Order in Court

The stately Courthouse building in Galway is truly a beautiful piece of Georgian, not Victorian architecture, because it was built during the reign of King William III, he being the last king of Britain's Royal House of Hanover.

Now over two hundred years old, the Courthouse building was designed by the architect Sir Richard Morrisson, who had studied under James Gandon, designer the Customs House and Four Courts in Dublin. Gandon's architectural influence is quite evident in Morrisson's design. Our imposing building was built in 1818, as the County Courthouse, and it complemented the City Courthouse opposite it (now the Town Hall) on Courthouse Square, and the Galway prison (where the Cathedral now stands).

The Galway prison, jail or 'gaol', was built between 1807 and 1810, and the Salmon Weir bridge that connects the gaol to the courthouse, was built in in 1818.

Prisoners crossed the Salmon Weir bridge in chains, to face the judge (and sometimes a jury) and hear their fate. The jail held 68 prisoners in 1810, rising to 627 by 1847.

There were some 200 offences which merited execution by hanging if one was found guilty in 1810, though that sentence was by then uncommon, though not unheard of. One was far more likely to be sentenced to months or even years of hard labour (breaking stones), or to picking oakum, or to the treadmill, or to be whipped, or to be transported to Australia for a period of 7 - 30 years as a convict labourer, (both male and female prisoners were transported).

The photos below show the courthouse as it looked in 1923, as it stands today, a woodcut print of the courthouse with the bridge and gaol in the background (Hardiman), the gaol in 1936, a view today from Woodquay and finally the coat of arms that used sit atop the plinth above the columns at the Courthouse portico.

The massive stone coat of arms is now located in the University gardens, but the Post or Pillar box, is still in situ. It bears the insignia monogram of Queen Victoria (Victoria Regina).

Hmm .. If those grecian columns could only talk, sure we'd be here all day! These are the kind of stories I tell on my Walking Tours of Galway.