monuments galway

Despite its somewhat prosaic surroundings and the modern iron grating to fend off grazing sheep, this unique and beautifully decorated monolith is one of the great treasures of Celtic La Tene art in Europe. The style of the carving, in its Irish context, is assignable to the last three centuries BC.

The Turoe Stone is a domed granite boulder a little over 3 feet high, artificially shaped and decorated by a technique known as picking, which sets the design out in relief against the...

This statue by Albert Power, RHA stands in the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial Park. It commemorates Padraig O' Conaire, a pioneer in the Irish Literary Revival in this century. O' Conaire and Padraig Pearse are regarded as being the two most important short story writers in Irish during the first decades of the 20th century....

This impressive national monument on the southern side of the island ( 2.5km west of Cill Eanna) stands on the edge of the great cliffs. Its approaches are so well guarded by natural defences and by achevaux-de-frise, that it must have been well-nigh impregnable.

A century ago, Dr John O' Donovan measured the remains of the wall left after many cliff falls since its construction over 2000 years ago, and concluded that it was perhaps the biggest fort on the island at one time, though it...

John F. Kennedy Bust:

This bust was erected in Eyre Square in honour of John F. Kennedy. It was from here that President Kennedy addressed the people of Galway when he received the freedom of the city in 1963. The park here at Eyre Square is known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Park....

The Browne Doorway has stood in Eyre Square for three-quarters of a century. It was removed from an old mansion in Lower Abbeygate Street and bears the arms of the Brown and Lynch families dated 1627. It is now the entrance to the John Fitzgerald Memorial Park, Eyre Square....

This national monument is named after Saints Fursa, Conall, Bearchan and Breandan of Birr. It stands near the village of Cowrugh, 1km west of Eochaill, and is a small 15th century building. Outside there is an enclosure called - Leaba an Cheathrair - on which there are four great flagstones, marking the graves of the saints, while to the south of the church is a holy well.

A few fields west are graves marked by plain pillar stones: also in the vicinity is the ruinous Clochan an Phuca,...

This was erected to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America. It was designed by well known Irish sculptor, Mick Wilkins from Barna, County Galway, who was commissioned by the Italian Embassy to design a piece with a nautical theme. The sculpture looks like a sea bird and is carved in stone....

The strong iron cannons, which have stood in Eyre Square for as long as anybody can remember, were presented to the Connaught Rangers, at the end of the Crimean War. The Rangers who subsequently became known throughout the world for their mutiny in India during 1920 in support of the Irish War of Independence, were involved in the Alma Valley battles in 1854. During the course of the campaign they captured and destroyed the town of Burlymk. To mark this and other military achievements they were...

The Lynch Memorial is situated near the Church of St Nicholas in the form of a black marble stone over a built-up Gothic doorway. It commemorates the - stern and unbending justice - of James Lynch Fitzstephen, Mayor of Galway in 1493, who found his own son Walter guilty of murdering a Spanish visitor and condemned him to death. When no one could be found to carry out the sentence, so the popular but dubious legend goes, the Mayor hanged his own son before retiring into seclusion....