Search Results for 'statue of Fr Tom Burke'

The Dominican Order was formally approved by Pope Honorius III in 1216, “to witness to the truth of the Christian Faith and to proclaim it at home and abroad”. St Dominic died in 1216, and in 1224 the Dominicans first came to Ireland. They came to Connacht, to Athenry, in 1241, and they finally arrived in Galway in 1488.

Living conditions were very bad in the Claddagh during the Great Famine. Most people there made their living from the sea but they refused to adapt to new and more effective fishing techniques which would have improved their catches, and so their income was affected and poverty ensued. Most of the fishermen there had put their nets in hock just to keep their families alive. Equally, Claddagh people were opposed to education, as their sons would grow up to be fishermen, they felt no need to send them to school. This form of opposition began to soften and eventually in 1827, a national school opened roughly where the statue of Fr Tom Burke is today. The quality of education there was not great so the Dominicans decided to take things into their own hands and build a school that would develop and improve the practical skills of seamanship and fishing for the boys to make them more self-sufficient. The girls would be taught fishery-related skills such as lace-making

Galway city councillors have this week voted to include the Galway hooker fountain in Eyre Square in the city's Record of Protected Structures, amid calls to erect a plaque explaining the significance of the structure.