Visit Cregg Castle
Galway City
I left my native city of Dublin almost 20 years ago, to live in what was then, a totally strange environment to me. I had only had a fleeting glimpse of Galway prior to moving over but liked what I saw. Most of my friends and family at that time, were making bets that I would be home again in six months. Lucky for them I didn't hold them to their bets or I would have come out very rich. And besides, they are the same people who love to come over for weekends and holidays and, usually can't get enough of it. I could highly recommend Galway City and county to anyone planning a holiday. Especially during the summer months when Galway is alive with almost non-stop festivals. From morning to evening you might find open air entertainment going on between Eyre Square in the centre of the city, down through Shop Street, and on the prom in Salthill. This entertainment is usually free and varies from music (usually to suit most tastes), comedy acts, dancing, story tellers, busking competitions, art and craft displays and lots of foreign troupes displaying their own traditional brands of entertainment (usually a mixture of all of the above). It's never hard to find where the entertainment is, just watch for the crowd.
The fourth largest urban area in the Republic and one of the fastest
growing cities in Europe is Galway City, for almost 1000 years a centre of economic
importance which it owes to the River Corrib which tumbles out of Lough Corrib into Galway
Bay. Tucked away in a sheltered corner of Galway Bay, at the lowest crossing of the
salmon-run Corrib River, the city is a natural trading post betweent he rich inland
country east of the lough and the markets of Europe's Atlantic seaboard.
By 1240, the De Burgo family had built a castle here, around which the town grew up,
prospering through trade with France and Spain. It was controlled by 14 families
that Cromwell called the 'Tribes of Galway'. To this day, Galway is still known as
'The City of the Tribes'.
Only traces of Galway's splendid medieval past survive here and there
among the later buildings erected on the old street plan. The most complete is
Lynch's Castle, on Shop Street, one of the finest medieval town houses remaining in
Ireland. This was once the stronghold of the Lynch family, one of the 14 'tribes',
and proclaims its noble past with a greystone facade, complete with gargoyle, carved coat
of arms and stone mullioned windows. It is now a branch of the Allied Irish Bank,
and is the oldest Irish building used for daily commercial purposes.
Nearby is the Collegiate Church of St Nicholas of Myra, a saint held dear by seafarers.
It was built in 1320 and enlarged and remodelled over the centuries. It has
an unusually broad and open feel to it, and a sober calmness evoked by the grey pillars
and stonework set against the cream-painted plaster. Tradition has it that
Christopher Columbus visited Galway to find out more about St Brendan's voyages prior to
sailing across the Atlantic to discover America in 1492, and came to this church to pray.
The city's trade with Spain was particularly strong and the close association caused the 'Spanish Arch' to be built in 1584 beside the old docks. Next to the Spanish Arch is the Small Galway City Museum, which houses a collection of historical artefacts from the old Claddagh settlement which lay just outside Galway's city walls, and which is now a suburb of the city.
The River Corrib washes the west side of the city. Upstream, a
salmon weir stems its flow. In March and April, huge numbers of salmon mass here in
t he clear water, preparing to jump the weir and run their way up to their spawning
grounds.
Overlooking the salmon weir from the west bank is Galway's most prominent modern landmark:
the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas, completed in 1965.
It is a Renaissance-style building with a copper-green dome and an impressive
interior. Rough hewn grey and grey-black limestone is offset by mosaics around the
rim of the dome and modern stained glass. The apse at the north end contains a rose
window, designed by George Campbell of Dublin, with six main panels: five represent the
mysteries of the Rosary, and the sixth is figure of Our Lady. A bronze statue
beneath the window represents Our Lady holding the infant Jesus. The floor is
surfaced with pale grey, green and red Connemara marble and the barrel-vaulted coffered
ceiling is lined with red cedar.
A short walk to the north are the original building of University College, Galway, founded as Queen's College in 1846 and imitating Oxbridge colleges in style. Nearby is the renovated, tiny one-up one-down family home of Nora Barnacle, wife of the novelist James Joyce (1882-1941), in the Bowling Green.
Visit Cregg Castle