Galway or the City of Galway is a city in Ireland. It is in
the West Region and the province of Connacht. Galway City Council is the local
authority for the city. Galway lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib
and Galway Bay and is surrounded by County Galway. It is the fourth most
populous city in the state and the sixth most populous on the island of
Ireland.
Culture
Galway is known as Ireland's Cultural Heart (Croí Cultúrtha
na hÉireann) and is renowned for its vibrant lifestyle and numerous festivals,
celebrations and events. Every July, Galway hosts the Galway Arts Festival
which is known for its famous Macnas parade.
In 2004, there were three dance organisations, ten festival
companies, two film organisations, two Irish language organisations, 23 musical
organisations, twelve theatre companies, two visual arts groups, and four
writers' groups based in the city.
Furthermore, there were 51 venues for events, most of which
were specialised for a certain field (e.g. concert venues or visual arts
galleries), though ten were described as being 'multiple event' venues. The
main squares in the city are Eyre Square (containing John F. Kennedy Park) in
the centre of the city, and Spanish Parade next to the Spanish Arch.
In 2007, Galway was named as one of the eight "sexiest
cities" in the world. A 2008 poll ranked Galway as the 42nd best tourist
destination in the world, or 14th in Europe and 2nd in Ireland (behind Dingle).
It was ranked ahead of all European capitals except Edinburgh, and many
traditional tourist destinations (such as Venice).
Places of interest
Lynch's Castle on Shop Street is probably the finest
medieval town house in Ireland. It is now a branch of Allied Irish Banks.
The Church of Ireland St. Nicholas' Collegiate Church is the
largest medieval church still in everyday use in Ireland. It was founded in
1320 and enlarged in the following two centuries. It is a particularly pleasant
building in the heart of the old city.
Its Roman Catholic counterpart, the Cathedral of Our Lady
Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas was consecrated in 1965 and is a far
larger, more imposing building constructed from limestone. It has an eclectic
style, with renaissance dome, pillars and round arches, and a Romanesque
portico that dominates the main façade – which is an unusual feature in modern
Irish church building. It was suggested by a church in the city of Salamanca in
Spain.
Not far from the cathedral stands the original quadrangle
building of National University of Ireland, Galway which was erected in 1849
(during An Gorta Mór, the Great Famine) as one of the three colleges of the
Queen's University of Ireland (along with Queen's University Belfast and
University College Cork). The university
holds the UNESCO archive of spoken material for the Celtic languages.
Another of the city's limestone buildings is the Hotel
Meyrick, originally the Railway Hotel and then the Great Southern Hotel, built
by the Great Southern Railway Company in 1845. Sitting at the southern
perimeter of Eyre Square, it is the City's oldest hotel still in operation.
The Spanish Arch, in the southwest of the city, was built in
the 1580s as an extension to the city walls, a part of which can be seen in the
Corbett Court shopping centre.
In front of the Spanish Arch and opposite Jury's Hotel is a
monument (see photograph at bottom of this article) to Christopher Columbus. It
was presented to Galway by the city of Genoa in 1992 to commemorate both the
500th anniversary of the voyage to the New World and the visit of Columbus to Galway
in 1477.
The remains of the Menlo Castle can be seen outside the
city, on the Eastern bank of the River Corrib. It was one of the ancestral
homes of the Blake family, one of the Tribes of Galway from c1600-1910. It is
best viewed from the west bank at Dangan or the riverside walk at NUIG. The
façade of the families townhouse (Blake's Castle) can be seen beside Jury's
Hotel at the bottom of Quay Street.
The Eglinton Canal, named after a former Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland, joins the River Corrib to the sea, and, flowing for just more than a
kilometer, is a very pleasant walk from the University to the Claddagh.
The Claddagh is the oldest part of Galway but little or
nothing remains of its old thatched village. However, in a side altar of the
parish church, St Mary's on the Hill, is the late medieval statue of Our Lady
of Galway and visitors in mid-August can participate in the ancient ritual of
the Blessing of the Bay, on the Sunday nearest the feast of the Assumption.
The Bowne doorway, originally located on Lower Abbeygate
Street but now standing at the north end of Eyre Square, was the doorway to the
townhouse of the Browne family, one of the fourteen Tribes of Galway.
The Lynch Window, (on Market Street), commemorates one of
the city's most enduring legends. Here, in 1493, the Mayor, James Lynch
FitzStephen, hanged his own son for the murder of Gomez, a young Spanish
visitor who had the misfortune to befriend the Mayor's son. The son, mistaking
friendship for love, stabbed the Spaniard to death in a fit of jealousy and
dumped his body in the River Corrib. The Mayor was both Judge and Executioner
in the case as nobody else would carry out the execution according to legend.
This event is advanced as the origin of the phrase Lynching
Dillons Claddagh Gold on Quay Street are the original makers
of the Claddagh Ring and are also Ireland's longest established jewelers,
having been founded in 1750. The little museum attached to the premises holds
the world's oldest examples of the Claddagh Ring.
The Hall of the Red Earl (Halla an Iarla Rua) can be viewed
through a protective glass wall off Flood Street. It is the earliest medieval
settlement fragment surviving within the walls of the city. It was built by the
de Burgo family in the 13th century and was a key municipal building for the
collection of taxes, dispensation of justice and hosting banquets. It was the
medieval equivalent of tax office, court house and town hall.
Galway City has a fine collection of mainly early 17th
century marriage stones which can be viewed throughout the city centre both
inside buildings (as in the King's Head Pub) or on exterior lintels.
Galway Atlantaquaria which is also the National Aquarium of
Ireland can be visited on The Promenade in the western suburb of Salthill.
Watching Atlantic salmon from the Salmon Weir Bridge (one of
the bridges that spans the River Corrib) as they swim upsteam to spawn is a
popular pastime with both locals and tourists alike.
Transport
By Air
Galway Airport, located 6 km (3.73 mi) east of the city at
Carnmore, ceased to have scheduled passenger flights on November 1, 2011.
Because the runway is too short to take modern passenger jet aircraft, its
operations are limited. The airline that served the airport was Aer Arann. Aer
Arann announced that they will not be resuming flights from Galway Airport.[34]
Aerfort na Minna (22 km (13.67 mi) west of the city) operates regular flights
to each of the Aran Islands (Oileáin Árann). Shannon Airport (90 km) and
Ireland West Airport Knock (86 km) are also within easy reach of the city, both
of which have flights around Ireland and to Britain, Continental Europe and
North America (from Shannon).
By Bus
Buses are the main form of public transport in the city and
county. There are fifteen routes in the city operated by Bus Éireann and Galway
City Direct.
Various bus companies also provide links throughout County
Galway and nationwide. These operate from a number of locations:
The main bus and rail
station in the city is Ceannt Station.
Galway Coach Station, located at Fairgreen, is also a coach
transport hub. Scheduled direct and commuter services operate between the Coach
Station, Dublin and Dublin Airport, as well as services to Limerick, Cork and
Clifden. These are operated by Gobus and Citylink.
Other regional bus operators user various bus stops around
the city centre, and many serve the NUIG and GMIT campuses as well.
By Rail
Galway's main railway station is Ceannt Station (Stáisiún
Cheannt), which opened in 1851, and was renamed in honour of Éamonn Ceannt
in 1966. A major redevelopment, including a completely new urban district,
Ceannt Station Quarter, has been proposed for the station and adjoining land.
The Midland Great Western Railway reached Galway in 1851,
giving the city a direct main line to its Broadstone Station terminus in
Dublin. As the 19th century progressed the rail network in Connacht was
expanded, making Galway an important railhead. The nearby town of Athenry
became a railway junction, giving Galway links to Ennis, Limerick and the south
in 1869 and Sligo and the north in 1894. In 1895 the MGW opened a branch line
between Galway and Clifden.
The 20th century brought increasing road competition, and
this led the Great Southern Railways to close the Clifden branch in 1935. In
the 1970s the state railway authority Córas Iompair Éireann closed the
Sligo-Athenry-Ennis line to passenger services. It later closed to freight as
well.
Iarnród Éireann, Ireland's national rail operator, currently
runs six return passenger services each day between Galway and Dublin Heuston,
also serving intermediate stations. Travel time is just under 3 hours. Services
on the Galway–Limerick line have now resumed, with around 5–6 trains each way
per day.
Western Rail Corridor ex-GSWR line south of Limerick in
green, other ex-MGWR lines are in red.
Throuhg the Road
Three national primary roads serve the city: the N17 leading
North (Tuam, Sligo, Donegal Town, Letterkenny and Derry), the M6 motorway from
the East (Athlone, Dublin), and the N18 from the South (Shannon Town, Limerick
and Cork). By 2015, the Galway-Dublin, Galway-Limerick and Galway-Tuam routes
will be motorway or high-quality dual carriageway standard. In addition, there
are plans for a semi-ring road of the city, the Galway City Outer Bypass, which
should also be complete by 2015. There is also an Inner City Ring (Cuar
Inmheánach) route that encircles the city centre, most of which is
pedestrianised.
Galway is considered the gateway to Connemara and the
Gaeltacht, including Mám, An Teach Dóite, Cor na Móna, Ros Muc, Bearna and An
Cheathrú Rua. The N59 along the western shore of Lough Corrib and the R337
along the northern shore of Galway Bay both lead to this largely rural and
highly scenic region.
Cross Waterways
The River Corrib is by far the most important waterway in
Galway and a number of canals and channels were built above and through the
city. The purposes of these to divert and control the water from the river, to
harness its power and to provide a navigable route to the sea. Of these, there
were two major schemes – one between 1848 and 1858 and the other during the
1950s. The canals provided a power source for Galway and were the location of
the first industries in the mid-19th century. The Eglinton Canal provided a
navigation from the sea (at the Claddagh Basin) to the navigable part of the
river (above the Salmon Weir Bridge). Most of the mills are still used today
for various purposes; for instance, NUI Galway still uses a water turbine for
electricity generation for their building on Nun's Island.
Currently, there are four bridges across the Corrib.
Following the southward flow of the river these are, from the north: the
Quincentennial Bridge, the Salmon Weir Bridge, the William O'Brien Bridge and
the Wolfe Tone Bridge. There are plans for a fifth bridge as part of the Galway
City Outer Bypass project. The Clare River flows from the North of the County
Galway, through Tuam, Claregalway into Lough Corrib.
At Harbour
Ballyknow Quay, Claddagh
Galway is the most central port on the West Coast of Ireland
in the sheltered eastern corner of Galway Bay.[citation needed] The harbour can
be used by vessels up to 10,000 metric tons deadweight (DWT) and the inner dock
can accommodate up to 9 vessels at any one time. Pending approval, Galway
Harbour may see major changes, should the €1.5 billion development plan go
ahead.
Regular passenger ferry and freight services operate between
Galway and the Aran Islands. The islands also have regular links with the towns
of Rossaveal and Doolin, which are physically closer but far smaller.
Commuter ferry services have been proposed to the tourism
town of Kinvara, on the opposite side of Galway Bay.
Major work in the harbour area was carried out in 2009 to
accommodate the stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race. This was one of the biggest
events ever to visit Galway. The event returned with the finale of the race in
June 2012. This was unprecedented in Volvo Ocean Race history.
