A
Brief History of Galway
Galway was a port as far back as
the Vikings, but the city's rise to prominence began with the arrival
of the Anglo-Norman warrior, Richard De Burgos, who conquered the city
and its surrounding territory. Accompanied by fourteen families of fellow
mercenaries, De Burgos opened the city to foreign trade while protecting
it with defensive walls. Galway grew into a major port, trade expanded,
ships from Spain, Italy, and the Middle East filled the harbor.
The fourteen families flourished
under De Burgos' rule. The walled city soon had fourteen arched gateways
opening paths for the sun to light fourteen streets paved by mercantile
success. Many members of the families became town officials, even more
achieved religious rank. Within the city they built ornamented mansions
and chaste religious buildings. So powerful were these families that
Galway was given the nickname 'City of the Tribes.'
The families, loyal to the British
Crown, both hated and feared the native Gaelic speaking Irish whom they
considered to be barbarians, and the city walls were constructed in
part to prevent the Irish from entering the city. A by-law in the charter
went so far as to state that "neither 'O' nor 'Mac' shall strutte
ne swagger thro' the streets of Gallway."
Powerless, the Irish were pushed
across the river to the other side of the Corrib where they were relegated
to a separate community of congested thatched-roof cottages known as
the Claddagh. The over-crowded area became a medieval slum, a condition
that was never corrected. In the early twentieth century, the Claddagh
was demolished. The cottages were replaced by housing that was less
picturesque, but more hygienic. Today's only reminder of the Claddagh
is the popular Claddagh ring that can be seen in Galway's jewelry shops.
The ring bears a crowned heart held in two clasped hands, and the direction
of the crown is a statement of romantic availability. If the crown faces
the knuckle, the wearer is unattached, if it faces the fingernail, the
wearer has given away her heart.
In the seventeenth century Galway's
fortunes changed. The Norman families had been loyal to the English
King, James II. James fled the throne, however, and was succeeded by
William who sent his forces to seize Galway. Property was confiscated,
the town sacked. Moreover, penal laws that forbid the practice of Catholicism
were enacted. Ecclesiastic buildings -convents, churches, monasteries-
were abandoned. New owners who supplanted the 'tribes' let graceful
mansions fall into ruin only to become tenements for the growing numbers
of the poor. The sun glared through decaying archways on unlit streets
where thieves roamed. Hangings were daily occurrences while reports
of seeing the ghosts of noose-bedecked dead men wandering through the
streets were nightly events. The banshee was heard wailing, and a ghostly
dog called the 'Glumock' reputedly hid in dark corners.
Perhaps worse than ghosts and thieves,
pigs also had free run of the streets. In addition, fish offal from
the abundant supply of salmon in the Corrib River was left to rot wherever
it might have landed. Street pavements were not maintained, and frequent
rain made potpourri of dirt, fish offal, manure, and food scrapings.
"Where there's muck, there's
luck," was a favorite saying of the poor who guarded mounds of
garbage, holding it to sell as compost whenever local farmers came to
town.
The decaying mansions were plastered
over with concrete. The edifices of Galway limestone that once proudly
displayed Coats of Arms of the tribes of Galway were hidden. By 1820
the walls of the city had been pulled down.
Traveling in Galway in 1842 William
Makepeace Thackeray wrote in horror: "There are numbers of idlers
on the bridges, thousands in the streets, humming and swarming in and
out of dark old ruinous houses, congregated round numberless apple stalls...pigs-foot
stalls, and potato stalls..."
This was the withered face that
greeted the twentieth century.
Galway
Today
Galway's twentieth century revitalization
was buoyed by grants from the Irish Government earmarked for the inner
city's renewal. Even today the city is a work in progress. Sandblasters
attack the offensive concrete; wreckers aim at crumbling structures,
despite the frequent discovery of old sections of medieval walls which
stops progress and forces revised architectural design. It is not unusual
for a traveler to puzzle over a coat of arms too newly discovered to
be listed in the guidebooks, or to dine in the evening, savoring the
freshest of salmon in a subterranean cavern that may once have been
the wine cellar of a monastery.
Galwegians protect the vestiges
of the old with pride. Across from the Spanish Arch, the last of the
arches to remain in substantive form, is a small shop called Cobwebs
where prosperous young Irish women, dressed as elegantly as Parisians,
shop for antique jewelry or home accessories. Cobwebs' owner, an energetic
Irishwoman who delights in the history of Galway, was the first shopkeeper
to remove the graceless layer of heavy plaster. To her delight, a wooden
store front was revealed. Assuming responsibility for the inheritance
of the past, she restored it to its original condition.
Slowly other merchants followed.
By 1984 when Galway celebrated its 500th year as a chartered city, the
inhabitants were so serious about restoration that the festivities were
marked by continuous seminars and conferences on the importance of recovering
the lost Galway.
One of the few buildings to have
remained intact is St. Nicholas Collegiate Church, built in 1320 as
a simple structure and embellished in the prosperous 15th and 16th centuries.
Though Cromwell's men pillaged the interior and turned the church into
a stable, St. Nicholas' survived the turbulence of Galway's history,
and is today one of the best-preserved medieval edifices in Ireland.
The church is dedicated to St. Nicholas of Myra, a fourth century saint
from Asia Minor who, in the middle ages was considered the patron saint
of travelers and of children. Today he is better known as the original
jolly old St. Nick who visits every Christmas.
Fanciful gargoyles, more amusing
than frightening, smile down from the church's exterior, keeping mischievous
watch over the square where farmers congregate on Saturdays to sell
everything from vegetables and homemade chutneys to greeting cards with
delicate designs made from the seaweed that covers coastal shores.
The interior of St. Nicholas is
a surprise for it is brighter than most medieval churches, allowing
for a careful examination of the hand carvings on the 16th century baptismal
font, or of the medieval scene on the dripstone above the belfry that
depicts 'the hound of heaven chasing the hare of the soul across the
bridge of eternity.' Above the dripstone is the 'Leper's Gallery.' Legend
holds that this was the section where the afflicted could sit and hear
the Mass, but the area was actually an access way to the tower. On the
north aisle of the church is a collection of floor gravestones of craftsmen,
whose occupations are symbolized by brass carvings. Most interesting,
perhaps, is the Lynch Aisle where tombs of the important Lynches mark
the walls, opening a window on the history of one of Galway's most powerful
'tribes.'
Sixty-four members of the Lynch
family served as mayors of Galway. Dominick Lynch bestowed three stately
mansions to Galway University, and it is said that he was, indeed, its
founder. On the corner of Shop Street and Abbeygate Street is Lynch's
Castle. Its facade is covered with carvings and coats of arms. True
to the twentieth century, it is now occupied by the Allied Irish Bank.
Across from St. Nicholas itself
is the Lynch Memorial Window which was placed to honor James Lynch.
Certainly one of the Galway's more obsessive lovers, James was one of
the many Lynch mayors as well as a wine merchant whose fortunes were
built through trade with Spain. When he learned that his reckless son,
Walter, had taken part in a lover's duel and had stabbed to death a
young Spaniard, James feared what this would mean for Galway's reputation.
Surely James was one of the world's most original public relations experts:
to protect his city's image, he decreed that his son was to be hanged.
The horrified hangman refused to execute so inhuman a verdict, but James
was intent on defending the honor of his graceful lady Galway. Arm in
arm, father and hapless son marched together to the gallows where James
performed the deed and hung his own flesh and blood. An account of this
act was written in an article by the great James Joyce himself, however,
his rendition is so crammed with vivid details that a reader might question
the veracity of the famous Mr. Joyce.
Swinging
Galway
Galway is not content to rest on
the trophies of her past, for this is a swinging city. University College
Galway which houses modern art, yet offers courses in Gaelic, draws
students from around the world, and it is their seismic energy that
resounds in the streets. They are easy to identify, not only by their
youth but also by their pierced noses. Though the young in many cities
of the world state their rebellion against established standards by
impaling their nostrils, the faces in Galway show happiness not rebellion,
and the decorative nose wear seems more fashion statement than rebellion.
The students are both seen and heard,
for they fill the pubs, expressing their buoyant energy in music rather
than drink. Pub-hopping is a must, for one can hear fiddles, tin whistles,
sometimes an accordion. Joined by the local Galwegians, the students
sing - in Gaelic and in English. At first one is startled to discover
that the Irish have a strong affinity with American Country and Western
music, but as one mellows into the lull of the brogue, the lyrics of
Irish and of American link together, for both are narrative and both
deal with human dilemmas.
The students' imprint, however,
is most noticeable in the artistic energy that finds expression in Galway.
Avant garde art works are exhibited at the recently established Arts
Center, located on Dominick Street in the stately mansion built in 1840
for the Persse family. Miss Augusta Persse, who later achieved prominence
as Lady Gregory, was inclined toward the radical movements of her time
and wrote over forty plays, most on the theme of Irish Nationalism.
Perhaps inspired by her example, the Arts Center also sponsors a Festival
of Literature that has drawn such names as Allen Ginsberg, Mark Strand,
and Louise Erdrich from the United States, as well as the great poet
Andrei Voznesensky from Russia.
The Druid Theater Company, located
in Chapel Lane, was founded by former university students and is considered
a world-class theater. The company has performed in London and New York,
both cities of rigorous theatrical standards. The actors frequently
join the audience for a drink in one of the local pubs, extending the
pleasure of the evening.
Many of these students never leave
Galway which makes the city unique, for it has reversed the unhappy
history of emigration that robbed Ireland of its bright and eager youth.
These new immigrants have brought their energy as well as an international
taste for food that has sophisticated the Irish palate. Today's traveler
can choose to eat a classic dish of wild salmon with leeks at Nimmo's
Restaurant overlooking the Corrib, or taste an innovative pasta dish
that uses the Galway salmon at Trattoria Pasta Mista on colorful Quay
Street.
Though Salmon is synonymous with
Galway, the area abounds in many types of seafood. Oysters and wild
mussels are offered everywhere, from the gold-flocked dining room of
the Great Southern Hotel, the grand hotel of Galway that overlooks Eyre
Square, to McDonagh's, Galway's long-established seafood restaurant
where one dines under a mural depicting women in shawls doing their
marketing at the docks of old Galway.
McDonagh's is a seafood shop by
day and a restaurant by night. The waiters are eager to guide diners
to the freshest, most succulent fish of the day. Should one make the
wrong selection from the extensive menu, the waiters feel free to give
advice. "You don't want that," they will declare. "It's
the wrong time of the year." Only in Galway is one happy to be
bullied. The result is a meal, memorable for its freshness.
Literary
Galway
In Ireland the past is never frozen
in time, for this is a country of bards and poets who keep the past
alive while adding to history with their own presence. In the twentieth
century, Galway has seen the comings and goings of its most respected
names.
John Millington Synge passed through
Galway on his way to the nearby Aran Islands. Synge had been living
in France writing bad decadent poetry in French. At the suggestion of
his friend, W.B. Yeats, Synge took up residence in the nearby Aran Islands,
a day's expedition out of Galway. Living among the stoic people who
endured the hardships of the bleak and barren Islands, Synge abandoned
decadence and bent his ear into the speech patterns of the islanders.
The Playboy of The Western World was the result of his transformation.
Yeats himself bought a fourteenth
century tower, which he named Thoor Ballylee, in the Galway countryside.
Built by the De Burgos family, it was Yeats home in mid-life where he
lived with his wife, George, and their two children. "To leave
here," Yeats wrote, "is to leave beauty behind." Purchased
in 1961 by the Kiltartan Society, the tower has been restored with such
authenticity that their respect for Yeats is a palpable presence in
the tower. There is a tea shop here and a gift shop that sells books
of poems rather than plastic statues of Yeats for the Irish treasure
their bards. The tower is a short drive from Galway and worth the side
trip, if only to see the austerity that Yeats imposed on himself so
that he could maintain his poetic standards and not fall victim to the
adulation that followed him. In this monastic tower, Yeats wrote much
of the mature work that won him the Nobel Prize.
A visit to Thoor Ballylee can be
combined with a trip to nearby Coole Park, the home of Lady Gregory,
Yeats lifelong friend and fellow Nationalist. Together they founded
the Abbey Theater with the sole intention of having a theater that would
produce only Irish works. Both of them wrote for the Abbey, and it was
this theater that first produced Synge's works, as well as those of
Sean O'Casey. All the great Irish literary figures visited Coole Park,
and there is a large beech tree where most carved their initials.
Nora Barnacle, James Joyce's wife,
came from Galway. Her home is open as a museum devoted to Joyce memorabilia.
Poverty is inherent in its two small rooms, a humbling reminder that
genius thrives on itself, not on opulence. The Joyces visited Galway,
staying with Nora's relatives, and found the city -then as now- a restful
place to row, cycle and drive. Joyce had been commissioned by the Triestino
newspaper, Il Piccolo della Sera, to write an article on Galway. Ever-penurious,
he was so eager to earn his commission that he sub-titled his article
'Italian Echoes in an Irish Port,' and indulged himself in a wee bit
of an untruth.
In Joyce's article the Spanish,
who left their imprint in the dark hair and milky complexions of the
Galwegians, were relegated to the background, while numerous Italians,
who may or may not have been fictitious characters, were given center
stage. Invoking the name of the Italian port city of Bari, Joyce asserted
that St. Nicholas Church was dedicated to St. Nicholas of Bari. As the
erudite Mr. Joyce surely knew, there was no St. Nicholas of Bari. Though
he left Ireland, the Blarney Stone was never far from his pen.
How to Tour Galway
The best way to discover Galway
is to get lost in its streets. A tourist map is necessary only to orient
oneself to the city, but once this is done, Galway is best discovered
by meandering walks that circle the labyrinth of streets. Without a
guidebook, one hesitates at a street corner, wondering whether to turn
left or right. It doesn't matter, for to be lost in this small city
is to give in to delight.
Left, then right, then left, or
no, was it right? Without precise direction, one stumbles over shops
unique to Galway. Later one discovers that they are well known, of course,
but the chance discovery makes them belong more completely to the explorer.
There is O'Maille's, a store that
sells durable Donegal tweed, and Aran sweaters knit by hand by the old
women of Aran whose patterns are unique to their families. The store
also offers unusual luxury items, such as christening gowns made from
Irish linen . O'Maille's also provided clothing for the film The
Quiet Man with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.
There is Kenny's Bookstore and Art
Gallery, a store that illustrates Galway's blend of new and old. Here
one can find books of history and poetry side by side with twentieth
century art. Poems of W.B. Yeats stand next to lithographs done by his
brother, Jack Yeats, who is now gaining prominence though he was long
overshadowed by the more famous William.
In Kenny's you realize why past
and present are so intertwined in Ireland. Listening to Mrs. Kenny tell
a story of an encounter with Seamus Heaney, Ireland's most recent Nobel
laureate, you realize that a tradition in which bards move among the
people to relate their narratives orally, doesn't relegate poetry to
a dusty past.
*
A Georgian mansion stands on the
banks of the Corrib near the Wolfe Tone Bridge. It is limestone gray
enlivened only by a bright red door. Simple but stately, the mansion's
integrity is protected by its position overlooking the river as well
as by the ample amount of garden that flanks it on either side.
A day of meandering draws to its
end. The sun, which was visible earlier through a silver scrim of clouds,
begins to disappear and darkness seeps across the sky. An old woman
comes out of the house, letting the bright red door hang so wide open
that it disappears into the unlit interior of the house. The woman pauses
at the river's edge to watch swans skim across the Corrib. After a few
minutes she turns, moving with the deliberation of age, and bends to
pick a rose from her garden. Slowly she pulls her back erect. A baby
cries within the house. The old woman sniffs the rose and smiles.
This house is not in a guidebook,
but if you turn left, then right, then left, or -no it must have been
right- you are sure to find it.
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