Search Results for 'Menlo Castle'

On Friday May 20 O'Donnellan & Joyce will bring this wonderful cottage style property into the auction room of the Victoria Hotel at 3pm. This unique property comes to the market with many of its original features and characteristics. Although it has been extended and delicately modernised it still oozes character and atmosphere.

Despite the Government imploding around him and his party facing a hostile electorate in February, it is the lesser horseshoe bat that is occupying the mind of the Green’s John Gormley the most.

“The Galway Corrib Club held their annual regatta on the splendid river of the Corrib at Menlo. The day was as fine as ‘sunshine and pageantry’ could make it, and the ivy-mantled Castle of Menlo, the residence of Sir Thomas Blake, Bart, was decorated with flags of all nations, and waved gracefully in the breeze. There was not a ripple on the bosom of the lake unless what was created by the oars of the several beautiful little crafts which were constantly scudding up and down the river, freighted with some of Nature’s fairest daughters. There was a band in attendance and during the day discoursed some beautiful music. Great credit is due to the commodore, PT Grealy, Esq, and the members of the club for the satisfactory manner in which the whole arrangements were carried out. After five races between four oared gigs, outriggers and punts, the sports of the day terminated with a duck race, which was most amusing. At seven o’clock, the amusements terminated and the delighted spectators returned home, highly pleased with the day’s sport. Although there were places of refreshment, there was not a man to be seen the worse for liquor, so that the whole affair was a complete success.”

Some weeks ago I wrote that probably the greatest muster of the Irish Gaelic lords that ever gathered on a battlefield took their place on either side at Knockdoe, Co Galway, on August 19 1504. The O’Donnells and the O’Neills, from their great northern fiefdoms, fought for law and order on the side of the Earl of Kildare who successfully imposed the king’s rule on his rebellious and quarrelsome son-in-law the Earl of Clanricard, Ulick de Burgh (Burke) of Claregalway castle. Ulick’s marriage to Kildare’s daughter, and his disregard for her, gave the Earl a personal reason for the battle; but his allies were equally anxious to display their loyalty to King Henry VII, the undisputed king of England after the protracted and bloody Wars of the Roses.

The future of Menlo Castle is up in the air as divisions between city councillors and City Hall officials over whether or not to redevelop the ruin continue to widen.

The following are some of the fires that occurred in the city in the last century.

Galway rowing clubs will do battle on the waters of the Corrib this weekend.

The grounds around the Menlo Castle ruins are regularly used for swimming, picnics, walks, and playing, and should be turned into Galway city’s next official public park.

Competitive rowing had been taking place on the Corrib for many years when the Ancient Order of Hibernians decided to form a new club in 1910. They got local contractor Walter Flaherty (who had already built the Corrib Club) to build a wooden clubhouse on the site of the present Galway Rowing Club. It was tarred each year up to 1970 in order to preserve the wood, and so it became known as ‘the Blackening Box’. In that year also there was a dispute in Saint Patrick’s Rowing Club and a number of oarsmen left and joined the new club.

There is Frank Fahey the Fianna Fáil TD, but there is also Frank Fahy the Fine Gael candidate standing in Galway City East in the June Local Elections.