Galway has experienced dramatic population growth in a generation, from about 26,000 at the end of the sixties to over 60,000 today. This has resulted in the creation of large suburban areas around the old city. Thus any approach to Galway by road will be through extensive, and rather featureless, built-up areas. Most visitors coming by road will come by the N from the east, passing three hotels and a hospital. The number of houses showing a 'B & B' sign is striking; Galway has a long history as a holiday resort. (The actual resort area is at Salthill, on the west-side of the town.) One of the least-striking buildings on this route is the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, a featureless cement box behind a playing pitch. While attempts have been made to beautify the entrance, it is the side of the building that is visible from the main Dublin road, a featureless slab of concrete with a small ribbon of glass, totally without charm. This is a pity, given the quality of much of the work that is done there.

Continuing on past this area, the visitor will either veer left, which takes you around by the docks past a large area of wate that looks like a lake but is actually an offshhot of Galway Bay (Lough Atalia, the Salt-Lake), or approach the city centre by way of College Road, passing the Galway Greyhound Track and into Eyre Square.

This square should be the centre-piece for the city, but it is a sorry remnant of what it was. Formerly it was a handsome traditional city square, surrounded by tall cast-iron railings, with a good number of mature trees giving the town a cool green heart, until Galway Corporation decided to 'improve' it. The railings and the trees were removed, one side was paved for no particularly obvious reason; the other three sides were cut back to allow for car-parking. At the paved end a couple of cannon were set up , and recently a sculpture suggesting the sails of a Galway hooker was added. Opinions are divided on the merits of this, but Galwegians seem to like it. At the centre of the square stands a feeble attempt at a raised bed, growing a few bedraggled shrubs, weeds and its quota of cans and other litter. The rest of the square consists mostly of battered-looking patchy grass and a few small scrawny trees. The whole area conveys an air of disillusion and neglect, a far cry from what it once was. There has recently been some talk of the Corporation taking it in hand and putting it to rights. The history of the Corporation's stewardship of the square has not always been a happy one.