Towards the end of the 19th century, the Claddagh started to go into decline, thanks mainly to the local fishermen not updating their methods of fishing. This economic decline continued into the last century so, when the Urban District Council announced in 1916 that they were starting a reclamation programme of the 30-acre field that was known locally as ‘The Swamp’, it caused a lot of excitement locally. A small working committee was established to carry out the details of organisation. From then on the area was to be known as South Park. I am not sure where that title came from, maybe they regarded the Square as East Park, Salthill Park as Westpark, but where was North Park?
So we have two photographs for you today to show the beginnings of change in the area. The first is a long shot of the Claddagh taken from the seashore which shows you why the area was known as the Swamp. It was subject to the tides which made it very marshy. It was regarded as an encouraging mark of progress that, “With a little bit of improvement every year, it would be made available to the citizens as a profit bearing venue for sporting and other fixtures”. Parts of the field were dry enough for children to play on, and hurling and football matches would have been played there.
It was also the venue for the Claddagh Races. This series of horse races was a major event in the Galway sporting calendar and always attracted very large crowds. Excursions were organised to “one of the best day’s sport in your life by the sea”. There were serious prizes on offer – in 1922, The Claddagh Plate was worth £25 to the winner; The Salthill Stakes was worth £5 and the curiously titled “Truce Plate” earned the winner £10. In addition, the South Park Plate was worth £19, The City of the Tribes Plate £12 and the winner of the Galway Donkey Derby took home £3. Big money in 1922.
There was a wall separating the Swamp from the village and it can be seen in each of our photograph, both of which date from c1900. You can see part of it on the far right of our second image which also shows the beginnings of the road that links Nimmo’s Pier with the junction of Fairhill Road – another major sign in the improvement of the Claddagh. The open space to the left in front of the cottages was known locally as ‘The Big Grass’ or ‘The Green Grass’ and it was where the local children played. It was also an area where the famous Claddagh geese used to congregate. It was said that any Claddagh woman could go to her door and whistle, and her goose, on recognizing that whistle, would then waddle home. These geese sometimes viciously attacked strangers to the village.
The wall between the village and the swamp was later added to and made much higher by the authorities as they turned the Swamp into the city dump. It functioned as that for a number of years until the 1950s when they moved the dump to the Headford Road. They levelled the swamp and converted it into playing pitches. Everyone going there to play a game was warned that if you came across a piece of broken glass or tin or anything sharp in the ground, then please pick it up and bring it over to the wall and leave it there away from the playing area. I remember picking up several pieces myself and I was one of the lucky ones – the unlucky ones were those who received cuts and had to straight to hospital for an anti-tetanus shot.
It was an efficient way of cleaning up the area and today, the swamp is no longer a swamp and is much used by the Galway public, it hosts many games in a variety of different sports and is frequented by many people training or walking the beautiful seashore walk from Nimmo’s Pier to the causeway out to Mutton Island, from where you can get a different view of the Claddagh and South Park.
