The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1907-08-31

1H0 auLlQulIy VI 1dAWoy S1Iy may NC
cleaned from the fact that neither re-
mote nor modern antiquarians agree
as to the derivation of the name. Some
say 1t is taken from Galvia, the name
of the river on which it was built,
while others attribute its derivation to
the Irish name for stranger. as the
principal merchants of its f1ourishing
days were foreigners, says Father Fitz-
gerald, o. F. M, in the Catholic Press.
Parts Of Galway call to mind the an
tiquities Of old Roman cities, and un-
fortunately there are many hooks and
corners and disused lanes which sug-
gest the devastation and abandonment
Of Pompeii. Yet for the historian or
tho antiquarian there is not a rood Of
nGalway without absorbing interest. 1t
has a magnificent network of quays,
which are utterly deserted except by
the Aran ferry boats, or craft with sea-
weed from Connemara, or by the fishing
trawlers Of the Claddagh. Sometimes
q. whaler with his lookout box high up
.on the mast winters in the sheltered
retreats where of old proud merchant
men from Spain unloaded their cargoes
OF choice vintage for the grandees who
came and went in the capital of Con-
naught. Indeed, one of the most for
lorn walks in this city today boasts
the proud title Of Spanish Parade. To-
day fisherwomen exchange the seasons
compliments where the hidalgo strutted
in the days that were, after having
dined sumptuously in one Of the many
restaurants frequented by the youth,
and beauty, statesmen, princes and
poets of the period. These dining rooms
may still be seen in the back streets.
Several stone steps lead down to them
off the pathway. Some are used as a
rubbish tip, and the others are inhab-
ited by very poor people. One sees re-
lnarkable specimens of first class ma
eonry peeping out from crumbling
ruins in all sorts of out-of- theWay
places, and mottoes and coats of arms
carved on them. These crests are of
great historical importance, as they
have sometimes an ecclesiastical, some-
times a national or ancestral signifi-
cance.
There were no less than two theaters
in Galway in the good old days, and
such stars as Jenny Lind and Charles
Kean thought it worth while to travel
from the metropolis in the coaching
p days for far distant Galway, far famed
for its influx Of distinguished visitors
and no less famed for its blue -blooded
aristocracy and its renowned Thirteen
Tribes. Talk Of water! I am sur
prised that Father Mathew did not es-
tablish his stronghold here. Day and
night you see and hear water above
below, all around. It rains three
months at a stretch, and then starts
at it for about two years. Sometimes
the whole summer is wet. July and
August are now favorite rainy seasons
But water is always murmuring in
some quarter, either over weir or
down a mill race or through the sal
mon preserve-all from Lough Corrib,
which begins near the town and
stretches thirty miles away to County
Mayo Water oozes out of dead walls
squirts up in fountains beside disman-
tied mills, pours in from tributary
streams in foaming cascades, the sight
and sound Of which on frosty night
send cold shivers down ones back
And yet Galway is the healthiest town
in Ireland, as statistics and experience
y prove. You get used to the wet and
the fine air from the Atlantic, which
recompenses for the undue attention Of
Jupiter Pluvius.
The City Of Galway has had a check
cred career, between the ravages of the
Danes. in the ninth century and inva'
sions Of the Normans later. when thu