How Galway Got its Name

What’s in a Name?

Words are very important to us. With them we define our surroundings, and ourselves. We use them to comprehend the lives we lead, to understand, remember and learn, and we use them to communicate with each other. Withoutthem we would be utterly lost. But how often do we know the meaning and origins behind the words we use? For place-names, this question can be even more pertinent. For within a place-name is often an entire history, and in the most profound sense, the name is the identity of a land. To know where the name of a town or a city came from is to know something of the true and original character of that town. The origins of the name Galway have often been debated, and seldom agreed upon, but there are some mighty guesses, each of which has something to offer us about Galway.

The Town of the Foreigners

At first glance, the name Galway – Gaillimh in Irish – seems to have a straightforward meaning. For the ancient Irish and other Celtic peoples, all foreigners were known as Galls (Gauls), and thus prefixes or suffixes involving gall, in one form or another, generally reflect the presence of foreign settlers. A great example of this is County Donegal – Dún na Gall in Irish – Donegal translates literally as 'fortress of the foreigners'. Because Galway was a Norman-English settlement as early as the 12th century, it is plausible to conclude that Galway means simply, 'place of the foreigners' or more specifically, 'residence of the English'. Indeed, this theory has been proposed often throughout the ages and remains a viable conclusion.

Galvia of the River

The most remarkable account of how Galway was named involves the pre-Celtic princess Galvia. Early accounts, mostly from native Irish scholars, maintain that the name of the town of Galway came from the river that ran through it. In the ages before the great Celtic civilisation in Ireland, many different tribes invaded the island from both the Continent and Britain. One of those tribes was the Fir-Bolg, or the 'Bag Men'. It is said that Galvia, the daugher of the great Fir-Bolg chieftain Breasal, drowned in what is today the Corrib. As a memorial to Galvia, the river took her name. In 1651, Galvia's Rock still appeared on the map of the city, and is thought to have been located between the Salmon Weir Bridge and the King's Gap. However, the rock itself may have been used to build the Long Walk, where, presumably, it lies hidden to this day.

Although the story of Galvia seems to be painted with the rich hues of myth and legend, it must be remembered that many places, especially in ancient times, gained their names in a similar fashion. The town of Athy, for instance, is thought to have received its name from the Munster chieftain Aedh, who was killed at a ford there in the 2nd century. Likewise, and eerily similar to Galway’s circumstance, Dublin may have garnered its name from Auliana, again a famous daughter who drowned in the Liffey. The name, as James Hardiman tells us, was changed to Eblana by Ptolemy, and later became Dublana.

City of the Tribes

It was a third theory of Galway's origins that drew the closest attention from Galway’s greatest scholar and historian, James Hardiman. Hardiman drew on the conclusions of Charles Vallancey, a brilliant 18th century linguistic scholar, historian and General. Vallencey proposed a host of possible derivations, but Hardiman believed he had struck the truth with one of them. Gaillimh came not from gall for foreigner, thought Vallancey, but from Gaelis, or Geilis for commerce or merchant, and composed with the suffix ibh, meaning tribes or families, Galway meant, quite literally, the place of the merchant families.This remarkable derivation would suggest that Galway was known for its trade many centuries before the famed Anglo-Norman merchants arrived in the area. Strengthening the case for this origin, Hardiman tells of how the lands surrounding present day Galway were known in ancient times as Clanfirgal, the land or habitation of the Gail or merchants.

So it is that we have three possible origins for Galway, each one carries with it a compelling argument; indeed, any one of them could suffice to explain where the name came from. Galway was indeed a city of foreigners in its day, just as it probably always nurtured a healthy group of merchants near its extraordinary harbour. Likewise, who could discount the story of Galvia, that Fir Bolg princess of myth and legend? In the end, we are left without a clear answer, and individuals will likely have their own opinion on which story seems the most likely. Yet, perhaps we are lucky to have an uncertain answer, for in a way we have learned something special about Galway with each hypothesis – and that is why we began such an inquiry in the first place.

Jeremy M. Usher
December 2000