Galway is one of the most modern of the Irish provincial capitals. It does
not figure at all in ancient annals. The first mention of it in the annals
of the Four Masters is under the year 1124, when it is stated that the men
of Connacht erected a castle in Galway. The first mention of it in the
annals of Loch Key is under the year 1191, when it is stated that the
river Gaillimh, from which the town takes its name, was dried up. The
cause of this phenomenon is not stated. Galway was at one time a place of
considerable wealth and trade. It was, in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, the port to which most of the Spanish wine destined for Ireland
used to come; and it is generally believed that a Spanish type of features
can still be noticed on some of its inhabitants. But whatever mercantile
prosperity Galway enjoyed some centuries ago, very little of it
unfortunately remains; for of all Irish towns the decrease of its
population has been the most terrible. In 1845 it contained very close on
35,000 inhabitants, in 1891 it had only 14,000! It is painful to walk
in the outskirts of the town and pass through whole streets in which
nothing remains save the ruins of cottages. Galway ought to be a
prosperous place, for it is situated on a noble bay that forms a spacious
harbour, sheltered from the fury of the Atlantic by the Isles of Arran. It
is pleasant to be able to state that the condition of this once fine city
is improving.
[Illustration: OLD HOUSES IN GALWAY.]
In spite of the signs of decay that are only too visible in Galway, it is
a very quaint and interesting town. It contains many buildings that were
erected centuries ago, in the days of its prosperity, that are evidences
of its former wealth and trade. In what may be called mediaeval remains, it
is, perhaps, richer than any other town in Ireland, and will well repay a
visit. It is one of the few large towns in Ireland in which a majority of
the people are bilingual, using both the English and Irish languages.
There is not much either of scenic or antiquarian interest in the
immediate vicinity of Galway; but if those who wish to see the most
ancient and gigantic cyclopean remains in Europe, or perhaps in the world,
go to the Isles of Arran, to which a small steamer sails from Galway, they
will be well repaid for a two hours' trip. The Arran Islands contain more
antique monuments of the pre-historic past and of a more interesting kind
than any other places of equal extent in these Islands. These monuments
consist of vast drystone fortresses that were raised by some pre-historic
race. There is what may be called historic tradition that they were built
by a remnant of the Firbolgs in the century preceding the Christian era;
but those most learned in things pertaining to Irish antiquities, do not
think there is any reliable historic evidence as to where or by whom they
were erected. The principal fortresses are, Dun Aengus, Dun Connor, Dun
Onacht and Dun Eochla. They are all in the Great Island, or Arran Mor,
except Dun Connor, which is in the Middle Island, or Inis Maan. Dun Connor
is the largest. It is considerably over two hundred feet long, and over a
hundred feet wide. Its treble walls are still twenty feet high in some
places, and from sixteen to eighteen feet in thickness. These vast
fortresses look as if they were the work of giants. Like almost every
relic of the past, they seem to have been more marred by men than by time.
They have evidently been injured by people looking for treasure; and a
good deal of their stones have been removed to build cabins and outhouses.
Miss Margaret Stokes, who has devoted almost all her life to the study of
Irish antiquities, and who consequently knows more about them, perhaps,
than any one in Ireland, says of these vast fortresses in Arran: "They are
the remains of the earliest examples of architecture known to exist in
Western Europe." There is something awfully grand and grim in the aspect
of these ruined fortresses. To gaze on their colossal dimensions and
barbaric rudeness seems to carry us back almost to the beginning of time,
when the earth was inhabited by beings unlike ourselves. But however old
the forts in Arran may be, it is evident that they were the strongholds of
a seafaring people; for the whole products of the barren islands on which
they stand would not be worth the labour of erecting such gigantic
fortresses for their protection. These islands support a good many people
now, thanks to the potato; but in ancient times, when it was unknown, it
is hard to understand how the multitude of men it must have taken to build
so many vast fortresses could have found sustenance on these barren isles;
and we are, therefore, almost driven to the conclusion that the fortresses
in the Isles of Arran were built by pirates or seafaring men of some
kind.