Motto: Forti et fideli nihil difficile (To the brave and faithful man nothing is difficult).
William Allen (also known as ‘Den’ or ‘Dene’) came to Galway from Bristol during the reign of Henry VI. A prominent civic leader, he became Provost, and his descendants served as early mayors and magistrates.
From 1500-1510, Edmund Deane was a member of the Corporation, and in 1503 he was elected Mayor of the city. The name does not appear in the records again until 1641 when Robert Deane is mentioned as a burgess. Around the same time Oliver Deane held two substantial houses in the city, both of which were forfeited to the Cromwellians. Three members of the family were member of the council of the corporation in the reign of James II, but like other Catholics, were removed when he was ousted by William III. One of them, Stephen Deane was empowered by the Jacobite Corporation in April 1688 to recover possession of several houses and other property in the city of Galway which had been taken over by the Warden of the Collegiate Church. The issue was one between the Catholic corporation and the Protestant Warden,
The last of the Deane family in Galway city may have lived in Middle Street, close to where the Taibhdhearch Theatre is today.
1651 Map: https://galwaycivictrust.ie/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Cantec_Scan-of-1651-map.pdf
Sources Consulted
Books
Dargan, Pat, Galway – City of Heritage, Eastwood Books, Dublin, 2024
Dowd, Peadar, “A Family Heritage in Stone”, Galway Roots- Journal of the Galway Family History Society West, Summer 1993, (pp6-8)
Hardiman, James, Hardiman’s History of Galway, 1820 (reprint, Connacht Tribune 1985)
Larkin, Patrick “SOME TOWN CASTLES OF GALWAY.”Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 72 (2020): 157–72.
Martyn Adrian, The Tribes Of Galway; 1124- 1642, Galway; Adrian Martyn, 2016
O’Neill T.P., The Tribes and other Galway families, (1984), reprint, Galway Civic Trust, 2013
Prunty, Jacinta; Walsh, Paul, Galway- Irish Historic Town Atlas No 28, Royal Irish Academy, 2016
Walsh, Paul, Renaissance Galway- Delineating the Seventeenth Century City, Royal Irish Academy, 2019
Internet
Welcome to County Galway Guide, ‘’Tribes of Galway”, (2007), https://www.galway-ireland.ie/galway-tribes.htm
