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A tour of Galway, City of the Tribes

In a recent episode of the Irish Passport Podcast, we visited the medieval city of Galway to trace the town’s ancient merchant oligarchy: the so-called Tribes. You can see some of the landmarks mentioned in that episode below, and if you are lucky enough to visit the city in the future, you can source them out for yourself!

The foundations of this unassuming house on Quay Street actually contain the remnants of the first building to be called a “castle” in Ireland – the 12th century Dún bhun na Gaillimhe (Fort at the mouth of the Galway River). The original building was erected by the Gaelic King of Connaught, Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair, before the Norman invasion of 1169.
On the winding Druid’s Lane, the remnants of a grand 13th century civic hall was discovered in the 1990s – this is the Hall of the Red Earl, where merchants and townspeople would meet for banquets, to collect taxes, and hold court.
Hidden above a window on Cross street, Adrian Martyn notes that this 14th century lintel is probably the only surviving depiction in stone of the (now-extinct) Irish wolf.
The fishing village of the Claddagh, just outside the city walls, is world-famous for its distinctive wedding ring. Many of the gold rings were pawned during the Great Famine to pay for passage to America, and thus became a symbol of Irish immigration around the world.
Marriage stones, celebrating familial alliances among the Tribes, are to be found above doors all over the city. This one, from 1615, is typical in its depiction of a double-herald, with both family crests united. The initials of the newlyweds are carved below.
The magnificent Lynch’s Castle was not a defensive building, but the town house of one of the most powerful Tribes: de Lynch. It hints at the splendour of the city’s architecture during the height of the Tribes’ commercial success.
Acts of vandalism committed by Cromwell’s invading army can still be seen in St Nicholas’s Church (est. 1320). Catholic iconography was defaced by the English army, and the church was reputedly used as a stable for the army’s horses.
This famous city map (now thought to date from 1664, rather than 1651) was created in the aftermath of Cromwell’s invasion, and is singularly noted for its exquisite detail. It was, in the words of Adrian Martyn, a message from the tribes that “This is our city, and by God we’re going to get it back”.

You can listen to our episode “Galway, City of The Tribes” here.

Galway, City of the Tribes

The Irish Passport
The Irish Passport
Galway, City of the Tribes
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Fishermen kings, Spanish galleons, and fearsome pirate marauders – these are just some of the things that make the history of Galway City on the west coast of Ireland so intriguing. Take a tour around the medieval old town with Tim Mc Inerney and historian Adrian Martyn, and find out all about the infamous ‘Tribes of Galway’ who presided over this western frontier-city for over five centuries. Who were they? Where on earth did they come from? And what’s left of them today? See Tim’s photographs of the landmarks discussed here.

For bonus episodes, support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/theirishpassport.

Season 3 of The Irish Passport podcast is made with the kind support of Biddy Murphy, online sellers of genuine Irish goods. Check them out on www.biddymurphy.com.

If you want to check out more from historian Adrian Martyn and order his book ‘The Tribes of Galway’, you can find his work here: https://adrianmartyn.ie/

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook: @PassportIrish.


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Halfpints: Gail McConnell reads ‘Type Face’

This bonus episode is available now for supporters over on our Patreon page. Belfast poet Gail McConnell reads her poem ‘Type Face’ in an exclusive recording for The Irish Passport Patreon supporters. As Gail explains in her introduction to the work, this poem discusses her experience of reading a report from Northern Ireland’s Historical Enquiries Team about the death of her father. A prison guard in the Maze, he was shot as he said goodbye to Gail and her mother on his way to work one morning. Settle in and let Gail’s reading bring you back in time to her Belfast bedroom as she searches for answers.

‘Type Face’ is published in Blackbox Manifold, online here. McConnell featured in our latest episode ‘Poetry and Pain’, in which she read her poem, ‘Start Out’.

Poetry and Pain

Listen here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28074634

Poetry and Pain

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A Newry woman visits her big brother in Paris. The two share a drink and talk all night. The next morning, he leaves instructions for taking the metro, and disappears. His family never see him again.

The story of Anne Morgan’s 32-year search for her missing brother Seamus is just one told in this episode, the second in a two-part series on the theme of dealing with the past. We speak to Damien McNally of Belfast’s Wave Trauma Centre about how trauma can be passed down from one generation to the next, and the implications of providing front-line care while political deadlock prevents wider societal change. Historian Roy Foster of Oxford University discusses Ireland’s culture of dealing with the past and how it differs from the mood in Britain as Brexit looms. From historical inquiries to ‘Derry Girls’, Naomi O’Leary and Tim Mc Inerney explore different routes to closure: through justice, truth-seeking, or creativity. This episode concludes with an exclusive reading by poet Gail McConnell of her poem about the Long Kesh breakout and the death of her father, ‘Start Out’.

This is the second of a two-part series on the issue of dealing with the past, dedicated to the memory of murdered journalist Lyra McKee. You can listen to part one here: https://www.theirishpassport.com/podcast/s3-episode-3-collusion/

You can read ‘Suicide of the Ceasefire Babies’, the essay which inspired these episodes, here.

’Start Out’ is published in Fourteen by Gail McConnell (Green Bottle Press, 2018): https://greenbottlepress.com/order-form/our-books/

Featuring editing by Alan Meaney http://alanmeaney.ie/ . Special thanks to Emma Rainey of Fem-Vibes podcast for reading an excerpt of Lyra McKee’s writing for us.

For bonus episodes, support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/theirishpassport.

Season 3 of The Irish Passport podcast is made with the kind support of Biddy Murphy, online sellers of genuine Irish goods. Check them out on www.biddymurphy.com.

The music you heard in this episode is Night II, by Swelling, and Serial Killer, by John Bartmann.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook: @PassportIrish.


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