Lynch's Castle, Galway

Lynch was one of the powerful merchant “tribes” who ruled Galway from around 1450 until 1690. The Lynch family lived in the fortified townhouse that still stands today at the corner of Shop Street and Abbeygate Street. Until 1690, members of the family provided no fewer than eighty mayors of the city, a testament to their influence and prominence in Galway’s civic life.

In 1690, following the defeat of Catholic King James II by Protestant King William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne, Catholic-owned properties, including Lynch’s Castle, were confiscated. Yet the dark legend surrounding the castle dates back much earlier. In 1493, Mayor James Lynch had a son named Walter, who murdered a Spanish sailor—reportedly for winking at a local woman. Irish women, it was said, had a fondness for Spanish sailors, and perhaps young Walter overreacted.

As mayor, it fell to James to deliver justice. When an angry mob prevented him from taking his son to the gallows, James took the law into his own hands. He brought Walter upstairs in the castle, tied a rope around his neck, and hanged him from a window—giving rise, according to legend, to the term “lynching.”

The building was later extended in 1808 and, in 1930, became a branch of Allied Irish Banks, which it remains today. The four-story limestone structure features elaborately carved windows, gargoyles, and ornamental cornices. The facade displays the Lynch family coat of arms, alongside those of King Henry VII and the Fitzgeralds of Kildare. The ground floor may be visited during business hours, allowing visitors a glimpse into the city’s most storied medieval residence.