Author Archives: finndelaney

A wet day on the Hill of Tara

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Church on the Hill of Tara

Church on the Hill of Tara

‘You don’t come to Ireland for the weather’ they say but sometimes the inclement weather actually adds to the experience. On Sunday I was part of a group of trainee tour guides who were led by Vincent Butler on a tour around the Boyne valley. We visited some of Ireland’s top attractions including the early Christian foundation at Monasterboice with its tall round tower and striking High Crosses, the visitor centre at Brú na Boínne and the iconic Hill of Tara.

Michael Slavin and his slide projector

Michael Slavin and his slide projector

We had a great time exploring and learning but it was wet and by the time we reached Tara it had gotten even wetter. Vincent had arranged for us to visit Michael Slavin’s bookshop located close to car park below the Church at Tara, which is the access point out on to the hill itself. The small bookshop is overflowing with books and when we had all squashed in Michael treated us to a slide show about Tara which will live long in my memory. It was a multimedia presentation in its purest sense and he started with a song.

With the sound of the old 35mm slide projector whirring in the darkened room Michael then brought us on a wonderful journey touching on the history, archaeology and folklore of the hill.

Three short snippets from the presentation give some feel for the natural storytelling rhythm of Michael’s delivery and also the special mix of history, archaeology, myth and legend which all combine to make Tara such a fascinating place.

The Lia Fáil on a sunny day (picture by iwinatcookie on Flickr)

The Lia Fáil on a sunny day (picture by iwanacookie on Flickr)

The Lia Fáil is a standing stone located on top of a Bronze Age ring barrow known as An Forradh. The Lia fáil or the stone of destiny is associated with inauguration and fertility rituals and as Michael relates it was reputed to roar when touched by the rightful king. The earth mother goddess Maeve is also associated with Tara and feasts, banqueting and festivals particularly at Bealtaine (Spring) are all part of the rich mythological lore associated with this hill.

A mere one hundred years ago a group of Israelites from Britain were convinced that the Ark of the Covenant was buried at Tara and Michael told us about the delegation of leading Irish nationalists including; Arthur Griffith, Maude Gonne and W.B. Yeats who eventually persuaded them to stop digging on the sacred hill.

St Patrick

St Patrick

An even more recent story is the reappearance of the statue to St Patrick which now stands just off the path leading up the church at Tara. It is the story as Michael puts it of a short, ten year long argument.

The Hill of Tara is a special place with a range of earthen monuments spread across a rounded plateau which looks out across the central plain of Ireland. The earliest monument on the hill is a Passage Tomb known as the mound of the hostages, which was built in the Neolithic period and has been dated to around 3,000 BC. It is most famously associated with the legendary High King, Cormac Mac Airt. St Patrick is also said to have visited Tara in an effort to convert the High King, Laoire. With the advent of Christianity Tara lost its religious significance and became simply the seat of the High King. The hill was also the location of a skirmish during the 1798 rebellion and Daniel O’Connell the great liberator held one of his monster meetings here during his campaign to repeal the Act of Union.

During the 1990s the Discovery Programme led by Conor Newman completed an in depth study of the monuments on Tara and undertook a comprehensive survey of the monuments using the latest field recording techniques including a suite of geophysical surveys. The results of these surveys were spectacular and showed that that the entire plateau was covered by the remains of denuded and weathered monuments which can no longer be seen by the naked eye. In tandem with the field surveys Edel Bhreatnach completed a history of the mythology and history relating to Tara and of kingship, and High kingship which ultimately resulted in the publication of the comprehensive Kingship and Landscape of Tara.

Michael Slavin's Bookshop

Michael Slavin’s Bookshop

On a visit Tara can be a difficult place to get to grips with as in many ways it is only from aerial photographs and geophysical images that the scale and complexity of this landscape of earthen mounds can truly be grasped. More so than other sites it requires a little background reading and knowledge but on a clear day the rewards are great as it allows us to let our imaginations free and conjure a place where people gathered to proclaim their kings and celebrate with elaborate feasts and festivals the continuous cycles of life.

Because of the weather we never managed to get got out on to the hill to explore the monuments or take in the views. We all left however laden down with great books and happy in the knowledge that due to Michael’s slide show we had a deeper understanding of the central place the Hill of Tara holds in the multi-threaded and multi-layered story of Ireland.

Slideshows can be organised for groups in advance by contacting Michael Slavin proprietor of the Old Bookshop on the Hill of Tara (kings@indigo.ie and 087 2554473)

The Roundstone Time Capsule

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Roundstone

Looking out towards the twelve bens from the pier in Roundstone.

On the first day of January 2013 a time capsule was interred in the new public space dedicated to Alexander Nimmo close to the pier in Roundstone, Co. Galway.

Memorial to Alexander Nimmo in the new public triangle close to the harbour in Roundstone.

Memorial to Alexander Nimmo in the new public triangle close to the harbour in Roundstone.

The time capsule project was the bright idea of Padraic McDonagh from the Shamrock bar in Roundstone and an energetic committee brought the idea to fruition. The project sought to encourage everybody with a connection to Roundstone to submit a letter to the future generations containing life stories, memories, family trees, old/recent photographs. The entries had to be submitted on acid free paper and envelopes which were available to purchase for €10. The capsule will be opened 50 years from now in 2063.

I caught up with Richard Duc de Stacpoole from the organizing committee who explained the genesis of the project and the rationale behind the idea. It was in many ways a project designed to capture the memories and stories of local people so that they could be shared with future generations.

The project really caught the imagination and hundreds of letters and photographs were submitted to the time capsule by Roundstone residents and those with an association with Roundstone from around the world. The capsule was open for submissions during the summer of 2012 and attracted visitors throughout the year. Padraic Lydon and Corina both from Carna but with strong connections to Roundstone were one of the first to submit a letter which they did one evening during the summer of 2012. That same evening late last summer they met a family group from Australia who had travelled to Roundstone in order to submit a letter. Padraic and Corina were excited to be in Roundstone for the closing and burying of the capsule. Padraic was a fisherman for forty years and in the audio below he talks about his memories of Roundstone and the changes he has seen over the years.

I also caught up with Francis Sullivan who arrived at the pier with a letter from his son which will be added to the capsule before all the submissions are vacuum packed and it is fully sealed next week. Francis thought the time capsule was a great idea and the package from his son contained some old photographs of Roundstone as well as a letter.

The time capsule was brought down to the new public triangle close to the pier by local children following twelve O’clock mass. A short well attended closing and burying ceremony then took place on a beautiful winter’s afternoon in one of the most scenic and picturesque settings in the west of Ireland. The Twelve bens glistened in the low sunlight and the sea in the harbor was flat calm.

It was one of the first events of the Gathering Ireland 2013 following the spectacular launch of the yearlong celebration on New Year’s eve in Dublin. There was a huge turnout in Roundstone for the official closing and burying ceremony with people gathered around the pier for most of the afternoon. As we heard from Richard de Stacpoole the ceremony attracted a group of twelve visitors from Italy who had never been to Ireland before let alone this beautiful village on the west coast.

Fixing the posts.

Fixing the posts.

Following the burial of the time capsule Connemara rugby club continued the festivities on the pier with a novel fund raising event. Music and food were provided and a set of rugby goal posts was floated in the middle of the harbour. A goal kicking competition set against the spectacular back drop of the twelve bens provided a focus for the afternoon and a large crowd were kept entertained. The local hostelries were doing a great trade serving hot and cold refreshments.

Getting set to split the posts in two.

Getting set to split the posts in two.

Padraic McDonagh the instigator of the Time capsule project was kept busy for the afternoon fishing rugby balls from the water.

Patrick McDonagh recovers rugby balls from the harbour.

Patrick McDonagh recovers rugby balls from the harbour.

The Time Capsule Project epitomises the ethos of the Gathering with a local community providing a novel and enjoyable celebration of their own place enjoyed by local and visitors alike. The event also encouraged a discussion about Roundstone today and the direction the community would like to steer for the next fifty years before the capsule is opened in 2063.

Crowds on the pier at Roundstone after the burying of the time capsule.

Crowds on the pier at Roundstone after the burying of the time capsule.

Stories from the Wall – Parts 4 and 5

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The Walls That Shaped A City

Close up of the eastern curtain wall (from the seventeenth century pictorial map of Galway City)

Close up of the eastern curtain wall (from the seventeenth century pictorial map of Galway City)

While today only two large upstanding sections of the town wall survive the imprint of the walls remains clear as the centre of the modern town is still effectively the area enclosed by those medieval walls. The Street pattern which lends Galway its characteristic atmosphere is clearly a reflection of the shape of the medieval walled town.

Galway is fortunate to have had many fine historians and archaeologists who have researched and told its story. Paul Walsh has spent years tracing the history of Galway and in particular its town walls.

‘For some 500 years the town walls defined the town of Galway not simply as a topographic entity but also as an expression of the inhabitant’s need for security. The story of the town walls is one of repair and alteration in the face of impending danger and neglect when that danger had passed. Ever since their initial building in the later thirteenth century their impact was immense. They not only demarcated the limits of the settlement and offered protection to those within but also allowed the inhabitants to use them to exercise both physical and economic control over who and what should be admitted. To an outsider the walls were both a physical barrier and a convincing deterrent’.

Map of Galway showing the locations of the Gates, bulwarks and mural towers. (2) Penrice’s Tower, (3) New tower/Shoemaker’s Tower (from Paul Walsh’s ‘The Town walls and Fortifications’)

Map of Galway showing the locations of the Gates, bulwarks and mural towers. (2) Penrice’s Tower, (3) New tower/Shoemaker’s Tower (from Paul Walsh’s ‘The Town walls and Fortifications’)

The town walls enclosed an area of eleven hectares which was quite small in comparison to other medieval ports like Dublin, Waterford and Limerick. There were four gate houses or entrances into the town and the walls were strengthened by the addition of at least seven substantial towers. Two of these towers known as Penrice’s tower and the new or shoemakers tower were rebuilt to their original height and can be seen along with a section of the original eastern curtain wall within the Eyre Square centre. The main entrance to the town was through the Great Gate situated in the middle of the eastern curtain wall just to the north west of the section of the visible town wall. This main gate was protected by a rectangular walled and defended courtyard.

Archaeological investigations in the city along the line of the old town wall have revealed that they were subject to continuous repair and addition throughout their long history. The walls were on average 1.75 m wide and were up to 7 m tall. The pictorial Map depicts the eastern curtain wall as having a wall-walk with steps up to it on either side of the great gate. In a description of the town by Richard Bellings in 1682 he remarked that the walls were ‘in most parts of them broad enough for three to walk abreast’.

Galway is truly fortunate to have a remarkable map of the town which shows its layout in great detail in the middle of the seventeenth century. It was compiled by Fr Henry Joyce a vicar of St Nicholas Church and provides rich details about the town and its environs. It may not be an exact factual representation of Galway at a given point in time and in fact its title suggests it is an ‘historical delineation’. The map was dedicated to king Charles II and seems to have been  produced in order remind the English King that Galway had remained loyal to the crown and had suffered the consequences of this position by being attacked by the Cromwell’s parliamentarian forces. In effect it was a reminder to the King not to forget his loyal town.

Pictorial map of mid-seventeenth century Galway

Pictorial map of mid-seventeenth century Galway

It is a fascinating visual description of a prosperous late medieval town connected via its port to the trade routes and commercial networks of Europe. The town it depicts is instantly recognisable as the street pattern depicted is largely the street pattern in existence in Galway to this day.

The Excavation

Plan of the South Bastion walls, the town wall, Penrice’s Tower and New Tower at Merchants Road (From Marcus Casey XXXXX in Archaeological Excavations in Galway City, 1987 – 1988)

Plan of the South Bastion walls, the town wall, Penrice’s Tower and New Tower at Merchants Road (From Marcus Casey XXXXX in Archaeological Excavations in Galway City, 1987 – 1988)

The stretch of town wall along the east side of the town to the south of the main gate and including two mural towers was excavated prior to construction work starting on the Eyre Square Centre. The later 17th century southern bastion which enclosed the new tower was also excavated.

The town wall survived in this location as it formed the perimeter of the late medieval citadel and a later barracks. The excavations were led by Marcus Casey and significant high medieval and post-medieval fortifications were recorded which largely confirmed the representation of the wall on the seventeenth century pictorial map. The wall with its basal batter and the two D-shaped defensive mural towers were rebuilt to their original height and incorporated into the Eyre Square development.

Penrice’s tower survived to a height of 2 m and was very well preserved. The tower was D-shaped in plan and had a basal batter. The masonry was of a very high quality and was built in courses with hammer dressed limestone blocks. The tower was keyed into the basal batter of the town wall itself and was built on top of a footing of large granite boulders. The southern tower has been recorded as the New Tower and the Shoemaker’s tower on various maps and plans. It formed the south eastern corner of the town wall. It was also D-shaped in plan but was constructed with uncoursed blocks and boulders of local stone.

The south bastion surrounded the new tower and was built at the behest of the mayor John Blake in 1647 as part of the town’s new defences. It survived to a height of 2 m and was between 2 – 3.5 m wide. The remains of the outer wall built parallel to the main curtain wall as part of the seventeenth century defences were also uncovered and recorded.

The rebuilt section of the wall and the two towers give a vivid indication of the size and scale of the fortifications. The town with its high defensive wall would have been an impressive and imposing sight during the medieval and post-medieval period.

Sources

Walsh, Paul 2001 Discover Galway, the O’Brien Press, Dublin

Walsh, Paul 1996 ‘the topography of medieval and early modern Galway City’, in G. Moran, R. Gillespie (eds.) Galway History and Society, Geography Publications, Dublin

Walsh, Paul 2004 ‘The Town Walls and Fortifications’ in E. Fitzpatrick, M. O’Brien and P. Walsh (eds.) Archaeological Excavations in Galway City, 1987 – 1988, Wordwell, Bray.

Casey, Marcus 2004 XXXXX in E. Fitzpatrick, M. O’Brien and P. Walsh (eds.) Archaeological Excavations in Galway City, 1987 – 1988, Wordwell, Bray.

Korff, A., O’Conell, J. And Higgins, J. 1990 Medieval Galway: a ramblers guide and map, TírEolas, Kinvara.

Thomas, A. 1992 The walled towns of Ireland, Irish Academic Press, Dublin

Bradley, J and Fitzpatrick, L. 1985 The urban Archaeological Survey of Galway City, The Archaeological Survey of Ireland, OPW, Dublin.

Stories from the Wall – Part 3

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John Blake builds a bastion

Armorial plaque with the arms of Galway City dated to 1647 (drawing by Jenny McKenna in Jim Higgins’ Galway’s Heritage in Stone , Galway City Museum catalogue No. 1)

Galway while independent and wealthy had always remained loyal to the English crown and this was to be its undoing. Galway was very much a town inhabited by Old English families with religious sympathies allied to the Gaelic Irish. Both these groups found common cause against the rise of non conformism and parliamentarianism in England. This was ostensibly based on religious grounds but was also very much related to the retention of land and wealth. There was turmoil during the political and religious change brought about due to the Reformation and Counter Reformation. In Galway these upheavals were exacerbated by the fact that in light of new military developments such as cannon the town was badly sited and easily attacked. The ancient walls offered no protection from the military disadvantage of being dominated by rising ground to the east and south. The wall was upgraded and a new fort was constructed by the then mayor John Blake to meet the demands of more modern warfare but successive defeats to Cromwell’s forces and the Williamites dealt a serious blow to its prosperity and eventually led to ‘its stagnation as a provincial town, down at heel and isolated’.

By the end of the sixteenth century the English crown was taking much more interest in Galway due to its trading links with Spain – with who England was soon to be at war. In 1579 the Lord Justice in Ireland Sir William Pelham visited Galway and left behind a garrison force of 100 men and from this point on the town could no longer claim to be separate or independent. War broke out with Spain in 1585 and in 1594 open war broke out in Ireland which culminated with the defeat of the Irish at the battle of Kinsale in 1601. In 1602 work began on building a fort outside the town wall which surrounded the Augustinian Friary. The building of the fort was an acknowledgement that due to the introduction of canon the town walls were no longer enough to defend the town. The fort was also a statement and symbol of English authority.

Close up of the fort surrounding the Augustinian friary (from the seventeenth century pictorial map of Galway City)

Under James I and the Counter Reformation Galway and its merchant families again prospered but it was a short lived respite before the calamitous siege of Galway and the town’s surrender to Cromwell’s parliamentarian forces.

The fort became the centre of a dispute between the largely royalist and catholic townspeople and the protestant pro parliamentarian commander of the garrison fort, Captain Willooughby. The people of the town under the control of Colonel John Burke captured the fort after a nine week siege. On 6th August 1643 the mayor and corporation threw open the gates of the town and declared for the rebellion. The town firmly declared themselves for Charles I and the Royalist cause and against the parliament. The fort was demolished and the Augustinian church was also levelled in case it was captured and used by a besieging force. In anticipation of a backlash the town then began to prepare for war by adding elements to the towns defences. The town was most vulnerable from its eastern side and so in 1646 – 1647 and at the behest of the new mayor John Blake the town built two large bastions at either end of the east curtain wall and another surrounding the great gate. There was great pride taken in these new defences and framed plaques bearing the Galway coat of arms were inserted into the new bastions.

Oliver Cromwell

By the time Cromwell’s new model army led by Charles Coote finally came before the town in July 1651 Galway was with limerick the last remaining stronghold against the efforts of Oliver Cromwell to reduce Ireland to submission. After a nine month siege the town surrendered in April 1652. Dereliction and decay followed in the wake of the town’s surrender. Some of the leading families managed to escape to their country estates but large numbers of townspeople were rounded up by the military governor of Galway Colonel Peter Stubbers and transported to the West Indies where they were sold into slavery. Stubbers was declared mayor and for the next thirty years the corporation was in the hands of the ‘English and Protestants’.

For a brief period when Charles II resumed the throne of England conditions improved slightly for the Catholics of Galway however in civil matters the corporation still remained in the hands of the protestant English settlers. There was stagnation in the commercial sphere and trade in the once busy port declined steadily. Charles II was replaced on the English throne by his brother James II. Once the catholic James II was installed on the English throne in 1685 catholic merchants in Galway took over the corporation and elected John Kirwan as mayor. James alienated his English subjects due to his pro catholic stance and was replaced by his daughter Mary and her Dutch protestant husband William. James II decided to use Ireland as a stepping stone to regaining his English throne. Once James II landed in Ireland in his attempt to regain the throne the town of Galway sent six companies of soldiers to his aid. The townspeople also began to build a whole new range of fortified earthworks on the eastern side of the town outside the stone bastions built before the Cromwellian siege.

Following the decisive battle of Aughrim in 1691 the Williamite army appeared before the town which surrendered once the fort surrounding the Augustinian abbey was taken. They knew that from there the attacking army could destroy the walls and fortification with cannon.

Sources

Walsh, Paul 2001 Discover Galway, the O’Brien Press, Dublin

Walsh, Paul 1996 ‘the topography of medieval and early modern Galway City’, in G. Moran, R. Gillespie (eds.) Galway History and Society, Geography Publications, Dublin

Walsh, Paul 2004 ‘The Town Walls and Fortifications’ in E. Fitzpatrick, M. O’Brien and P. Walsh (eds.) Archaeological Excavations in Galway City, 1987 – 1988, Wordwell, Bray.

Korff, A., O’Conell, J. And Higgins, J. 1990 Medieval Galway: a ramblers guide and map, TírEolas, Kinvara.

Thomas, A. 1992 The walled towns of Ireland, Irish Academic Press, Dublin

Bradley, J and Fitzpatrick, L. 1985 The urban Archaeological Survey of Galway City, The Archaeological Survey of Ireland, OPW, Dublin.

Stories from the Wall – Part 2

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Pierce Lynch becomes the Mayor

Boats tied to the quays down at the Spanish Arch (an extract from a pen & watercolour by A. Korf based on the a 1686 drawing by T. Phillips)

After a series of upheavals the de Burgo’s who over the years had become more Irish then the Irish themselves and operated independently of the English Crown had been usurped as Lords of the town. Ironically the town wall built by Walter de Burgo became a defence against the de Burgo’s themselves. The King of England gradually gave the people of Galway more power which culminated in the granting of a charter which allowed them to elect Pierce Lynch as the first mayor of the town. With this growing independence trading opportunities increased and real wealth began to be generated by the merchant families who also came to dominate the political and religious spheres. Bristol became a great trading partner but trade was not confined to England and Galway merchants had business dealings with Spain, Italy and even the middle east. Secure within its walls the people of Galway remained loyal to the King of England but developed an independence like that of the powerful city states of Renaissance Italy.

In 1348 the black death arrived in Ireland and within five months of its arrival in Dublin 14,000 people had died. Galway was developing a sizable external trade and the plague curtailed this development until the beginning of the fifteenth century.

Walter de Burgo’s son Richard was known as the Red Earl and was one of the most powerful of the Norman –Irish magnates. He did not spend much time in Galway which was largely overseen by his cousin William de Burgo. Following the murder of the Red Earl’s son also William there was a series of factional family struggles to gain control over his vast possessions. The English Crown used the opportunity to claim control of Galway which ultimately led to open revolt by the townspeople. King Richard II used his visit to Ireland in 1395 to pardon the townspeople for their disloyalty. He Knighted William Burke (de Burgo) acknowledging his position but at the same time granted the townspeople a charter which gave them some control of the town and vastly reduced the power of the Burkes as they had become known.

Throughout the fifteenth century Galway remained loyal to the crown and in 1484 Richard III gave Galway a new charter. After years of petitioning the charter gave them effective independence from outside control. The townspeople of Galway were granted the power to elect their own mayor, bailiffs and corporation and the MacWilliam Burkes were explicitly excluded from any lordship over the town. Coupled with this political independence came a religious independence because at the same time St Nicholas Church was removed from the control of the native Irish and the Abbey of Knockmoy and was set up as a Collegiate Church. The citizens of Galway were able to elect a warden who handled the ecclesiastical affairs of the town.

This is a Portugese faience vase which was found in Quay Street and dates to between 1600 and 1650.

Galway began to expand its trading and commercial networks during the fourteenth century and this expansion continued into the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. By 1386 customs collected on trade in the town had reached £200 yearly and at that point was largely based on the wool and fish trade. A measure of the prestige in which Galway was held by the outside world was the foundation of a mint in 1473 which allowed for the king’s money to be minted. During the fifteenth century the town cultivated the Spanish wine trade which increased its trading contacts.

A measure of Galway’s medieval trading links can be seen in the finds from the excavations which have taken place in the town. Many of these finds are on on display in the ‘Within the walls exhibition’ at The Galway City Museum.

Lynch’s Castle (engraved for Hardiman’s History of Galway)

The first half of the sixteenth century is generally seen as Galway’s finest hour. A great fire raged through the town in 1473 which allowed for a major rebuilding programme. A small number of families controlled the towns administration and became extremely wealthy. These families include the Blakes, Brownes, Darcys, Frenchs, Kirwans, Martins and Lynchs. The construction of the lavish urban tower house known as Lynch’s castle was just one reflection of this wealth. The fine stone houses and courtyards depicted on the magnificent pictorial map date to this period. Galway was remarkable to behold. An Italian visitor to the town in 1568 observed that;

‘I travelled the best part of Christendom and never saw such a sight as this.’

The leading families developed a monopoly on trade and through this control maintained their power.

family names and crests of the fourteen tribes of Galway (Photo by Eoin Gardiner)

One of the factors in the success of the town was the security provided by the town walls and this fact was keenly recognised by the town’s administrators. The 1396 charter provided for the upkeep of the walls by providing money from the tolls and customs generated by the town’s trade. This money must have been insufficient as in 1460 it was ordered that one-third of all fines collected in the town were to be spent on;

‘reparations and building of the town walls and works’

John Speed’s Plan of Galway from 1610

Survey and excavations have shown that the town wall shows clear evidence of multi-period construction and alteration. Other laws were passed during the 16th century to ensure that four masons were employed for the specific task of;

‘edifying and reparations of our common works and walls’

The local administration also took great care to make sure that the walls were not encroached upon by any building and the very real fear of fire can be seen in the order prohibiting the building or repairing of thatched houses within 14 ft of the town walls.

Sources

Walsh, Paul 2001 Discover Galway, the O’Brien Press, Dublin

Walsh, Paul 1996 ‘the topography of medieval and early modern Galway City’, in G. Moran, R. Gillespie (eds.) Galway History and Society, Geography Publications, Dublin

Walsh, Paul 2004 ‘The Town Walls and Fortifications’ in E. Fitzpatrick, M. O’Brien and P. Walsh (eds.) Archaeological Excavations in Galway City, 1987 – 1988, Wordwell, Bray.

Korff, A., O’Conell, J. And Higgins, J. 1990 Medieval Galway: a ramblers guide and map, TírEolas, Kinvara.

Thomas, A. 1992 The walled towns of Ireland, Irish Academic Press, Dublin

Bradley, J and Fitzpatrick, L. 1985 The urban Archaeological Survey of Galway City, The Archaeological Survey of Ireland, OPW, Dublin.

Stories from the Wall – Part 1

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Looking north along the line of the town wall in the Eyre Square shopping centre today.

Introduction

An O’Connor King

The story of Galway city begins when Turlough O’Conor the king of Connacht built a fort overlooking the ford at the mouth of the river Corrib at the beginning of the twelfth century. This fort was probably a timber structure as there are repeated reports of it burning down. The O’Hallorans and O’Flaherty’s were allied to the O’Conor king and together they fought of Richard de Burgo and his army when the Norman Knight first came to claim his grant of the lands of Connacht in 1230. De Burgo was back a few years later with a larger army and took control of the river crossing and built a castle to protect it. A town grew up around the castle and despite continued aggression from the native Irish families and periodic burnings the de Burgos continued to control the castle and the burgeoning town. A plaque supposedly erected over the west gate into the town bore the inscription ‘From the Ferocious O Flaherty’s O Lord deliver us’. The walls built by the de Burgo’s to secure the town and its trade were to dominate the story of Galway for the next 500 years.

Norman Knights

Walter de Burgo Builds a Wall

Map of Galway c. 1400 (from Paul Walsh’s Discover Galway)

The Norman knight Richard de Burgo came to claim his grant of the lands of Connacht. This required the building of a castle around which a town grew. Among those who accompanied the de Burgo family to Connacht were a host of other mercenaries. It was these families and their descendants who would eventually take over the running of the town as it grew in importance and wealth. Richard de Burgo’s son Walter is credited with the idea of building the town wall. It was Walter who enabled the people of the town to levy tolls on the goods being brought into the town for trade. This money was then used to finance the building of the town wall which would offer protection to the townspeople from the native Irish families like the O’Hallorans and the O’Flaherty’s. The wall provided security and allowed the town of Galway to increase its trading capacity.

Walter de Burgo the son of Richard de Burgo is credited with starting to build Galway’s town wall. It was Walter who granted his tenants a murage charter which gave them the power to levy tolls on a range of commodities coming into the settlement. The money collected from this trading tax was used to finance the building of the walls. The commodities traded at the time would have included hides, fleeces, fish wine and salt.

Two documents from the 1270’s survive which give details about what exactly the money collected in those years was spent on.

‘in making a large fire to burn lime, and for wood carried to the same, and for the wages of masons and other workmen employed in the breaking of stone and conveying it to the same place during the same time and for the wages of workmen and others assisting the masons to make walls on the side towards the sea and to build a tower beyond the great gate and in buying iron for fabricating crows, pickaxes, nails and other tools for wages of carpenters working about the tower and for carriage of timber and carpenters work at the gate and for various other necessary works’

The documents give a feel for the size of the undertaking in the days before machinery. It is likely that the main wall surrounding the town which was to shape its history for the following centuries emerged between 1250 and 1270. It would have been a powerful statement of intent to the surrounding native Irish families that the town and the settlers were was there to stay.

The section of wall which can be seen in the Eyre Square shopping centre would have been the first to be built as it offered protection to the east of the town which unlike the rest of the settlement had no natural defences. Walters’s son Richard continued the process of collecting murage grants to embellish and fortify the walls and roughly 150 years after the arrival of the de Burgos the whole settlement was defended by a tall well built wall.

The town walls offered security to the merchant families descended from those who followed Richard de Burgo to Connacht in the early thirteenth century. By the beginning of the fourteenth century the town contained between 150 – 180 burgages or family plots which together provided 9 pounds of yearly rental income to the lord of the town which at this period was still the de Burgos who kept a tight reign on its affairs.

St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church (engraved for Hardiman’s History of Galway

A measure of the prosperity of the town at this time can be gauged by the ability to finance a major expansion of St Nicholas church in 1320. The security afforded by the town wall allowed the towns merchants to increase their trading links. Galway had started out as a trading port for the de Burgo’s manor at Loughrea but during the fourteenth century the size and range of its trading links expanded. Through this trade the wealth of its merchants grew and with this increased wealth came the power to control the workings of what was rapidly becoming their town.

Sources

Walsh, Paul 2001 Discover Galway, the O’Brien Press, Dublin

Walsh, Paul 1996 ‘the topography of medieval and early modern Galway City’, in G. Moran, R. Gillespie (eds.) Galway History and Society, Geography Publications, Dublin

Walsh, Paul 2004 ‘The Town Walls and Fortifications’ in E. Fitzpatrick, M. O’Brien and P. Walsh (eds.) Archaeological Excavations in Galway City, 1987 – 1988, Wordwell, Bray.

Casey, Marcus 2004 XXXXX in E. Fitzpatrick, M. O’Brien and P. Walsh (eds.) Archaeological Excavations in Galway City, 1987 – 1988, Wordwell, Bray.

Korff, A., O’Conell, J. And Higgins, J. 1990 Medieval Galway: a ramblers guide and map, TírEolas, Kinvara.

Thomas, A. 1992 The walled towns of Ireland, Irish Academic Press, Dublin

Bradley, J and Fitzpatrick, L. 1985 The urban Archaeological Survey of Galway City, The Archaeological Survey of Ireland, OPW, Dublin.

A Learning Landscape Symposium – Part 3

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Burrenbeotrust’s Placed-based Education Event – From Apathy to Empathy: Reconnecting people and Place

The workshops continued on day three with a session on international best practice in place based learning.

All the workshops again focused on delegate participation and the pace of learning and exchange of ideas set during day 2 continued unabated.

Following his morning workshop with Sean McDonagh on ecology and ethics I caught up with Barry Fliin.  The three day symposium used the phrase from apathy to empathy in its title. Barry works with Ashoka Ireland who  are heavily involved with promoting empathy and so I started by asking him to explain what empathy is all about. Barry then discusses the concept of empathy in relation to education and how it ties in with the objectives of place based learning and the learning landscapes symposium.

Towards the end of session 4 all the delegates and participants were in reflective mood.

Gordon MacLellan from creeping toad talks about his experience  in Kinvara and the burren during the learning landscapes symposium. Gordon had one more workshop to complete and was looking forward to getting out and about around Kinvara.

In a similar reflective mood Helen Lawless from Moutaineering Ireland gives her thoughts on the learning landscape symposium. Helen looks forward to a long three hour drive when she will be able to process all the information gleaned over the last few days and formulate a personal action plan.

Similar to day 2 the afternoon sessions on day 3 were outdoor workshops and this time explored the theme of reconnecting people with place.

One of Ireland’s great environmental communicators, John Feehan led a workshop group into the burren for another perfect example of place based learning.

In the following audio clip John  recounts the traditional story of St Mochuda and then uses clues from the landscape to offer another perspective on the monastic site.

On the way back from our afternoon on the burren with John Feehan Dathi O’Sulabhain reflects on his few days in the burren as a delegate on the learning landscapes symposium.

A final panel session was held upstairs in the Burrenbeotrust’s offices in Kinvara. The symposium was reviewed by the speakers and delegates and plans were made for another event next year.

Aine Bird, Burrenbeotrust’s communications officer reflects on a great couple of days at the learning landcapes symposium in the burren and looks forward to next year.

Brendan Dunford from Burrenbeo trust reflects on the three days of the learning landscapes symposium. Brendan had three main objectives at the outset of the event and believes the symposium was successful on all three fronts; highlighting the value of place based learning, sharing best practice with regard to place based learning and highlighting the potential of the burren for place based learning.

Gaisce – Gold Medal Awards Ceremony

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Inspirational young people from all over Ireland received Gaisce Gold Awards from President Michael D. Higgins for outstanding community work and significant personal achievements. Gaisce, the President’s Award is presented to modern day heroes and heroines aged between the ages of 15 and 25 years who achieve personal goals in different types of activity including community involvement, personal skills, physical recreation and adventure.

The assembled guests in the magnificent St Patrick’s Hall were welcomed by the chairman of Gaisce, John Concannon. John was full of admiration for the young people about to be honoured and was particularly struck by the levels of community involvement and volunteering. He also thanked all the President’s Award Leaders, the new Gaisce council members, the minister for children Francis Fitzgerald and the British ambassador Mr Dominic Chilcot. A special word of welcome and thanks was afforded to the patron of Gaisce the President of of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.

The president then addressed the gathering and it became abundantly clear that both Gaisce and children’s affairs in general are at the heart of his thinking about developing a new more compassionate and caring Ireland. He encouraged the young people present to continue to be active engaged citizens and to be the arrow and not the target. The President then handed out the gold medals.

Barney Callaghan the Chief Executive of Gaisce concluded the ceremony by once again thanking all those present. He also encouraged the gold award recipients to continue their work with Gaisce and to become President Award Leaders. Barney exhorted everyone to recognise the good news stories we have all witnessed today.

What follows are some interviews with the awardees, Preseident Award Leaders, Parents, Gaisce Council Members, Gaisce Staff and interested invited guests which hopefully gives a flavour of this truly inspirational day.

A Learning Landscape Symposium – Part 2

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Burrenbeotrust’s Placed-based Education Event – From Apathy to Empathy: Reconnecting people and Place

The Learning Landscape Symposium was based around morning and afternoon workshops which lasted 3 hours and were limited to a maximum of twenty participants to encourage delegate participation. The morning workshops were held in small intimate venues around Kinvara and the afternoon workshops involved field trips out into the burren.

The morning session on day 2 composed of five workshops focusing on international best practice in placed based learning. Gregory Traymor arrived in from America and explained the sharing nature with children philosophy and outlines briefly what flow learning is. Gregory is the USA Director of Sharing Nature, Joseph Cornell’s worldwide nature education organisation. Gregory has been working with Joseph Cornell for over 5 years and is responsible for coordinating and leading Sharing Nature Workshops in North America. He is a keen advocate of the Flow Learning technique.


All the morning workshops generated a lot of participation from the delegates and this was to be a theme running through the three days of the symposium. Nessa Cronin and Karen Till led a workshop entitled Learning Journeys – mapping place and community through memory and imagination. Karen Till describes in the audio below how her workshop with Nessa Cronin panned out. They ending up providing toolkits and resources to the people in the room. There was no apathy and plenty of empathy in Connolloy’s pub where the workshop was took place.


There were plenty of breaks during the workshops for coffee and chat and during one of the breaks I listened in while Isabel Smyth from the Heritage Council and Gordon MacLellan from Creeping Toad discussed the importance of place based events.

In the audio below Isabel Smyth the communications officer with the Heritage Council outlines their involvement with BurrenbeoTrust and the educational benefits of place based learning.


Following the morning workshops everybody reconvened in the loacl community centre for some local food, coffee and even more chat.
I bumped into Dolores Keegan an environmental educator in Brigit’s Garden in Galway and she shared her thoughts on her morning workshop with Gordon MacLellan. This was only one of hundreds of similar conversations which took place over lunch.

After lunch we hopped on busses which ferried everybody out into the burren for the afternoon workshops. There were five workshops in Session 3; Reconnecting people and place. As we lined up for the busses I bumped in to Gerry O’Leary another participant on the Symposium. Gerry described a life times engagement with the burren and as he says himself “life is there to be enjoyed and the greatest show on earth is the outdoors”.

In the afternoon I attended the workshop led by Michael Gibbons; Prehistoric pilgrimage in the burren uplands – modern myth or ancient reality. Michael led us up Slieve Carron and in a brilliant example of place-based learning he explored the history and prehistory of the burren as we walked along the elevated plateau. There was plenty of particpation from the delegates and Michael was challenged and questioned and together we left with a greater understanding of a magical landscape.

In the following audio Michael Gibbons discusses early Irish Christianity on top of Slieve Carron.

Eamon Ryan was a delegate on the learning landscape symposium and he also joined Michael on the walk up Slieve Carron. In the following audio Eamon shares some of his experiences from the burren and outlines a vision for creating sustainable low cost tourist infrastructure. Eamon also learnt a lot from the walk which he felt was the epitome of place-based learning.

On the walk back down off slieve carron I caught up with Michael and as you can hear in the following interview his love for the burren shines through he also pays tribute to Burrenbeotrust and the Heritage Council.

It was a wonderful day. Later that evening in one of Kinvara’s fine hosteleries there was an evening of story and song which was hosted by Eugene Lambe with special guests which included Moya Cannon and Brian O’Rourke. The conversations continued into the night.

A Learning Landscape Symposium – Part 1

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Burrenbeotrust’s Placed-based Education Event -  From Apathy to Empathy: Reconnecting people and Place

The Learning Landcape Symposium run by Burrenbeotrust ran from 22nd Agust to 24th August this year. It was an amazing event with a wonderful array of speakers, workshops and participants. The Trust members decided to invite all of the educators who had written the books and articles  that have inspired them in their environmental education roles down through the years and everybody they contacted said yes they would love to come. I stopped by the BurrenbeoTrust’s offices on the way to the opening reception and the first session and caught up with Aine Bird Burrenbeotrust’s communications officer.

The opening reception was held in the beautiful Burren College of Art where there was food, music and chat.

From the outset it was very clear that the particpants on the symposium were going to play a huge role in its success. The cross talk and chat never stopped from the moment people arrived to register until their departure two days later and. Zachary Silke and Colm Grant were both looking forward to the learning landscapes symposium and exploring ways to reconnect people to place. 

I caught up with Brendan Dunford in the bowels of the circular tower house which guards the entrance into the courtyard of the Burren College of Art prior to the opening session. Brendan outlined what he was hoping to achieve with the symposium. He wanted to; highlight and promote the benefits of place-based learning, share ideas and experiences and explore ways to exploit the potential of the burren as a learning landscape.

Brigid Barry BurrenbeoTrust’s Learning Landscapes Symposium Co-ordinator describes the excitment surrounding the event and also outlines the workshop format. Brigid also explains the rationale behind the workshop venues and the local support which the event has received.

After a bit to eat and lots of chat everybody gathered in the lecture hall for the first session of the symposium – The importance of place based learning . Martin Hakes from Burrenbeo trust chaired the session and immediately handed the floor to Brendan Dunford who gave a stirring introduction to the burren and the wonderful work of the Burrenbeotrust. As Brendan described in his talk you don’t have to travel far to have a wonderful immersive experience in the burren. The volunteers who work with Burrenbeo get introduced to a range of activities and learn about the environment by doing. Michael Lynch the trust’s field monuments advisor has led an excavation in Fanore over several seasons which has been staffed by volunteers and local school children. Burrenbeo run wild child days where children get to commune with nature in a semi structured way. The Eco Beo project has seen 800 children graduate from an intensive 20 week environmental education course as burren experts. These children will be the custodians of the burren landscape and Brendan gave a wonderful example of how this custodianship flourishes during the Eco Beo course. Girls from a primary school in the burren were waiting for Brendan the day he was due to give the course in their school. They wanted to show him the rare orchid they had found growing in the grass surrounding the school. They were worried however that the flowers would be destroyed when the grass was cut by the caretaker and had marked out the area where the orchid was growing by staking it with a ring of crows feathers and keeping a watchful eye until Brendan arrived. Environmental activisim in action. Brendan evoked Seamus Heaney in the hopes that ‘we would have our hearts blown open’ by the experience of attending the symposium.

David Sobel then took to the stage and delivered the key note address: Place-based education: making school more like a farmers market. David Sobel is Senior Faculty in the Education Department at Antioch University, New England. He consults and speaks widely on child development and place-based education. He has authored seven books and more than 60 articles focused on children and nature for educators, parents, environmentalists and school administrators in the last 30 years. His most recent books are Place-based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities published by the Orion Society, Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators published by Stenhouse and Wild Play, Parenting Adventures in the Great Outdoors published by Sierra Books. He was recognised as one of the Daring Dozen educational leaders in the United States in 2007 by Edutopia magazine.

David’s argument was that education in general should have a distinctive local charachter just like the produce you find at a farmers market. Education should have a terroir just like good food. He encouraged us to use the local as a window into the wider world. David also made the point that schools should help to support local communities and be integral to the wider workings of their communities and he evoked many terrific examples where place-based education had been intorduced with hugely beneficial outcomes for both students and local communities. David is also heavily involved with the measurement of the benfits of placed-based learning so there was lots of empirical evidnece to back up the evidence from the wonderful individual examples.

Luka Bloom sang a couple of songs at the end of the opening session of the learning landscapes symposium in the burren college of art in Ballyvaughan. In this snippet he outlines what the burren means to him.

Luka Bloom introduced and sang his song ‘The Fertile Rock’ and it was a great way to round of the opening day of the learning landscape symposium.