Cian takes the helm as iconic festival enters a new phase

The new man heading up this year’s Galway International Oyster Festival can certainly vouch that the molluscs work.

Father of four, Cian Ó Broin, best known in Galway City as the General Manager of the Meyrick Hotel and the man who oversaw the transition of the hotel from its former life as the Great Southern Hotel, is this year’s festival chairman.

In fact, he remembers well that on his first day on the job in the Meyrick, he had just had three hours’ sleep as staff put the finishing touches to the ‘new look’ hotel before it re-opened its doors to the public.

Not everyone liked the ‘black’ decor of the renovated foyer five and a half years ago, but, under Cian’s management, it has been softened over the years and he says it is still a work in progress.

As chair of the Oyster Festival committee, Cian says this year the event is very different with more emphasis on the food aspect and an even bigger effort to make it a family event on the Sunday.

This year’s programme certainly reflects the current economic climate. The corporate market has practically dried up so the committee had to look at inventive ways to keep the festival going, which this year is in its 57th year.

If Cian is fazed about any of this, he doesn’t show it. Part of his professional training is keeping a clear head. He isn’t the General Manager of a four-star hotel for nothing!

He has certainly earned his stripes along the way, having worked hard as a teenager for Cavistons Food Emporium in Sandycove, Dublin, then studying hotel management in the RTC (now the GMIT), honing his skills in Black Forest in Germany and starting his career in hotels as an Assistant Manager in the Connemara Coast Hotel many moons ago.

He met his ‘Galway Girl’ while he attended college and has been gradually establishing his roots here in the West ever since.Dublin born Cian speaks beautifully, a reflection of his upbringing. His mother is Councillor Jane Dillon Byrne, a Labour party member and member of the Rathdown/Dún Laoghaire Council, who has been in politics for as long as Cian can remember.

He candidly admits that he even changed his name to the Irish version after he went to Coláiste Eoin so he could be his own man. His Dublin neighbourhood is akin, he says, to Wisteria Lane, though unlike the street in US series, Desperate Housewives, nobody really knows their neighbours. All the houses have long avenues leading from locked gates to the door and the identity of the neighbours read like a who’s who of magnates, developers and politicians.

He has a grá for the Gaeilge from his school days and is looking forward to refreshing it when his children (he has four under the age of five with wife, Marie, nee Grealy from Maree, Oranmore) go to school. 

“I love living out the country. We live near my in-laws’ farm and my children are used to hens, cows, goats and I even milk the cows myself some evenings. I can’t imagine rearing a family in Dublin. The quality of life down here is great.

“Sure everyone in Dublin thinks I have the life of Reilly down Quay Street every weekend! And let them think it. Isn’t it great that this is the image people have of Galway. . . though I’m not sure we should be encouraging the hen or stag party brigade. In the long run, I don’t believe that is the image we should be creating for Galway. We should be focusing more on the cultural side,” he says.

Cian was very involved in the Christmas Market in Eyre Square last year and is involved again this year, as the Meyrick is like the Grande Dame overlooking the festivities.

“We learned a lot from last year’s event and I believe we can improve on it this year. It will be shorter for a start but will cover four weekends. It will also look even prettier with a picket fence all around the Square. 

“There was some criticism of the number of food stands in last year’s Christmas Market but I believe that’s what saved it. I have been to Christmas markets on the Continent and I believe having one in Galway is appropriate. There’s nothing wrong with attracting over 60,000 extra people into the city coming up to Christmas!”

You can see when he is talking that Cian sees the bigger picture when it comes to what’s good for Galway’s tourism market. Of course, the Meyrick is well placed overlooking the Square, just beside the bus, coach and train stations but he appreciates that the branding of Galway is ultra important to tourism and that the only way to sustain it, is to have a cohesive plan.

For more, read this weeek's Galway City Tribune.