County Galway Guide (Gaillimh)
“The Tribesmen” - in the province of Connacht. County town: Galway.
A vibrant arts city, Connemara, the Aran Islands and the Gaeltacht.
Galway is the soul of the Irish west: a bohemian, festival-loving city of music and colour at the mouth of the Corrib, opening onto the wild beauty of Connemara and the Aran Islands. With a strong Gaeltacht, a famous oyster festival and an arts scene to match anywhere, it’s many people’s favourite corner of Ireland.
Few counties divide so dramatically in two. East of Lough Corrib, the Republic's largest lake, Galway is limestone farmland dotted with market towns, castles and monastic ruins; west of it lies Connemara, a wild sweep of blanket bog, quartzite peaks and Atlantic inlets where Ireland's largest Gaeltacht keeps the Irish language in daily use. The Aran Islands guard the mouth of the bay, their limestone pavements and stone forts, including the great cliff fortress of Dun Aonghasa, linking the county to millennia of settlement. The Connemara pony, Ireland's only native pony breed, still grazes the hillsides that shaped it.
Galway city grew rich on medieval trade with Spain and France under the fourteen merchant families known as the Tribes, and it wears that history lightly amid a famously bohemian street life of buskers, festivals and theatre, led by the Druid company and the summer Arts Festival. The Claddagh ring, with its heart, hands and crown, originated in the old fishing village across the Corrib. Race week at Ballybrit, the September oyster festival and the horse fair at Ballinasloe fill the calendar, and in 2020 the city held the title of European Capital of Culture.
Cities, towns and villages in Galway
- Galway City - The fast-growing City of the Tribes, a university city famed for its festivals, medieval Latin Quarter and position where the Corrib meets the Atlantic.
- Clifden - Connemara's capital, founded in 1812, close to where Alcock and Brown ended the first nonstop transatlantic flight and Marconi built his wireless station.
- Tuam - Ancient ecclesiastical centre of the west, seat of archbishops since the 12th century and once the power base of the O'Connor high kings.
- An Spideal - Gateway village to the Cois Fharraige Gaeltacht, known for its craft village, summer colleges and strong traditional music scene.
- Athenry - One of Ireland's best-preserved medieval walled towns, with castle, priory and the name known worldwide from the ballad The Fields of Athenry.
- Ballinasloe - Market town on the Suck whose October horse fair is among the oldest and largest in Europe.
- Loughrea - Lakeside town whose cathedral holds an outstanding collection of Irish Arts and Crafts stained glass.
- Oughterard - Angling village on the shore of Lough Corrib, long styled the gateway to Connemara.
- Portumna - Shannonside heritage town with a great semi-fortified Jacobean house and forest park where Lough Derg begins.
- Kinvara - Picturesque harbour village on Galway Bay beside Dunguaire Castle, host of the Cruinniu na mBad gathering of traditional sailing boats.
Famous people from Galway
- Lady Augusta Gregory - Playwright and co-founder of the Abbey Theatre whose home at Coole Park near Gort was the hub of the Irish Literary Revival.
- Nora Barnacle - Galway city woman who became James Joyce's muse and wife; their first walk together on 16 June 1904 is commemorated as Bloomsday.
- Padraic O Conaire - Pioneering Irish-language writer and wandering storyteller from Galway city, honoured with a famous statue in Eyre Square.
- Mairtin O Cadhain - Author of Cre na Cille, widely considered the greatest Irish-language novel, born in the Cois Fharraige Gaeltacht near An Spideal.
- Walter Macken - Galway city novelist, playwright and actor best remembered for the historical trilogy beginning with Seek the Fair Land.
- Richard Kirwan - Eccentric 18th-century chemist and mineralogist from Cloughballymore, one of the most celebrated Irish scientists of his day.
- Michael D. Higgins - President of Ireland since 2011, long a Galway West TD, university lecturer and Mayor of Galway before entering national politics.
- Nicola Coughlan - Galway-born actress who found global fame in Derry Girls and Bridgerton.
- Joe Canning - Portumna hurler regarded as one of the greatest forwards ever, Hurler of the Year when Galway won the 2017 All-Ireland.
- Dolores Keane - Caherlistrane-born singer, founding member of De Dannan and one of the defining voices of Irish traditional song.
Did you know?
- Alcock and Brown completed the first nonstop transatlantic flight by crash-landing in Derrygimlagh bog near Clifden on 15 June 1919.
- Marconi opened his first permanent transatlantic wireless telegraphy station at Clifden in 1907, employing hundreds in remote Connemara.
- Lough Corrib is the largest lake in the Republic of Ireland and second largest on the island after Lough Neagh.
- The Galway International Oyster Festival, founded in 1954, is billed as the oldest oyster festival in the world.
- The Connemara pony is Ireland's only native breed of pony, shaped by the region's rough terrain.
- The Claddagh ring takes its name from the old fishing village of the Claddagh, just across the Corrib from Galway city's Spanish Arch.
- Galway city takes its nickname from the fourteen merchant Tribes, families such as the Lynches and Blakes who ran the town for centuries.
- The Benedictine nuns of Kylemore Abbey settled in Connemara in 1920 after their community fled Ypres during the First World War.
Places to visit in Galway
- Connemara - Bogs, mountains and the famous Kylemore Abbey.
- Aran Islands - Gaeltacht islands of stone walls and ancient forts.
Surnames from Galway: Kelly · Lynch · Connolly · Burke · Clarke · Hughes · Keane · Kenny · Cunningham · Ward · Egan · Joyce