Famous People from Galway

Here are some of the famous people from Galway!

The Gaelic heritage of the region has generated a long list of prominent figures writing in both Irish and English. Local writers include Walter Macken, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Liam O'Flaherty, Breand án Ó hEithir, Muiris Ó S úileabháin, Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, Oliver St. John Gogarty, Pádraic Ó Conaire, Dónall MacAmhlaigh, Frank Harris, Ellis Dillon and Lady Gregory, the founder of Abbey Theatre.

WB Yeats, a long-time friend of Lady Gregory, lived in County Galway during the turbulent early years of Irish independence, and his home at Thoor Ballylee [Thoor Ballylee, now better known as 'Yeats' Tower', is found off the N17 just outside Gort, 25 miles south of Galway City. The building, a restored medieval watchtower, gave titles to two of Yeats' best-known works: The Tower , and The Winding Stair is open to the public.

Galway also produced revolutionaries such as Eamonn Ceannt, Liam Mellowes and John Lynch, the last a signatory of the American Declaration of Independence.

Robert O'Hara Burke, the leader of the first European expedition to cross Australia; and Nora Barnacle, the wife of James Joyce on whom he based the character of Molly Bloom in his epic Ulysses . Although the Joyce family name is prominent in Galway, and the Joyces were one of the 14 'tribe' families, James Joyce himself does not have any recorded ancestry in the county.


091 56·11·11