Galway City Council has allocated €40,000 towards the erection of a Memorial Arch to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising.
Works on the arch – likely to be at the O’Brien’s Bridge entrance to Bruach na Coiribe – will commence next year and further funding will have to be provided in the following year’s budget to complete the construction.
Independent councillor Terry O’Flaherty welcomed the allocation of funding, after her notice of motion was unanimously supported by councillors.
“I am delighted with the funding to erect the arch as this will be a fitting memorial to the people who suffered in the pursuit of Irish freedom in 1916, and also the victims of the hostilities in later years, up to the end of the civil war in 1923.
“While nationally most of the focus on the events of 1916 centres around Dublin and the GPO and Boland’s Mills etc, County Galway was actually one of the most active areas outside of the capital at the outbreak of the Rising,” she said.
Cllr O’Flaherty said when the Memorial Arch was first mooted in the 1930s, it was earmarked to be erected at the O’Brien’s Bridge entrance to the walkway running along by the River Corrib.
“This would be a great addition aesthetically to the city centre, but the decision to have it at this location may have to come before the Council for approval,” she said.
The idea for such a memorial in Galway goes back 80 years and even John Wayne played a part in fundraising for it.
College Road native Sean Turke is credited with sparking the idea in the 1930s when he returned from the United States with money for the project donated by other Galway ex-pats.
”Years later, a local committee was set up and among their fundraising events was a gala concert and dance at Seapoint Ballroom in Salthill in 1951, attended by stars of ‘The Quiet Man’ – being shot at the time – including John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Barry Fitzgerald and Victor McLaglen,” said Cllr O’Flaherty.
The memorial committee commissioned Cork sculptor Seamus Murphy to design the arch, which included the inscription: “To the memory of the Men and Women of the City and County of Galway who suffered for the freedom of Ireland during the year 1916 and onwards.”
They managed to raise more than £2,000, but the project never got off the ground, despite a number of efforts to revive it over the years.
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