Category: Blog

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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

Posted on

Halfpints: Irish politics GEEKOUT

Ireland just had a voting bonanza: local elections, European elections, a referendum on divorce and a vote on directly elected mayor hardly anyone knew about… What were the results and what do they mean? Why did the Emerald Isle suddenly turn green, politically? Naomi gathers a team of Irish journalist colleagues to break down the good, the bad, and the downright weird. Featuring  RTÉ deputy foreign editor Colm Ó Mongáin, Mark Paul of the Irish Times, and Phelim O’Neill of the Irish Farmers Journal.

This bonus episode is now available for supporters over on our Patreon page.

Listen here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/27150346