"The Twelve", "The Twelve", "The Twelve ....."
Whenever you're in Galway you'll hear ”The Twelve” repeated in casual conversation in bars and restaurants in the city centre and throughout the villages of Salthill, Barna, Spiddal, Inveran, Rossaveal, Carraroe, Roundstone, Clifden and beyond.
Like many another visitor, you may find it puzzling. What does 'The Twelve' mean? What are they talking about?
The Twelve Apostles?
The Twelve Days of Christmas?
The Twelve Labours of Hercules?
The Twelve Tribes of Israel?
The Twelve Tasks of Asterix?
The Twelve Olympian Gods and Goddesses of Greek mythology?
The Twelve – an American comic book from Marvel Comics?
The Twelve – a novel by Stuart Nevilles?
The Twelve – a 1970 film directed by Mel Brooks?
The Twelve Sullivans – a traditional Irish folk group?
The Twelve signs of the zodiac?
None of those twelve!
'The Twelve' is a multiple award-winning Galway Hotel located in Bearna (Barna), the gateway to Connemara.
Its name, 'The Twelve', refers to the 'Twelve Pins' or 'Twelve Bens', a small mountain range of sharp-peaked quartzite ranges located northeast of Roundstone in Connemara.
James Joyce would surely have approved of the name 'The Twelve Hotel'.
Anthony Burgess, in 'Finnegans Wake – What It's All About', had this to say:
“There are twelve months in the year, and these will give us the twelve Sullivans or Doyles, customers in HCE's bar but also twelve apostles and twelve jurymen, always ready to give ponderous judgment in polysyllables ending in "-ation". Their number, as with a jury, is more important than their names, which are always changing: when we meet a catalogue of apparently new characters, it is enough for us to take breath and count: we shall usually find the same old twelve."
Learn that off by heart and the next time you're in 'The Twelve Hotel', you can regale your audience with your esoteric knowledge.
Who knows? You could have twelve disciples before the night is out!
