Galway

Galway takes its name from the Gaillimh, a river that formed the western boundary of its earliest settlement. In 1124 Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht and High King of Ireland, completed a fort here, Dún Gaillimhe, as a base for his fleet, and a settlement grew around it. Richard Mór de Burgh captured it during the Norman invasion of Connacht in the 1230s, and as the de Burghs became Gaelicised the town's merchants took control of the walled city, winning mayoral status from the English crown in 1484.

For centuries Galway was ruled by fourteen merchant families, the Tribes of Galway, and thrived on trade, becoming Ireland's main port for Spain and France. The citizens kept their distance from their Irish neighbours — a notice over the west gate in 1562 read "From the ferocious O'Flahertys may God protect us". Christopher Columbus visited in 1477. The city mostly stayed loyal to the crown, but in 1642 it joined the Catholic Confederation of Kilkenny, and Cromwellian forces took it after a nine-month siege; in 1691 it surrendered to the Williamites soon after the Battle of Aughrim, and the great families were ruined. The Great Famine of 1845–52 brought further suffering, though the Queen's College, now the University of Galway, opened its quadrangle in 1849 and the railway arrived from Dublin in 1851.

After a period of decline, Galway has become a tourist destination and, since the Celtic Tiger boom, a centre of high-tech industry. It became a UNESCO City of Film in 2014, the European Region of Gastronomy in 2018 and European Capital of Culture for 2020, alongside Rijeka. Catherine Connolly, a former mayor of Galway, became President of Ireland in 2025.

Galway is known as Ireland's cultural heart. It is a major centre of traditional music — the band De Dannan was based here, and players such as Frankie Gavin and Máirtín O'Connor were born or came to prominence in Galway — and tunes are played in pubs such as Tigh Neachtáin on Quay Street and by buskers on Shop Street; the Róisín Dubh on Dominick Street is the heart of its live music and comedy scene. Steve Earle and Ed Sheeran have both written songs called Galway Girl.

Theatre runs deep. An Taibhdhearc, the national Irish-language theatre, was founded in 1928, and the Druid Theatre Company, whose first artistic director Garry Hynes became the first woman to win a Tony Award for direction, is based here, as is the street-spectacle company Macnas. The summer festival season — the Film Fleadh and the Galway International Arts Festival in July, the races at Ballybrit from the last Monday of July and the oyster festival in September — defines the city's year. Writers from Pádraic Ó Conaire and Liam O'Flaherty to Ken Bruen are linked with it, and Nora Barnacle, James Joyce's wife, was from Galway.

The Irish language is part of everyday identity: Galway is sometimes called the bilingual capital of Ireland, with the Gaeltacht on its doorstep and the Irish broadcasters TG4 and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta close by. Sport matters too — Galway's hurlers won the All-Ireland in 2017 for the first time in 29 years, Connacht Rugby plays at the Sportsground, and Galway United play in the League of Ireland.

The city had a population of about 86,000 at the 2022 census, up by more than 10,000 since 2011, making it the fourth-largest city in the Republic. Immigration in the 2000s, largely from Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, made about a fifth of residents non-Irish, and the University of Galway, with University Hospital beside its campus, is one of the largest institutions in the city. Neighbourhoods include Salthill, Knocknacarra and Renmore.

Galway's economy rests on commerce and professional services, education, healthcare, tourism and manufacturing — above all medical devices, with companies such as Boston Scientific and Medtronic having offices in the city and its surroundings. Nearly half of the people employed in Galway work in commerce or the professions, and about a sixth in manufacturing.

The rhythm of the day follows the centre's pedestrian streets: shoppers and buskers on Shop Street, the crowds at the market by St Nicholas', walks on the Prom at Salthill in any weather, and pubs that fill with music in the evening. In summer, festival crowds, tourists and visitors heading for Connemara and the islands swell the city; the city council, chaired by a mayor elected for one year, runs local services.

Galway was named European Region of Gastronomy in 2018, and seafood is at the centre of its food. The Galway International Oyster Festival, first held in 1954 on the last weekend of September, the first month of the oyster season, celebrates the Galway native oyster with tastings, tours of oyster farms and the World Oyster Opening Championship. Until the end of the 19th century the people of the Claddagh supplied the city with seafood from the market by the Spanish Arch, and the restaurants of the Latin Quarter, along Quay Street, Kirwan's Lane and Market Street, still lean heavily on fish and shellfish.

Chowder, a creamy fish soup, is popular around the Irish coast, and Irish seafood runs from mackerel, cod, hake and smoked haddock to mussels, oysters, lobster and crab. Galway Market, beside St Nicholas' Church, sells food and handmade goods, and Sheridan's Cheesemongers on Kirwan's Lane reflects the range of farmhouse cheeses now made across the country. Brown bread, as it is called in the south, or soda bread, and representative Irish dishes such as Irish stew and bacon and cabbage appear in the pubs.

Stout — Guinness, Murphy's and Beamish — and Irish whiskey are the standard pub drinks; the oyster festival's founder first discussed the idea with representatives of Guinness. Irish coffee, made with strong black coffee, whiskey, sugar and whipped cream, closes many evenings.