A Short History

Version 0.1

14 January 2014

A Short History of Galway City and the Village of Menlo

Galway, now the 3^rd largest city in Ireland, is located on Ireland’s west coast at the mouth of River Corrib. Its founders were the Norman de Burgo family, who came to Ireland in the wake of the Anglo/Norman invasion of 1185.[1:19] In 1395 Richard II granted a new charter making the town a royal borough technically under his control. Other Anglo-Norman families followed the de Burgos, establishing themselves as merchants. In this period the town prospered through trade with the Gaelic hinterland, Continental Europe, and later the Americas. In 1484 Richard III elevated the town to one of rather unique self-governance with the granting of yet another charter that allowed its citizens—dominated by the founding families—to elect their own mayor and corporation. However, these same families lost much of their power with the Cromwellian siege and occupation in 1652. About that time the descendents of the founding families became known as the Tribes of Galway, originally either a term of rebuke from Cromwell’s forces or a self-proclaimed mark of pride and defiance by descendents of the original families.[1:21] In all there were 14 recognized tribes of which 2 were of Irish origin.[1:22]

River Corrib, which originates at Laugh Corrib, the largest lake in Ireland (68 square miles), is merely 4 miles long, so it is not surprising that the modern city has now expanded to incorporate the little village of Menlo, which is near the lake just east of the river’s source. Menlough is the anglicized version of the Gaelic Mionloch, meaning little lake. There is in fact a small lake nearby. Menlough is locally now shortened to just Menlo to distinguish it from another Menlough in Galway County, though it is not certain if this was the practice in the Nineteenth Century. Although Menlo is certainly a very old Gaelic village, little is known of its history. The early villagers were probably occupied by fishing and farming. The area is assumed to have consisted of a number of clachans, a rundale rural settlement consisting of up to 10 related houses compactly grouped in an informal manner. By the mid-Nineteenth Century, the village had evolved into a more complex footprint consisting of a multiple of the clachan system. The only vivid picture of the village is presented in an account by Thomas Foster, London 1846, in his “Letters on the Conditions of the People of Ireland:”

“There is no church or chapel in the village, no schoolmaster or doctor or no magistrate, thought the population is as large as that of many an English town. The way through the village is the most crooked as well as the most narrow and dirty lane that can be conceived. There is no row of houses or are they approaching a row, but each cottage is stuck independently by itself and always at an acute, obtuse or right angle to the next cottage as the case may be. The irregularity is curious, there are no two cottages in a line or of the same size, dimensions or build. The Irish mind has here without obstruction or instruction fairly developed itself. As it is the largest village I ever saw, so it is the poorest, the worst built, the most strangely irregular and the most completely without head or centre or market or church or school of any village I was ever in. It is an overgrown democracy, no man is better or richer that his neighbor is. It is in fact an Irish Rundale village.”[1:60]

The reader should keep in mind that these comments on the village were made "during one of the worst famines in history" and that "the Irish mind relates to starving people whose circumstances may have been determined by their 'tenant contracts' and this is a matter still not fully addressed by historians. The state of the Irish mind was used by some government supporters as an excuse to clear their estates of tenants and to support the Laissez Faire policy which protracted the famine."[9]

Today the village houses are still randomly placed, although more modern in construction. Only one thatched-roof house remains (which Menlo Park's Mayor Ohtaki visited in 2013). The village residents include a fair number of Gaelic-speakers, and the local public school emphasizes Gaelic (as does the nearby National University of Ireland, Galway). The village as a whole—consisting of approximately 921 acres (Irish) or 1,492 acres (U.S.) = 2.33 square miles—is officially preserved as a historic area and has become a rather prestigious address. Within the village there is a park called Menlo Park and nearby is a road named Menlo Park.

Along the left bank of River Corrib next to Menlo village, there are the ruins of a castle (or castellated house) which is known variously as Mynlagh, Mionloch, Menlough, or Menlo Castle. The original castle, built in 1569, was owned by Thomas Coleman [8] at least from 1571 to 1598, sometime after which it was sold to the Blake family by Edmond Coleman.[2,8] The Blakes, decendents of Richard Caddell, alias Blake, is one of Galway’s 14 Tribes.[3,4] In 1622, Sir Valentine Blake (1560-1634) was created a Baronet of Ireland.[2,6] Except for the Cromwellian period, the Blakes occupied Menlo Castle continuously until it was destroyed by fire in 1910. Sir Valentine Blake (1836-1912), the 14^th Bart, and Lady Blake were in Dublin when the fire broke out, but their eldest daughter, Eleanor, an invalid, perished in the fire. Following the fire, the castle was not rebuilt, although there is a contemporary movement to restore it because of its historical value.[5]

Today Galway is a lively city of over 75,000 residents, including about 20,000 university faculty, staff and students. The city’s historic center has been maintained while it is surrounded by homes and buildings mostly built since 1940. An excellent summary of the city as it is today can be found at the Seattle Sister Cities website for Galway.[7]

References:

[1] Roddy Mannion, Galway, A Sense of Place (2012), 231 pp.

[2] Turtle Bunbury, The Blakes of Menlo Castle, http://www.turtlebunbury.com/history/history_family/hist_family_blake.html .

[3] Blake in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake .

[4] County Galway Guide: http://www.galway-ireland.ie/blake.htm .

[5] Connacht Tribune, Plans to save Menlo Castle take big step (12/24/2013): http://www.connachttribune.ie/galway-news/item/1990-plans-to-save-menlo-castle-take-big-step .

[6] Baronet in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baronet .

[7] Seattle Sister Cities website for Galway: http://www.seattle.gov/oir/sistercities/galway.htm .

[8] Families of County Galway, Ireland, p.56: http://books.google.com/books?id=6g5WXZVxbIoC&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=thomas+coleman+galway&source=bl&ots=3LjAqpVkry&sig=UC7nj3bq5uVg8JfqlUV_qoOc5Ac&hl=en&sa=X&ei=O6jAUunCDc_toATX0oIw&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=thomas%20coleman%20galway&f=false .

[9] Gerry Handley, private communication (1/5/2014).

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