On June 17, 1901, Karl arrived in Galway and didn’t share much in the way of what he saw in the town, but he was sure to share with the Truro news some folklore about the city: “One of the ancient mayors of Galway had a son who was a rival with a shoemaker. Matters became serious, so bad in fact that the shoemaker was slain by the mayor’s son. In due time a trial was held and sentence of death passed on the youth, but being the son of the head man of the town, the mayor, no one would undertake to do the job; then the mayor said, I am neither a lawmaker nor a lawbreaker. I’ll hang him myself and hang him he did, out of the upper window of his own house. Up to the present day visitors to the quaint old town have the window pointed to them and are told in detail the story of the incident.”
The gist of the story is accurate, but upon visiting Galway, I found that the details aren’t exactly how Karl presented them.
The “ancient” Mayor was James Lynch Fitzstephen, who, in the year 1493, was also the Magistrate of Galway. He had a son named Walter, and Walter had a girlfriend. A Spanish merchant sailor named Gomez had expressed an interest in Walter’s girlfriend. And so, it was not a shoemaker slain by Walter, but Gomez! Upon confessing the murder, the appropriate justice was for Walter to be sentenced to death. Still, no executioner wanted to carry out the punishment, given that the offender’s father was the Magistrate and Mayor. But, James Lynch Fitzstephen prided himself on civic justice regardless of the family relationship. So, he brought his son to the public square himself on the morning of the hanging. But the crowd of onlookers were sympathetic and expressed that they didn’t want the sentence of death to occur. So instead James Lynch took his son Walter to a nearby house, placed a rope around his neck, and launched him from a window on the upper floor.
This story is known to all Galwegians and part of the city’s lore, but I’d suggest that there are better reasons to visit what became my favourite city in Ireland.
You can find everything in Galway. It’s a vibrant city centre where you can meander along cobbled streets to the various independent shops and restaurants or follow your ears to the sound of live music from one of the many pubs. Or walk alongside the River Corrib to the Spanish Arch, part of the medieval wall, to protect the city’s quays. It's also home to the National University of Ireland, which expands the city's population of 80,000 with the bustling of students who infuse Galway with positive energy.
But I did confirm there is a wall — or more like a facade — with a gothic doorway and a large window in the city’s market area. The Galwegians say that the window is from James Lynch’s house, out of which he hanged his son. Constructed in 1854, locals point out the window to visitors, and it serves as a memorial to the story of Walter Lynch. A story about the death of a Shoemaker or the one about the death of a Spaniard.