Consequently, they often took the opportunity, whether on land or at sea, to engage in thievery, disorder and mayhem, attacking merchant ships off the coast, hence the famous plea inscribed over the Great West Bridge leading into city, “ From the Ferocious O’Flaherties Good Lord Deliver Us”.Ĭonnemara (or Iarchonnacht as it was known) on the other hand, was a land still untouched by English rule and comprised an area that covered approximately a quarter of a million acres, encompassing mountains to the north, the heavily indented Atlantic coastline to the west and south and Lough Corrib to the east. A series of restrictive bye-laws soon prevented the Gaelic clans from trading through the port of Galway, so severely reducing the O’Flaherty’s capacity to trade that they would always be at odds with their city-dwelling neighbours. Galway had grown into a powerful independent city-state, almost completely detached from the rule of both the Dublin and London administrations but feared the “ contaminating Irish influence” outside of its stout city walls. A ferociousness best exemplified by the people of Galway who represented the O’Flahertys as “ mountainous and wild people”, by whom “ they were sometimes robbed of their goods, and killed by those unlearned men”. This strongly held maritime outlook was one that was to sustain the O’Flahertys well into the sixteenth century and one that was to characterise their often-ferocious nature. There they had already gained reputation for their seafaring prowess, controlling both Lough’s Corrib and Mask as well as the trading mecca in Galway Bay. The cream of west Galway’s Gaelic nobility, the O’Flahertys, made Connemara their home for almost four centuries after being expelled by the Anglo-Normans from the rich limestone plains east of Lough Corrib in the thirteenth century. All the makings of a fascinating family history. If these walls could talk they would tell tales of adventure, of intrigue, and perhaps, even of murder. Its towering stone walls cast a long shadow on the wind-swept landscape, and today on approaching the castle under a canopy of hazel and hawthorn you can almost hear the sounds of swords clashing and banquet-cups clanging. The story of this family is deeply entwined with that of the castle, the only surviving O’Flaherty stronghold in the spectacular but impenetrable terrain of medieval Connemara. The tower house stands as a testament to what was the most powerful and influential force in late medieval Connemara – the rule of the ferocious O’Flahertys. Indeed, no other building in Connemara demonstrates more strikingly the authority and power of the medieval Gaelic lordships than Aughnanure Castle. This castle comes complete with all the prerequisites of medieval Gaelic lordly living - high stone walls, a drawbridge and even a hall dedicated to banqueting. On the leafy shores of the Drimneen River in the wilds of western county Galway stands a medieval fortress fit for a king.
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