Galway

We started off the first week of the Easter break catching up with some of our Sydney friends, Kerrie, Steve, Caitlin and Erin, who were visiting Dublin.We enjoyed spending time with them visiting the Natural History Museum again and the National Museum of Ireland (Archaeology) where we viewed the bog men of Ireland with a mixture of horror and fascination (more on them in another post!). The girls enjoyed having some Australian playmates for a few days!

On Good Friday, we did a one night trip over to Galway. It is very nice to be able to travel from the East of Ireland over to the West in just over 2 hours! We were also pleased to leave the cloudy weather of Dublin behind and enjoyed seeing the sun and blue sky again - even though it was still very cold! This is actually supposed to be one of the coldest March weather periods on record.

Galway is a beautiful city and its city centre is very compact so we enjoyed being able to explore its many medieval streets and buildings on foot.

 The above photo is taken in Eyre Square. The statue below commemorates JFK's visit to Galway in 1963.

 

 

The ruins above are part of the excavated remains of the Hall of the Red Earl. This hall dates from the 13th century when the de Burgo family held power in Galway. Richard, otherwise known as the Red Earl, used this hall as his seat of power and people would visit him here to ask for favours. The hall was lost over time once the de Burgo family lost their influence in the town (power was granted to14 leading merchant tribes instead) and its foundations were only rediscovered in 1997.

We were also in town on the weekend of the Galway Food festival and the girls were able to sample the delights of the chocolate fountain! Later that night we also enjoyed a seafood meal (our first time eating plaice) at a local restaurant.

The Claddagh ring is also one of the most famous symbols from Galway and there are many jewelery shops selling Claddagh rings. The symbol can also been seen in a carving on the pyramidal spire at the Church of St. Nicolas of Myra.

In the afternoon, we did a lovely walk up to Galway Cathedral along the canal walk which runs along the Corrib River, the shortest river in Europe. In salmon season, you can apparently see fish passing through the weir here.

 

 

The inside of the Cathedral is beautiful and was also of particular interest to James for its mosaics of Patrick Pearse (one of the leaders of the Easter Uprising) and JFK, placed on either side of a mosaic of Christ. JFK's mosaic was placed here to thank the people of Boston for their contributions to the building of the cathedral. It is a fairly new Cathedral, especially by Irish standards, being built in 1965. It's full name is the "Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St. Nicholas". I think that's why it is usually just referred to as Galway Cathedral!

Today, Saturday morning, we did a short walk (it was freezing!) towards Salthill and enjoyed the view looking out over Galway Bay.

 

Galway has had many foreign visitors in her history and this monument remembers one very famous visitor, Christopher Columbus, who then went on to discover a great land on the other side of the Atlantic! 

 

The Spanish and Portuguese played a vary important part in Galway's history, trading in seafood, wine, spices and salt.  The Spanish Arch, below, is part of the remains of the medieval wall, which enclosed the city of Galway. It was built in 1584 and it is thought that it served as a passageway through which ships passed to unload goods from Spain.

 

Apparently, in the late 15th century, one of these Spanish visitors was killed by Walter Lynch, who was the son of the Chief Magistrate of Galway at the time. Walter was condemned to death for his crime and was to be executed. No-one in the town would put their hand up to execute him, however, so his father ended up having to do the job. The above window, known as the Lynch Memorial Window is where he was hung. It looks suitably sombre, complete with skull and crossbones! His father then disappeared into a life of seclusion from that point onwards.

 

We also visited the Galway Museum, which traces the history of Galway and its arts and crafts. Here you can see samples of Donegal tweed...

 and below, James wearing his own sample of Donegal tweed (on his head!) which he purchased in Galway.

 

The museum also had an interesting collection of war-time posters, complete with Irish imagery and symbolism, encouraging the men of Ireland to do their duty and go to war!

 

 

It was then time for us to say good-bye to sunny Galway. On the way home we stopped at Clonmacnoise, an ancient monastic ruin, similar to Glendalough which I'll write about in my next blog post.