History of Galway
As Dún Bhun na Gaillimhe lay in the territory of the O Flahertys they are often recorded as holding this fort for the O Connor Kings of Connacht.
Following an unsuccessful week-long siege in 1230, Dún Bhun na Gaillimhe was captured by Richard Mor de Burgh in 1232.
After the sundering of the de Burgh (Clanrickards) dynasty in 1333, Anxious to have control over their own affairs without the interference of the Gaelicised and often feuding Burkes, Galway sought local autonomy, receiving a murage charter (authority to build a defensive wall) from the Crown in 1396.
A notice over the west gate of the city, completed in 1562 by Mayor Thomas Óge Martyn, proclaimed: "From the Ferocious O'Flahertys may God protect us".
An Act of Henry VIII, dated 1536, ordained as follows: The political turbulence of the region left its mark on Galway in the following decades.
Sir Henry Sidney wrote in 1576: "First, I find the town of Galwaye moche decaied, both in nomber of expert sage men of yeares and yonge men of warre, in respect of that I have seen; which great decay hath growen thorough the horribl spoyle done upon them by the sonnes of the earle of Clanrickrd, in so moche as it evidentlye proved before me that fiftie howsholders of that towne doe nowe enhabite under Mac William Croghter [a local Irish lord]…"[5] Nevertheless, Galway retained its distinctive physical character.
The following account was given of lord justice Sir William Pelham's visit in 1579: "His lordship removed into the towne of Galwaie, twelve mills, verie rocky way, and full of great loughes.
The Lord Deputy Sir Richard Bingham, noted for his severity, is described in the Annals as having executed seventy men and women in Galway in January 1586.
[8] In 1588, the year of the Spanish Armada, the Lord Deputy Sir William Fitz-Williams had a number of survivors beheaded near St Augustine's Monastery.
[10] After the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Galway was in a delicate position, caught, in effect between the Catholic rebels (Confederates) and its English garrison ensconced in Fort Hill just outside the city.
The Cromwellian Act of Settlement 1652 caused major upheavals, as peoples from east of the Shannon were transplanted to Connacht and slipped back.
On top of that, when fears arose of a French invasion of Ireland in 1708 and 1715 (during the Jacobite rising of 1715 in Scotland), all Catholics were ordered to leave the city.
The persecution of Galway's old Catholic merchant elite meant that trade declined substantially, and the once busy harbour fell into disrepair.
Before the outbreak of the Irish Civil War (1922–23), in March 1922, Galway saw a tense stand off between Pro-Treaty and Anti-Treaty troops over who would occupy the military barracks at Renmore.
After fighting broke out in July 1922 the city and its military barracks were occupied by troops of the Irish Free State's National Army.
On 16 August 1971, a large part of the city centre, stretching from Merchants Road to Williamsgate Street and Eyre Square, was destroyed by fire.
[14][15] In later years, the resignation of Eamon Casey as Bishop of Galway in "scandalous circumstances" in 1992 came to be seen as pivotal in the Roman Catholic Church's loss of influence in Ireland.
