Cathair na Gaillimhe - City of Galway

Early Days

Dún Bhun na Gaillimhe ("Fort at the Mouth of the Gaillimh") was constructed in 1124, by the king of the ancient Irish province of Connacht Tairrdelbach mac Ruaidri Ua Conchobair. This naval base of the Kings of Connacht is recorded as being attacked in in 1132 and 1149 as the Kings of Connacht rose to win the Ard Rí position of rulers of the entire island. Following an unsuccessful week-long siege in 1230, Dún Bhun na Gaillimhe was captured by the Anglo-Norman adventurer Richard Mór de Burgh in 1232. Over the following century Galway thrived under de Burgh (de Burgo) patronage, becoming a small strongly walled town in the face of repeated sacking by Gaelic Irish forces. After the sundering of the de Burgh dynasty in 1333, Galway sought its independence, receiving a murage charter (authority to build a defensive wall) from the English Crown in 1396.

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A City State

Galway endured difficult relations with its Irish neighbours. A notice over the west gate of the city, completed in 1562 by Mayor Thomas Óg Martyn fitz William, stated "From the Ferocious O'Flahertys may God protect us". A bye-law forbade the native Irish (as opposed to Galway's Old English citizens) unrestricted access into Galway, saying "neither Ó nor Mac shall strutte nor swagger through the streets of Galway" without permission. Much of this antagonism was based on competition for control of trade between the rest of Europe and the vast hinterland of Connacht and beyond. The city grew wealthy on trade in such items as wine and animal hides. During the middle ages, Galway was ruled by an oligarchy of fourteen merchant families (12 of Anglo-Norman origin and 2 of Irish origin), the 'Tribes of Galway. The city thrived on international trade. In the middle ages, it was the principal Irish port for trade with Spain and France. There is a legend of uncertain truth which claims that Christopher Columbus, on a trip to Iceland or the Faroe Isles, found signs of land beyond the Atlantic Ocean in or near Galway in 1477. During the many 16th struggles for independence fought by Gaelic society against the expanding reach of English rule and colonisation the city benefited from the trade in smuggled goods. The population of medieval Galway is thought to have been about 3000.

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Decline

After the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Galway was in a delicate position, caught, in effect between the Catholic rebels (Confederates) and an English garrison ensconced in a fort just outside the city. Eventually, Galway citizens, who were predominantly Catholic, went against their garrison and supported the confederate side in 1642. The fort was besieged with the aid of Confederate troops until it surrendered and its garrison was evacuated by sea. During the 1640s, Galway was heavily fortified against an expected counter-attack by English forces, which eventually materialised when English Parliamentarian forces re-conquered Ireland in 1649-52. Galway surrendered to Cromwellian forces in 1652 after a nine-month siege; plague and expulsions of Catholic citizens followed. During the Cromwellian occupation the city was used as a slavery port from which tens of thousands of Irish were shipped the new English sugar island of Barbados as forced labour. After the demise of the English Commonwealth and the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Catholics recovered some lost ground and the economy of Galway recovered somewhat. In the next crisis, centred around the deposition of the Catholic King James II, in 1689, Galway supported the Jacobite side. It surrendered without a siege under the articles of Galway of 1691 after the annihilation of the main Jacobite army at the nearby battle of Aughrim. Thereafter, the city become somewhat of an economic backwater, and the capital of its old great families were spent overseas. The Acts of Settlement and of Explanation caused major upheavals, as peoples from east of the Shannon were transplanted to Connacht and tried to slip back. It took about 300 years for the city to regain its former status.

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18th century

After the 17th century wars, Galway, as a Catholic port city, was treated with great suspicion by the authorities. Legislation of 1704 (the Popery Act) stated that no new Catholics apart from sea-men and day labourers could move there. On top of that, when fears arose of a French invasion of Ireland in 1708 and 1715 (during a Jacobite Rising in Scotland), all Catholics were ordered to leave the city. The Corporation, which ran Galway was also confined to Protestants. This is all the more surprising given that a 1762 census showed thatof the town's 15,000 or so inhabitants, only 350 were Protestants. The persecution of Galway's old Catholic merchant élite meant that trade declined substantially, and the once busy harbour fell into disrepair. Local traders compensated somewhat for this by smuggling in goods like brandy through gaps in the town walls.

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19th century

Galway's economy recovered somewhat from the late 18th as the Penal laws were relaxed. However the city's rural hinterland suffered terribly in the Great Irish Famine on the 1840s. Unlike other urban centres in 19th century Ireland, which experience an explosion in their populations, Galway's population actually declined such was the devastation wrought by the famine. The second half of the century saw some improvement in Galway's position however, as the railway lines reached the city in 1850.

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20th century

Galway city played a relatively minor role in the upheaval in Ireland from 1916-1923. In 1916, during the Easter Rising, Liam Mellows mobilised the local Irish Volunteers in the area to attack the Royal Irish Constabulary barracks at Oranmore, just outside Galway, however they failed to take it and then dispersed. During the Irish War of Independence 1919-21, Galway was the western headquarters for the British Army. Their overhwelming force in the city meant that the local Irish Republican Army could do little against them. The only initiatives were taken by the University battallion of the IRA, who were reprimanded by the local IRA commander who was afraid they would provoke reprisals. This fear was not without justification, as the nearby town of Tuam was sacked on two occasions by the Black and Tans in July and September 1920. In November 1920, a Galway city Catholic priest, Fr. Michael Griffin was abducted and murdered by the British forces. His body was found in a bog in Bearna. Galway businessmen launched a boycott against Northern Irish goods from December 1919 onwards in protest against the mob and police attacks on Catholics in Belfast, a protest that later spread throughout the country. In the Irish Civil War 1922-23, Galway saw little fighting, as the city and its military barracks were occupied by troops of the Irish Free State's National Army. In 1972, part of the city center was destroyed by fire. The area involved the southern-west corner of Eyre Square, where the Bank of Ireland used to be situated.

06:29 - Céadaoin 3ú Nollaig 2008