North Atlantic Skyline - - Photographs from the west of Ireland (Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Roscommon and even Leitrim)

To the Spanish Arch

Galway has provided a port of call for sailors since the beginning of recorded history. St. Brendan surely used the city as a base to set up his monasteries along the Corrib's edge in the sixth century. A plaque near the one pictured above claims Columbus visited the city before his epic voyage. If he had, maybe he would have bumped into many other sailors who already knew about the 'new world' - Basque fishermen who disappeared on long voyages west and returned with ships laden with dried cod to trade and barter. Not all sailors were welcome - Grace O Malley, the pirate queen, spent most of her life cheerfully terrorizing the city and it's merchant fleet. Not all sailors returned from their voyages either - the sea itself has exacted a far higher toll than any pirate could levy.