Getting Involved at the University of Galway

Hello!

Much like my brief hiatus from blogging to work on midterms, I have recently finished my finals-induced blogging hiatus and am back with another entry. Our semester at the University of Galway runs for 12 weeks of lecture/class, followed by a 2 week break and a 3 week exam period, which means my final week of instruction was last week.

While class is in session, societies and clubs on campus host events, meetings, fundraisers, and trips. There are over 60 societies (what we would consider the equivalent to clubs) and about 40 clubs (sports teams) on campus, so there’s no shortage of things to get involved with. At the start of the semester, all of the societies get together for an activity fair, and it’s an excellent way to meet people from different societies, hear about upcoming events, and sign up for email reminders.

Over the course of the semester, I attended events from the following societies: African & Caribbean Society (ACS), Lit & Deb, Dansoc, Galway University Musical Society (GUMS), International Students Society, Photography Soc, Granny Soc, and FanSci.

ACS hosts both weekly meetings as well as large-scale public events. The event I attended was their fashion show, which showcased clothing designed by African and Caribbean designers and featured music performances in the breaks between when the models walked.

rows of chairs set up for a fashion show. purple stage lights shining on the seats — ACS’s fashion show

a man in a blue jacket and black pants walking the runway a woman wearing a yellow dress walking the runway

Lit & Deb functions similarly to the speech and debate program back at Linfield (which I happen to be a member of), so I immediately knew I wanted to get involved. Over the course of the semester I attended weekly public speaking workshops and debate events, culminating in an end of year party the last week of classes.

a picture of a pizza box and a piece of paper, with students standing in the background — post-meeting pizza at Lit & Deb! Our workshop of the day was “Frankenstein poems”, where each person completes a different line of the poem

Dansoc, or Dance Society, hosts weekly dance classes and occasional workshops with professional dancers , has audition only competition teams, and puts on a dance showcase at the end of spring semester. I took a six week contemporary dance class, where we learned choreography for a song and performed it at showcase.

a dance space with wooden floors, curtains, and mirrors — Taking a ballet workshop with Dansoc! This is also where we met for weekly classes

a group of dancers dancing to Bollywood music — dance showcase! Performers could watch for free, but we also got the seats facing the back of the performance space

a hip hop dance group, wearing long sleeve white shirts and light blue cargo pants — the hip hop competition team

GUMS holds auditions for about two musical productions a semester. I auditioned for both, and, while I ultimately wasn’t cast, the audition process was still a lot of fun both times.

Katie. a girl with glasses and hair pulled half up and half down, holding a yellow water bottle — Me at auditions

International Student Society hosts events catered towards international students, both those like me who are visiting for a semester, as well as long term international students. They organized a bus tour to explore the Connemara region north of Galway and it was an amazing trip. We stopped in the village of Cong – famous for being the place where John Wayne filmed The Quiet Man – and Kylemore Abbey, an absolutely beautiful castle turned Abbey that doubles as a museum/tourist destination.

two girls in front of a waterfall. The one on the left is wearing a grey "Linfield Wildcats" sweatshirt, a teal rain jacket, and a purple beanie. The one on the right is wearing a grey rain jacket — My friend Franny and I posing in front of a cool waterfall

a girl wearing a grey "Linfield Wildcats" sweatshirt, a teal rain jacket, and a purple beanie in front of a castle — Posing with the Abbey

a river and a turquoise bridge — part of the Abbey grounds

kylemore abbey. a large stone castle across a lake — Kylemore Abbey

a statue of John WAyne holding a woman — The John Wayne statue in Cong

Photography Soc holds events like photo walks and film photography workshops, as well as partnering with other organizations to take professional quality photos. The campus also boasts its own darkroom for black and white film developing, which I was able to get a tour of. I’ve been taking photos this entire trip on a 35mm point and shoot film camera, and to get to learn more about the development process was very neat.

Granny Soc hosts events themed around crafting, and offers weekly knitting, crochet, or sewing lessons, as well as meetings to bring your own projects to.

a hand holding a purple crochet bandanna with a yellow crochet hook — working on a crochet project at Granny soc

Finally, FanSci, or Fantasy and Sci Fi Society, hosts weekly card game events (think Magic: the Gathering), as well as bi-monthly TTRPG (tabletop roleplaying games) or board game nights. These were some of my favorite events to attend, as it gave me the opportunity to learn more board games and meet new people.

the board game crokinole. a wooden octagon with circles inscribed in it and light and dark colored circular wooden game pieces resting on the board — the canadian board game crokinole! It takes inspiration from curling and shuffleboard

the board game wingspan. cardboard game pieces and a blue plastic tray — trying (and failing) to learn how to play Wingspan

The moral of this post is that there are so many ways to get involved on campus, and your level of involvement in any society could be as little as attending one event a semester or as big as going weekly and taking up a leadership role in the society. Especially going from a smaller university with a limited amount of clubs to one with over 60, there were so many more options when it came to getting involved on campus. Getting involved allowed me to explore new places, meet new people, and try new things.

While it may not be as exciting as a travel post, I hope you enjoy this glimpse into my everyday life as a university student in Ireland these past few months 🙂

Until next time!
Katie