The Galway Arms and O’Brien’s Bridge: The Drowned Mayor

At the western edge of the old walled city stands O’Brien’s Bridge, previously known as the Great West Bridge, once the border between safety and the wild, a drawbridge between the walled Norman town and the less civilized Irish town. A nearby plaque today shows the Coat of Arms of Galway city, a sailing barque, evidence of trade with Spain. When it was the centrepiece of the drawbridge at the Mainguard garrison tower, it was flanked by a stone that once carried Galway’s plea to heaven, ‘From the ferocious O’Flaherties good Lord protect us’. It was placed here for good reason. On the 20th of November 1507 the O’Flaherties captured Mayor Arthur Lynch, and his two Sheriffs, Anthony Lynch and William Joyce, who had been across in Irish town collecting taxes. Surprising the now drunken tax collectors, the O’Flaherty gang dragged them to the bridge, and threw them into the Corrib. Their bodies were never recovered and Mayor Arthur Lynch became the first city Mayor to die in office. On still nights, when the moon is glistening on the Corrib waters, walkers on the bridge report seeing a man struggling beneath the surface, arms flailing, cloak twisting in the current. Some call emergency services but divers never find anyone. The water churns and settles as if nothing ever happened. The roar of the weir sometimes sounds like a man’s last breath. Those who live nearby say the current here never seems to rest.