Search Results for 'Bernadette Cunningham'

This Halloween midterm break, the ghosts of Gaelic Ireland may be gracing the galleries of Galway City Museum as Dave Swift of Claíomh Living History, shines a light on Ireland’s Gaelic past.

Seventy years after Margaret Athy’s generous patronage of the Augustine abbey and buildings on Fort Hill (originally St Augustine’s Hill), with its commanding view of the port and the town, the place was turned into a butcher’s block. Approximately 300 survivors of the ill-fated Armada were beheaded there.

In the early years of the 16th century, Stephen Lynch fitz Dominick was returning from an extended trading voyage in Spain. He set out with a full cargo, probably of hides, wool, and fish, which he hoped to trade for wine and iron with Spanish merchants. As he approached Galway port he was surprised to see a church and buildings almost completed on Fort Hill (originally called St Augustine’s Hill), a prominent site visible from both the town and the sea. They were not there when he left.

The Franciscans first came to Galway in 1296 and founded the Abbey. In 1483, a school of advanced theology was instituted there. When the Cromwellians invaded the city, the friars were expelled. In 1657, the friary was destroyed and the church was turned into a courthouse — the present courthouse stands on the same site. In 1660, a new church was erected on the present site of the Abbey. There were 13 friars there in 1766, and eight years later a novitiate was opened here. The present friary was built or rebuilt in 1820, and the present church opened c1836. It was renovated in the 1970s and became the first Franciscan parish in 1971.