which gives a snapshot of what happened in May 2009 when the ‘boats came in’.
