When I woke up, I was all alone
With a broken heart and a ticket home
And I ask you now, tell me what would you do?
If her hair was black and her eyes were blue
‘Cause I’ve traveled around, I’ve been all over this world
Boys, I ain’t never seen nothing like a Galway girl – Steve Earl
Woolly says – We’d arrived in Galway at teatime and just in time for the rain, I just hoped that the morning would at least be dry for us otherwise it might mean the humans moaning about getting wet!
Galway is a city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. Located near an earlier settlement, Galway grew around a fortification built by the King of Connacht, Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair in 1124. A municipal charter in 1484 allowed citizens of the by then walled city to form a council and mayoralty. Controlled largely by a group of merchant families, the Tribes of Galway, the city grew into a trading port. Following a period of decline, as of the 21st century, Galway is a tourist destination known for festivals and events including the Galway International Arts Festival. Peter O’Toole: Legendary Oscar-nominated Hollywood actor, famous for Lawrence of Arabia had been born and raised in the area.
We were ready to go just before nine and the weather had listened and just given us some grey clouds but no downpours, even better was that our first stop of the day was a short walk away just across the rushing waters of the River Corrib.
Galway Cathedral, known as the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas, was built on the site of the old Galway Gaol and consecrated in 1965. It is constructed of limestone and has an eclectic style, with a Renaissance Revival dome, pillars and round arches, and a Romanesque Revival portico that dominates the main façade – which is an unusual feature in a modern Irish church building.
It looked beautiful and far older than it actually was with its grey brickwork and wonderful dome.
We headed inside to be met with a view of the east side of the cathedral and its rose window, which was beautiful in design and colours, turning our backs to that we found that there was a similar design and same shaped window as well.
A massive archway was the next think to catch my attention which was one of four holding the mosaic patterned dome up, angles were in each corner and had been beautifully done. I wandered further in gazing up at the incredibly high stained glass windows way above our head, there were lots of them to admire.
Passing the first of a number of chapels the altar caught my eye with its vivid red colouring along with yet more windows to admire.
Standing at the rear of the building meant having a beautiful wooden ceiling to look at whilst looking at floor level at the Sanctuary with its Portuguese marble, the altar was fairly plain in comparison. Jo pointed behind us where another huge mosaic design depicted Christ on the cross, there was a lot of skill in producing it.
A second chapel this time blue themed caught my attention before I headed off towards the other end of the building to gaze up at the huge organ which had been built in 2006. Behind it was another glorious rose window.
I peeked into the Children’s Chapel with its marble font which looked very modern before crossing to the other side and admiring the mosaic there, the whole place was vibrant in colour and incredible to view, I felt very pleased to have seen it.
Heading back outside we wandered along the riverbank passing some old warehouses which had been converted to living spaces and a small square tower.
Our next stop was upon us and if Jo had stopped at a sign, I might have missed it as I was looking for something a little grander.
The Spanish Arch and the Caoċ Arch (blind arch) are two remaining arches on the Ceann an Bhalla (“Front Wall”). They were once part of the extension of the city wall from Martin’s Tower to the bank of the River Corrib, as a measure to protect the city’s quays, which were in the area once known as the Fish Market (now Spanish Parade). It was constructed during the mayoralty of Wylliam Martin in 1584, being called ceann an bhalla (the head of the wall). There is no connection whatsoever to Spain. I had thought there would be a bit more to them, having taken a picture we headed into the Latin quarter of the city.
The Latin Quarter in Galway is named to reflect the area’s historic trade ties with Latin-speaking European countries and its vibrant, bohemian atmosphere inspired by Paris’s famous Latin Quarter. I wasn’t sure there was much of a Paris feel to it as van after van drove down the pedestrian zone whilst we tried to spot some interesting things.
We came to a much loved statue, Galway Girl, who would bring you luck if you rubbed her hand, I gave it a good rub as you can never be sure it won’t come true before moving on, passing colourful pubs and flag filled streets.
Following one of the tourist brown signs we arrived at the Lynch Window. According to legend, in 1493, the mayor of Galway, James Lynch FitzStephen, hung his own son for the murder of a young Spanish visitor who had the misfortune to befriend the girlfriend of the mayor’s son. A bit brutal I felt, he could have thrown him in jail for a long time instead. The window was quite small, and I did wonder if it might once have been filled with stained glass or indeed glass or had it been designed just the way it appeared now.
Slightly further up the street was Lynch’s Castle a medieval townhouse built by the prosperous Lynch family in the 16th century which is now an Irish Bank. It was a rather grand and imposing building.
A few minutes further on we arrived at the last part of Galway on my list, Eyre Square, the city public park, which dated back to the medieval times when it was known as the green. It became Eyre Square when it was officially presented to the city in 1710 by Mayor Edward Eyre, from whom it took its name.
In 1965, the square was officially renamed ‘John F. Kennedy Memorial Park’ in honour of U.S. President John F. Kennedy; despite the renaming, the square is still widely known as Eyre Square. Kennedy had visited Galway City and made a speech in the square on 29th June 1963, the first U.S. president to do so during his term of office. We took a moment to look at the monument dedicated to JFK.
Just through the trees we could see The Hardiman, originally the Railway Hotel, which is the city’s oldest hotel still in operation. Sitting facing the large hotel was a statue of Irish language writer Pádraic Ó Conaire which was erected in his memory in 1935, sadly it was decapitated in 1999 and the statue removed until the one that is now here that was unveiled in 2017.
Another statue caught my eye and we headed over to take a look, it was a of a gentleman in a long black coat but there was no signage anywhere to explain who it was, so we googled it once we had Wi-Fi when we found that it was Liam Mellows (1892 to 1992), a hero of the War of Independence.
The last thing to look at was known as the Browne Doorway which was partly encased in a clear screen. The Browne Doorway was the original doorway of the 1627 Browne family home on Lower Abbeygate Street. In 1905, it was moved from Abbeygate Street to Eyre Square. It looked slightly odd in its new location but did have two lovely coats of arms on it.
With everything done that we had planned for Galway we set off out of the city. Strangely I didn’t have a clue where I was going as the women seemed to have plotted something, I kept my eyes peeled for clues on the journey.
As we had already walked the whole of the city and it was only 11am, Zoe and I had taken to google whilst enjoying a coffee in the weak sunshine and come across something that we knew the small member of the team would love involving a twenty minute add on our route to the evenings b and b.
Woolly says – Forty minutes later we shot off the main, very scenic road, and onto a slightly bumpy driveway, I briefly caught sight of a sign say Glengowla Mines. Always being prepared I quickly grabbed my Mammoth Book of Facts and scrolled through to G to see what this might be about, my book told me that Glengowla is a “show mine” dedicated to the lead and silver mining history of Glengowla and the Oughterard area. That sounded quite good and if it made the humans happy who was I to argue.
Having paid for our tour we were led outside to a gold panning area to pan for gold while we waited for the tour to start, I was in disbelief, panning for gold and a guided tour were very unlike things that Jo and Zoe usually suggest and I chose to ignore. Without further ado I rolled up my sleeves and started panning in haste. It wasn’t long before Zoe shouted that she had found some and I raced over to see her holding a very small piece of gold, as the lady had said we could keep what we found I raced back to my station and settled in for the long term, swishing water around I dreamed of what I could buy with the fortune I might find.
Half an hour later I had amazed a small pile of small crystals and a few minute pieces of gold when I was rudely interrupted and told it was time for the tour, dreams of my fortune went back into the sandy bed I had bee working on I having muttered a few words that I shouldn’t say I followed them into the former stable block to find out more about the mine itself. The room had all manner of crystals and sparkly things as well as an original map of the mine and a large display of tools found down there over the years.
Mining at Glengowla began in 1851, after a farmer discovered galena just under the soil surface, with the first mine shaft being named after a Captain Paul. The mine was in operation until 1865, eventually measuring 40 metres deep and 200 feet wide. The main mining centred on silver and lead, though Connemara marble, gold, dolerite, quartz, and rare green and blue octahedral fluorite could also be found.
Having donned hard hats, I was told to stay in Jo’s jacket and not to mess around we headed down the steps into the first of the shafts. This shaft had been where the miners had come into the depths using wooden ladders roped together to get down to the lower levels. I had already spotted some galena and wondered how long it might take me to prise it free from the rock.
Our lovely guide showed us how the miners had cut into the rock with three men being used in each team to chisel into the rockface with each hole taking an average of four hours to create, each team needed three holes before they stuffed it with gunpower, straw and dust and then running very quickly whilst one of the lit it to break the rock open and enable them to clear the rocks to the surface through another shaft above our heads.
It sounded like a lot of work for no guaranteed riches but if lead/silver or other valuable items were found they might earn up to a £1 each which was a fortune in those times.
Everywhere we looked there were chisel marks and sometimes a glint of something shiny. Suddenly we were handed a candle, and the electric lighting was turned off as we were plunged into near total darkness, the candle went out and I couldn’t see a thing only hear the dripping of the water into the shafts and Jo’s breathing. With the lights turned back on I was very glad.
A board on one of the walls gave a list of names of men who had worked in those conditions including a Ned Hall who had arrived from Cornwall in the UK to teach the men safer ways of mining, not that it helped much as many of them died doing the job.
We arrived at a fence that we couldn’t pass, I could see a ladder poking out and our guide told us that the owners of the mine had strapped 7 full sized ladders together and lowered them down and still hadn’t reached the bottom, meaning it must have been hundreds of feet deep, even I wouldn’t want to find out.
Having retraced our steps we arrived back in the bright light slightly out of breath (well Jo was) after the climb back up and having returned out helmets we headed over to the circular powder house where the gunpower had been stored to find a small, thatched building which looked way to nice to hold something so deadly. A little further along was a white house which had once also been thatched and had been home to the mine managers at the time.
Having all enjoyed our mine experience and gained a small amount of gold we set off through the incredible vistas of the Connemara mountains to our nights’ accommodation.