Galway is a great place to live and work.

When I arrived to Galway from British Columbia in 1993 both Linux and Java were in their infancy. I had heard of neither - and why should I have - I was a carpenter.
Engaged to a Galway girl (there ain’t nothin’ like them, lads!), I was at that time entitled to a work permit, and went down to the Mill Street Garda station to get one. The conversation with the garda went something like this:

me: Hi, I am engaged to a Galway girl and I’d like to get a work permit.
garda: Where are you from?
me: Canada.
garda: What do you do?
me: I’m a carpenter.
garda: Go back to Canada, there’s no work here.

The following year I traded hardwood and softwood for hardware and software. Wow that was almost fifteen years ago.

The job situation is different here now. There are jobs for Java developers in Galway, and yes foreigners are welcome (permission to work in Europe is required).

Some of the companies I am aware of who have recently been hiring Java developers in Galway include:
Applepie Solutions (us)
ATFM Solutions
Celtrak
Cisco Systems
Duolog
Fisc Ireland (Fidelity Investments)
Nortel Networks

Know of other companies looking for java developers in Galway? Let me know and I’ll add a link here.

Our own company provides software consulting and development services and I was interested in collating a list of other indigenous Galway companies offering these services. To compile the list I started off at the ITAG website, and followed the links to the various companies. I excluded from the list any companies which appear to be either very small (fewer than 5 employees) or inactive (website not operating).

If your business is seeking in particular a Galway based software consulting partner, you may be interested in making contact with some or all of these firms:

Applepie Solutions: (Our company) Application development and software consulting
Storm Technology: .NET based enterprise applications development and systems integration
Traventec: Software for the travel industry and bespoke software services
Metalogic: IT Consulting, Software Development, Database Management, IT Managed Services
Genbase Solutions: Systems Integration, EBusiness Solutions, Management Reporting, Data Migration and Management
Avaeon Solutions: IT consulting and development services for the financial services industry
Vulcan Solutions: CRM and Enterprise Systems for Financial Service Companies, and software development

If you think your software consulting business should be listed but isn’t, please add it in a comment below.

Applepie Solutions is looking to hire a keen java software developer with a couple of years experience; the successful candidate will be involved in designing and implementing software solutions for business.

Galway is a good place to live and also a good place to start or continue your software career. There is a good mix of indigeneous and international companies involved in the software industry, and a healthy technology community. Here is a list of some of the multinational software companies based in Galway and what they are doing here:

HP (USA) Software and software services
Nortel (Canada) Research and development of telephony software.
Cisco (USA) Research and development of voice technology
SAP (Germany) Sales and customer support for SAP business software.
IBM/Vallent (USA) Telecoms software development
Siebel/Oracle (USA) Siebel CRM software development and support
Intec (USA) Telecoms software development and support
NetIQ (USA) Software for e-business infrastructure management
Micros Fidelio (USA) Applications for hospitality and specialty retail industries
Graham Technologies (UK) Contact centre CRM software
FotoNation (USA) Imaging and connectivity software for digital photography
FISC Ireland (USA) Software solutions for Fidelity Invesments.
Lion Bridge (USA) Translation, Localisation and Outsourcing

Please add a comment if you are aware of others that fit into this category.