Galway in 1614

Sir Oliver St. John, President of Connacht in 1614, described Galway as he saw it that year:

"The province Connaught has only two Corporations, the ancient monuments of the English conquerors, and is inhabited only by English families and surnames; the one is Gallway, a walled town and port of the sea, lately made a county and governed by a mayor and two sheriffs. The town is small but has fair and stately buildings. The fronts of the houses (towards the streets) are all of hewed stone up to the top, garnished with fair battlements in a uniform course, as if the whole town had been built upon one model. The merchants are rich, and great adventurers at sea. The commonalty is composed of the descendants of the ancient English founders of the town, and rarely admit any new English to have freedom or education among them, and never any of the Irish. They keep good hospitality and are kind to strangers; and in their manner of entertainment and in fashioning and apparelling themselves and their wives they preserve most the ancient manner and state, as much as any town that ever I saw. The town is built upon a rock, environed almost with the sea and the river, compassed with a strong wall and good defences, after the ancient manner, such as with a reasonable garrison may defend itself against an enemy."