The Black Gate: the return of a familiar music venue for Galway

By Ella Horgan

The Black Gate is a vibrant cultural centre and music venue based in Galway City set to re-open in Spring 2025. Following a campaign by its directors, the Galway Flood Street location is eager to open its doors.

The Galway Pulse team had the chance to discuss the story of The Black Gate with Peadar King, a co-director of the venue. The directors include Peadar King, Eamonn Day Lavelle, and Aidan Laffey.

Following its entrance into the Galway live music scene in 2017, The Black Gate welcomed many patrons into what Peadar described as a “community of artists”. Many now well-loved bands were platformed in the early years of Black Gate. Indie Rock band NewDad, who hail from Galway, played their first gig in The Black Gate.

With support from the Department of Arts, The Black Gate team began to run online gigs during the COVID-19 lockdowns, with the intention of returning to hosting at the venue when possible. Following the sale of the building that housed The Black Gate, the team commenced plans to redirect:

“We had it in our heads (then) that we wanted to re-open somewhere else, it just took a bit of time”.

Beyond The Black Gate

In the time that elapsed, The Black Gate continued from many different avenues. “CUMASC: Seisiúin sa Black Gate”, which emerged in 2021 in collaboration with TG4, was a way the directors continued to engage with music and indeed with its loyal musicians. The Coimisiún na Meán funded series showcases musicians from a range of genres in an intimate space. Cork Musician Molly O’Mahony spoke to the Galway Pulse team about her experience on the show, describing it as both “challenging” and “rewarding”,

“Naomi [Berril], my collaborator is an amazingly accomplished musician, so I had to rise to the occasion.”

“As it turned out, we really clicked musically and were both similarly open to each other’s ideas. I think the concept employed in Cumasc is excellent.”

“Being paired up with a musician from a different musical background to one’s own, and having to create something together in a short window of time, are just the kind of high-stakes conditions needed for magic to happen. It felt like a real privilege to be given such an opportunity.”

The Black Gate team are also creators of the “Éire Eile” documentary series about subcultures in Ireland for TG4 hosted by Galway’s own DJ Shampain.

Support for the re-opening

The support for the reopening of The Black Gate has been plentiful and the enthusiasm from former patrons and performers is palpable. With many expressing the welcome feeling they had at The Black Gate, Peadar told the Pulse:

“It’s been nice to feel the return on that years later”.

The team commended the Department of Arts, particularly the recent ministers including Catherine Martin who have “engaged an awful lot” in places like The Black Gate in recent years, with attempts to get things up and running again. The Live Performance Support Scheme (LLPSS), since 2021 is an example of this, supporting the reopening of music venues locally.

A chasm in the support of the live music scene lies in opportunity for smaller artists. While Black Gate has played host to many new bands in its time, it is becoming increasingly different in today’s economic climate.

“There isn’t enough support for these young artists starting out, for both the venues and the artists”

Peadar has highlighted to the Department of Arts that accommodation costs and the price of running gigs for lesser-known artists are a chance that can’t be taken as easily now as compared to five or so years ago. The hope is that the Department will take this on and subsidies can be made available for these types of events, “they’re definitely listening”.

In order to complete the necessary work prior to opening, there has been a callout from the team for help in various ways with supporters pre-ordering pints and purchasing merchandise. Speaking on social media following the completion of their fundraising campaign Peadar reflected on the support saying:

“It has been a heartwarming thing, affirming our belief that the Black Gate has a place in the heart of this community”.

The New Venue

With much of the interior being re-installed from the original venue, King and the team hope to “bring a new lease of life while having a lot of things that will make people remember the old place”.

The new location is certainly more central to Galway’s nightlife footfall, being in close proximity to Quay Street’s array of late bars. While Peadar is positive this will allow more people to discover Black Gate he too believes:

“It’s about creating dynamics within an area of a town and creating different things”

The bar will have regular hours not aiming to compete with the late bar scene and “with a focus on being a more lowkey place to hang out”. The gigs will continue to be held regularly, as they were throughout its closure in venues such as An Taibhdhearc, with space for adapting to its new life on Flood Street. The physical space will be shared between the bar and music venue with attention to soundproofing as the team’s expertise has “grown a lot” these past years. The venue intends to host many well-known acts when the time of re-opening comes,

“All of the artists we’ve picked up over the years for TV, for festivals all want to come back”.

“Artists on a different path”

“We have expanded and moved into TV shows and film, which allows us to work with artists on a different path”.

The Black Gate serves a different purpose to its fellow music venues in Galway. Peadar talks about the good relationship they have with other well-established venues such as Róisín Dubh. Artists often take advantage of the atmosphere in The Black Gate to play smaller shows and try new material and then go on to play headliners elsewhere, “It’s a different type of show”.

More information about the venue can be found on www.blackgate.ie

The Black Gate can be found on Instagram @blackgategalway and Facebook as The Black Gate.