Galway place and road names

ErnieBert

Who are places name after?

Walter Macken flats in Mervue were named after the author of the same name.

Siobhan McKenna Road is named after the actress.

But who the hell was....

Dr Mannix?

Bishop O'Donnell?


Any others?

RichT

Lough Atalia was a famous Hun.

biko

Mannix was a bishop too iirc but I'm not sure what connection he has to Galway.

SJPK

buttermilk lane...
prospect hill...
dyke road...

can anyone shine a light on these few?

biko

Dyke Road because there is a dyke there. A dyke is a sloping wall against water.
I suppose because of the water plant there.

aw

Bishop O Donnell was Bishop of Galway in the 1800s.

Maybe he died around the time the road opened?

I think the Dr Mannix was this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Mannix

He was buddies with the Bishop of Tuam, I remember reading an article in The Tuam Herald about them:

thesandeman

Buttermilk Lane because the Claddagh women sold buttermilk down there.

Most of the places are fairly Googleable.

ErnieBert

thesandeman wrote: »

Buttermilk Lane because the Claddagh women sold buttermilk down there.

Most of the places are fairly Googleable.

I better not ask about Shop Street then.




I might Google the word "Googleable" though

Mrs OBumble

ErnieBert wrote: »

I better not ask about Shop Street then.

Or Quay St, Flood St, Merchants Rd, Bridge St, Nuns Island, Gaol Rd, Middle St ...

dinneenp

RichT wrote: »

Lough Atalia was a famous Hun.

When I moved to Galway first I heard it called LOUGH ITALIA. as in Italia 90.....

dinneenp

In most Irish cities most streets are named after famous people. Why are so many in Galway named after 'their function'; Shop St, Quay St. Middle St, dyke road etc.

Fuinseog

dinneenp wrote: »

In most Irish cities most streets are named after famous people. Why are so many in Galway named after 'their function'; Shop St, Quay St. Middle St, dyke road etc.

i believe there is a victoria street

enfield

Atalia, a’tsaile, of the brine.

Mrs OBumble

dinneenp wrote: »

In most Irish cities most streets are named after famous people. Why are so many in Galway named after 'their function'; Shop St, Quay St. Middle St, dyke road etc.

While almost every town has Bridge St, Church Lane, Shop St, etc ...

Nuff said.

ErnieBert

Threadneedle Road? WTF?

William Street? Williamsgate Street? William Street West?

the realpigiron

Anyone know who the Maunsell person is that Maunsell's Road near Taylor's Hill is named after?

Sponge Bob

ErnieBert wrote: »

Threadneedle Road? WTF?

A weak attempt to hide a genocide.

It is called Bóthar Na Mine in Irish (The Maize Road) as it was built between nowhere and nowhere during the famine by starving workmen on a famine 'relief' project who were paid with food. Map c 1847

thesandeman

Fuinseog wrote: »

i believe there is a victoria street

Victoria Place

Fuinseog

ErnieBert wrote: »

Threadneedle Road? WTF?

William Street? Williamsgate Street? William Street West?

king billy.

very often the Irish place name is different to the English. I believe threadneedle road is Bothar na Mine, which suggests it was built in famine times.

antoobrien

Fuinseog wrote: »

i believe there is a victoria street

just like winetavern st and fishamble st in the pale then yeah?

Fuinseog

antoobrien wrote: »

just like winetavern st and fishamble st in the pale then yeah?

i don't get it. those streets refer to the trades practiced there in medieval times. a poster mentioned hat no street in Galway were named after famous people.
Victora and William serve as reminders taht Galway was a english bastion and not the gaelic heartland it portrays itself as

Fuinseog

Sponge Bob wrote: »

A weak attempt to hide a genocide.

It is called Bóthar Na Mine in Irish (The Maize Road) as it was built between nowhere and nowhere during the famine by starving workmen on a famine 'relief' project who were paid with food. Map c 1847

nimmos pier was also built in this period if I am not mistaken. there is more than one bothar na mine around galway

Andrea B.

Buttermilk Lane because the Claddagh women sold buttermilk down there.

Was it the fish they milked?

ladhrann

Fuinseog wrote: »

i don't get it. those streets refer to the trades practiced there in medieval times. a poster mentioned hat no street in Galway were named after famous people.
Victora and William serve as reminders taht Galway was a english bastion and not the gaelic heartland it portrays itself as

What also has to be mentioned is that names change over time. For instance Middle St., was known as Back St., and where St. Pats national school is now was known as 'the Shambles'. A shambles in English was a place where butchers and other meat dealers (hence fish-shamble) plied their trade.

Many of the streets have a different meaning in Irish which does indicate the sizeable Irish-speaking population of the town at one point. In a late-nineteenth century census, the town was 1/3 monoglot Irish-speaking, 1/3 bilingual, and 1/3 monoglot English speaking. However it is ill-advised to conflate Gaelic with Irish or English with English., especially when dealing with the period of the Norman settlements and later. Many Lords spoke no English but would certainly have identified as such, such as Ulick de Burgh.

Williamsgate St. and Mainguard St. both indicate their functions as gates and fortifications in the town. Eglinton St. was created when the city walls were demolished and was named after the Lord Lieutenant of the time Lord Eglinton, as was a hotel in Salthill, and a canal at the same time.

Shop St. is so named as being where the first shops opened in the town. It is often commented on by visitors as in the UK particularily the main thoroughfare is called High St.

nuac

Sickeen Lane ( near Wood Quay )?

thesandeman

Andrea B. wrote: »

Was it the fish they milked?

I wasnt around at the time but I presume any strange things they did with creatures from the deep was done in the Fishmarket as it was nearer the sea.

Robbo

Andrea B. wrote: »

Was it the fish they milked?

Mermaids. The regular woman-top/fish-bottom type. Not the other ones that raise more philosophical questions.

ladhrann

nuac wrote: »

Sickeen Lane ( near Wood Quay )?

Sickeen Lane, as I was told by a Woodquay native, is where suckeen calves were kept apparently. A suckeen calf is one still being fed by the cow, up to the age of 3 or 4 months normally.

It was also where the cows were milked, as many of the locals were dairy farmers that supplied the town with milk.

nuac

ladhrann wrote: »

Sickeen Lane, as I was told by a Woodquay native, is where suckeen calves were kept apparently. A suckeen calf is one still being fed by the cow, up to the age of 3 or 4 months normally.

It was also where the cows were milked, as many of the locals were dairy farmers that supplied the town with milk.

Thanks Ladhrann

That must be back a bit as there is notg much grazing there now.

ladhrann

Well up untilt the 80s, that was all grassland, as was Menlo, nobody would build on it as it was prone to flooding ;-)

Even in the 90s cattle used stray into the garden where we lived in Knocknacarra and eat Mum's daffodils!

Caiseoipe19

SJPK wrote: »

buttermilk lane...
prospect hill...
dyke road...

can anyone shine a light on these few?

Prospect Hill - Cnoc na Radharc meaning the hill of the views/sights...
"Radharc" also translates to "prospect".

The site logainm.ie can be useful and interesting for people wondering about the origins of place names. It gives placenames and streetnames in Irish from which the names we know now often originated from. It can give more information about towns/villages and the likes though, more than streetnames.

Viral Vector

This is a fascinating thread....i've been in Galway for 6 years and i've always wondered about some place names!

Mervue -> Radharc na Mara -> Sea View

ErnieBert

Salthill - Bothar na Tra - Beach Road.

There is a Salthill in south County Dublin - Cnoc Na Salann - Hill of Salt


Shantalla - sean tallamh - old ground hence Old Ground Football Club

jkforde

hadn't heard of Sickeen Lane and came across this while on the google... might be of interest...

http://www.ria.ie/getmedia/8648f5dd-42da-4437-8d5d-5145d0ec8b58/Galway-gazetteer-IHTA-(2).pdf.aspx

ladhrann

ErnieBert wrote: »

Shantalla - sean tallamh - old ground hence Old Ground Football Club

Whats less well known as well is that Shantalla and the Highfield Park/Maunsell's Road area were quarries and had their own narrow-gauge railway to bring stone to the docks.

I believe its because of the hollowed out, 'amphitheatre' shape of the quarry that Daniel O'Connell's mass meeting was held there. The spot is marked by the 'Slaghdeán Rock' as its called in the middle of Shantalla. Anyone know the origin of ''Slaghdeán Rock''? I may have spelled it incorrectly.

yaledo

I've heard this rock in Shantalla called the 'sliding' rock by local kids. It doesn't seem to be marked on the 6" or the 25" maps [these are from about 1850 and 1910 respectively and can be viewed at http://maps.osi.ie]

39steps

Who is/was Seamus Quirke?

snubbleste

I already asked that question and was kindly told by another poster. The answer you seek is buried in the SeamusQuirke megathread below

Iwannahurl

Tis all about the Black & Tans.

http://www.kennys.ie/News/OldGalway/30112006-BlackandTans/

Lapin

Who was Western Distributor?

Mrs OBumble

Lapin wrote: »

Who was Western Distributor?

Enn Seventeen's cousin.

Iwannahurl

Lapin wrote: »

Who was Western Distributor?

A robber baron who stole from the poor to give to the rich.

Paddyfield

Lapin wrote: »

Who was Western Distributor?

Didn't he have a business distributing DVDs of Westerns?

bethehokies

JustMary wrote: »

ErnieBert wrote: »

I better not ask about Shop Street then.

Or Quay St, Flood St, Merchants Rd, Bridge St, Nuns Island, Gaol Rd, Middle St ...

Nuns island... the poor claire convent in behind the industrial eng building there...
Bridge street... the bridge and the mills
Gaol road... there was a gaol on the site of Galway Cathedral,
Middle street.... well its in the middle....!!!

To be honest - galway street names are fairly obvious in the context of the surrounds, or what may hve been there in the past

Mrs OBumble

bethehokies wrote: »

To be honest - galway street names are fairly obvious in the context of the surrounds, or what may hve been there in the past

Ahh, yeah ... well spotted. :pac:

snubbleste

Erm, still waiting for
New Road

ciaranmac

dinneenp wrote: »

When I moved to Galway first I heard it called LOUGH ITALIA. as in Italia 90.....

I once saw it written as Lough Alitalia, like the airline.

Iwannahurl

bethehokies wrote: »

To be honest - galway street names are fairly obvious in the context of the surrounds, or what may hve been there in the past

Cabbage Lane, Bohermore?

bethehokies

Iwannahurl wrote: »

bethehokies wrote: »

To be honest - galway street names are fairly obvious in the context of the surrounds, or what may hve been there in the past

Cabbage Lane, Bohermore?

Bothar mor... the big road... it is quite long
Where the hell is cabbage lane...????? Perhaps a bit of an auld cabbage head lived there... or there may have been allotments in it?

Paddyfield

How did Hidden Valley get it's name?

I was trying to find it yesterday but couldn't.

ladhrann

bethehokies wrote: »

Bothar mor... the big road... it is quite long
Where the hell is cabbage lane...????? Perhaps a bit of an auld cabbage head lived there... or there may have been allotments in it?

Bóthar Mór, comes from the width of the road as opposed to the length. It was also known as the King's Rd., in much earlier time. Both names were due to the fact that it was the main (and only) road east from the city walls.