15/07/2025
State of the Tribes of Galway in 1911. Interesting. I wonder how they fare today?
For several centuries from the 14th century onwards, political life in Galway was dominated by fourteen important merchant families, known collectively as the ‘Tribes of Galway.’
These were the Athy, Blake, Bodkin, Browne, D’Arcy, Deane, Font, Ffrench, Joyce, Kirwan, Lynch, Martin, Morris and Skerrit families.
Some of these names, most notably Joyce, remain exceptionally common in the county today - in fact Joyce Country in North Connemara was so named due to the large number of Joyces.
Others are exceptionally rare.
According to the 1911 census, this was the number of each of the Tribe surnames resident in Co. Galway by that time.
Athy - 13
Blake - 136
Bodkin - 90
Browne - 288 (65 of whom spelled their name 'Brown')
D’Arcy - 273 (some with an apostrophe, some without)
Deane - 15 (6 of these spelled their name as 'Dean')
Font - 0
Ffrench 40 - (10 of these spelled their name as 'French')
Joyce - 2,640
Kirwan - 92 (4 of these spelled 'Kirwin')
Lynch - 411
Martin - 661 (166 of whom spelled their name as 'Martyn')
Morris - 249 (48 of whom spelled their name as 'Morriss')
Skerrit - 58 (25 of whom spelled their name as 'Skerit')
Some Galwegians with these names live on in history.
One of the most famous stories of Galway was said to have taken place in 1493 and was inextricably linked with one of the Tribes, although it is difficult to verify.
In this year, it was stated that a young Spanish nobleman named Gomez was murdered by the son of James Lynch Fitzstephen, the mayor of Galway.
In response, the mayor was said to have hanged his son publicly out a window in Market Street in the town to show that the law treated everyone equally.
Che Guevara, an Argentinian native and fighter in the Cuban Revolution, was a descendant of the Lynches of Galway, members of the family having emigrated to Argentina from Galway in the eighteenth century
The MP Richard Martin, often known as ‘Humanity Dick’ due to his love of animals and his pivotal role in the founding of the Royal Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) was also a descendant of the Tribes and was at one point the largest landowner in Britain or Ireland with some 200,000 acres.
For more stories of life in Galway and the west of Ireland, see my book 'The Little History of Galway.' In all good bookshops or pick up a signed copy at:
https://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/1867494645/little-history-galway-ireland-colm
Pictured are Che Guevara and Humanity Dick Martin, two descendants of the Tribes of Galway.
