On this Day… 1 July

By Ian Brophy

On this day, 1 July, 1816, the foundation stone for the new parish Catholic Church was laid on the corner of Abbeygate Street Lower and Middle Street. The foundation stone was laid on the site of an old 1752 church.

At the time, the Penal Laws forbade a Catholic priest to be seen in public, while Catholic persecution was still taking place. Despite this religious persecution, Protestant and Catholic clergy shared the wardenship of St. Nicholas’ Collegiate Church; a privilege given to Galway earlier in the 15th century. This resulted in the Protestant authorities turning a blind eye to the known locations where Mass was celebrated, and of the identity of Catholic priests in and around the town of Galway.
The foundation stone was laid by the Protestant Mayor, Hyacinth Daly, accompanied by the Sheriff and other magistrates and officers of the corporation; along with the Catholic warden of St. Nicholas’, Dr. Ffrench and his religious attendants. The warden handed a silver trowel to the Mayor who laid the foundation stone, watched over by a crowd of up to 10,000 persons.

On this very special day, 2 religions, which had been enemies for many years, came together in friendship and unity. A report from the time recorded that Galway witnessed a scene ‘unparalleled in her history, or in the history of the British Empire. It was an unusual but gratifying sight to behold Protestants and Catholics…………all clothed in their robes of office……….not to keep alive those feuds which have so long distracted our wretched country…….but to lay the foundation stone of an edifice ….to be a monument to succeeding generations of the unanimity, concord and harmony which exists between those of every religious persuasion in this loyal and extensive county’.

This new church, St. Nicholas’ Roman Catholic Church, was completed in 1821 and followed the late medieval style of tall castellations around the roof. The exterior is in a simple Gothic style built of rough cut limestone blocks with 2 storeys of pointed windows, a 5-bay facade with a 3-bay breakfront; windows with Y mullions and crests over them. Among those are the crests of the Blake, Lynch, Browne, Martin and French families.
Catholic Emancipation finally arrived in 1829, and 2 years later in 1831, the Catholic diocese of Galway was created. A diocese needs a Cathedral, but due to lack of funds, the existing St. Nicholas’ parish church became the temporary or pro-Cathedral.

On the night of the ‘Big Wind’, 6 January1839, a number of statues and stone decorations were blown down from the church and damaged; but the roof survived the storm.
On St. Patrick’s Day, 1841, Daniel O’Connell attended Mass at St. Nicholas’ parish church and afterwards went to Eyre Square to address 30,000 people.
At Christmas morning Mass (6 a.m), !842, there was a terrible tragedy. Someone of the congregation shouted that the gallery was about to collapse, and in the ensuing panic to evacuate the church; 36 Mass-goers were killed and a large number of the congregation were injured. Outside in the gloomy silence came the stark realisation that the gallery did not collapse, nor was there any danger of it collapsing. Over the following days there were pitiful scenes as the funerals took place in the very same church. In one day alone, 17 of the dead were buried in Forthill Cemetery. A later inquest determined that it was a ‘tragic accident’.

When Dr. Michael Browne became Bishop of Galway in 1937, the ceremony was conducted in the parish church of St. Nicholas’. During the ceremony Bishop Browne said that the present church was no longer adequate to accommodate the growing community; and so a new Cathedral was proposed.
A site had already been purchased with the intention of building a new Cathedral, but it was felt this site was no longer suitable; and so when a more suitable site became available in 1939 with the closure of the Galway Jail, the land was transferred to the Bishop of Galway for a new Cathedral.

When the new Cathedral was opened in 1965, the parish church of St. Nicholas’, the old pro-Cathedral, was deconsecrated and closed.

On this day, 1 July 1816, the foundation stone for the new parish Catholic Church was laid on the corner of Abbeygate Street Lower and Middle Street.