Galway, Ireland

From Stormravengaming

Galway (official Irish name: Gaillimh) is the main city in the province of Connacht in Ireland and capital of County Galway. The city is located on the west coast of Ireland. In Irish, Galway is also called Cathair na Gaillimhe, which is a translation of "City of Galway."

The city takes its name from the Gaillimh river (River Corrib) that formed the western boundary of the earliest settlement, which was called Dún Bhun na Gaillimhe, or "the fort at the bottom of the Gaillimh." The word Gaillimh means stony as in "stony river." (Alternative, more mythical, derivations are also promoted.) The city also bears the nickname The City of the Tribes because fourteen "Tribes" (merchant families) led the city in its Hiberno-Norman period. The term Tribes was originally a derogatory phrase from Cromwellian times. The merchants would have seen themselves as English nobility and hence were loyal to the King. Their uncertain reaction to the siege of Galway by Cromwellian forces earned them this label, which they subsequently adopted in defiance.

The population of the city was 71,983 at the most recent census in April 2006, making it the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland after Dublin and Cork (not using county boundaries to measure population as they are not a true measure of a greater urban area). Galway city is the only one in Ireland where the greater urban area lies within its city boundary and therefore appears to be larger than other cities, such as Limerick, where the greater urban area lies in two or more local authority areas.

For a full description of the real-world city, see the article at Wikipedia.

In TV Superheroes

Galway is the hometown of the vampire Angel, who was known as Liam while he was still human.