Search Results for 'Pdraic Conaire statue'

I was asked a question some time ago that stopped me in my tracks, “What, for you, would be the seven wonders of Galway?” It made me think long and hard and I decided to draw up a list. It might be the sunrise on the bay on December mornings, the sunset on the bay on November evenings, the atmosphere on the streets, hearing Irish spoken on the streets, the Druid, An Taidhbhearc, the Pádraic Ó Conaire statue, the tower at Blackrock, the Saturday market, the River Walk, Lynch’s Castle, the Arts Festival, Galway oysters, the Garden of Remembrance, Cúirt, and so on. All of these are important to me, a source of joy to me, parts of the fabric that make up this city I am proud to live in.

THE SCULPTOR Albert G Power is best known as the creator of the Pádraic Ó Conaire statue, once an integral part of Eyre Square, but now on display in the Galway City Museum.

The Square appears as a green piece of land outside the city walls on the early maps of Galway. The 1651 map shows it more or less in the shape it is today. In 1710, Edward Eyre (whose family had come over with the Cromwellians) became mayor of the city. He lived in a house roughly where the Meyrick Hotel is today and the patch of land in front of his house was known as ‘The Mayor’s Garden’. He presented it to the city and it became known as Eyre Square