Lynch's Castle

Historic Building in Galway

CC BY-SA 3.0 / Bob Linsdell

The Lynch family, one of the influential merchant “tribes” that governed Galway from 1450 to 1690, resided in the fortified townhouse that still stands at the corner of Shop and Abbeygate Streets. During this period, the Lynch family contributed 80 mayors to the city.

In 1690, following the defeat of Catholic James II by William of Orange and his Protestant Army at the Battle of the Boyne, all Catholic properties, including the Lynch’s Castle, were seized.

However, the grim tale of Lynch’s Castle begins long before this battle. In 1493, Walter Lynch, the son of Mayor James Lynch, killed a Spanish sailor who had merely winked at a woman—an action that suggests Walter may have significantly overreacted, given the reputed fondness of Irish girls for Spanish sailors.

As mayor, it was James Lynch’s duty to administer justice to his own son. In a bid to maintain order and simplicity, he sentenced Walter to death. When a mob prevented him from taking Walter to a customary execution site, James resolved to handle it himself: he took Walter upstairs, tied him up, and threw him out of a window, an act that became the origin of the term “lynch mob.”

The castle itself underwent expansions in 1808 and was converted into a branch of Allied Irish Banks in 1930. The structure, which features four stories adorned with embellished windows, gargoyles, and ornamental cornices, also displays the Lynch coat of arms alongside those of Henry VII and the Kildare Fitzgeralds on its facade.

The Lynch's Castle appears in our Complete Guide to Visiting Galway!

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