Houses and Housing
By
Overcrowding
The conditions of the majority of the inhabitants were so foul that the annual death rate from typhus and smallpox fever was high. The evils of overcrowding were acute. There were people living in cellars and around the courtyards of the old houses, some of which were only from to 15 feet between the rows. The backs of the houses in one court were sometimes built against the backs of houses in another court. At the further end there was generally an ash pit between two privies. The stench arising from these causes must have been beyond description. The population figures for 1812 show 24,684 persons, made up of 4,220 families occupying 3,353 houses, the average number to each family being 5.8. In Cross Street there were 2.5 families to each inhabited house; in Middle Street 2; in Playhouse Lane 2.5; in Whitehall 2.4; in Upper Abbeygate Street 2; in Cross Street 2.6; in Quay Street 2.2; in Mooney's Lane 3.6' in High Street 2.2; in Churchyard Precincts 4; in Buttermilk Lane 5; in Morgan's Lane 6.8; in Church Lane 3.2; in Lombard Street 5.4; and in Market Street 5.3.
Poverty and Delapidation
The town since the occupation of Cromwell had never recovered its old prosperity and by 1762 it had only 14,000 inhabitants. The great walls with their fourteen towers and as many gates were crumbling away, but some of the old houses built of cut stone may be still seen.
Baths were only taken for reasons of health. Water, for all domestic purposes was drawn from the river, into which the throwing of garbage carried a fine of 2/6.
Wages were low. Professor Daniel Corkery in his Eoghan Ruadh O Suilleabhain quotes O Suilleabhain in one of his poems of the labourer who threatens to go to Galway a fat land where the daily wage was sixpence
Advertisements for Accommodation
Some of the advertisements appearing in the Galway Papers of the 18th century relative to houses may be of interest.
Ann Bodkin at the Dominican Nunnery has to let
"from the 25th August next the house in Lombard Street wherein Robert Eyre, Esq., lately lived, consisting of 2 Parlours, 3 Bed chambers, Closets, Kitchen, Beer-cellar, Pantry, Turf House and Stable; also a Cellar in front of the street".
"To be let ... a neat commodious small House, near the new Road leading to the Salt Water. The House is New and in complete Order, and commands a very pleasing prospect of the Bay and within a few minutes walk of the Town".
"To be let ... an Apartment in Church Lane, fit for a decent family".
Rents Were High
Despite the general poverty, house rents in towns were often high. Wakefield observes: "Houses are dearer in some of the remote corners of Ireland than in the best parts of London".
Sir John Kirwan and Glass Windows
Sir John Kirwan, was the first who (in 1689) introduced glass windows, in the modern form, in Galway, in place of the small leaden lattices than used; and Hardiman writing in 1820 adds that many of which remain to the present day.