This is the time of year when schools reopen and pupils start a new phase of their lives in a different class with new teachers. As we watch the kids “Creeping like snail unwillingly to school”, many will nostalgically think back to their own schooldays, to the tricks we played on each other and on the teachers, to the nicknames we had, the games we played, the subjects we loved or hated, a favourite teacher, the injustices we suffered and so on. For most people, these will be happy memories.

This photograph of the interior of St. Nicholas’ Collegiate Church was originally taken c. 1890 and was given us by the National Library. The Leper’s Gallery can be seen over the arches to the left.

The church was originally built in 1320, a cruciform building without aisles. It was dedicated to St. Nicholas of Myra, patron saint of mariners. The site selected was long conservated to religion, a church having existed there for a long time, subject to the Cistercian Abbey of Knockmoy.

The Midland Great Western Railway arrived in Galway in 1851. Galway was a dreamy town then, recovering from the Famine, but the opening of the railway connected it to most other towns and cities in Ireland and was important from a commercial and from a tourism point of view. In 1872, the Galway Bay Steamboat set up a regular service to the Aran Islands. Galway was expanding and so was the suburb of Salthill, so in 1877, the Galway and Salthill Tramway Company was inaugurated. The Galway Town Commissioners gave the project every encouragement…. In fact they extended the time limit within which the tracks had to be laid.

There cannot be many families in Galway whose occupation has remained the same for three hundred years, but the Heaney family can boast of being consistent for that length of time. In 1704, Michael Heaney returned to Ireland after ten years working in the London Meat Market. With the experience he had gained he opened his own beef retailing shop the following year. Michael’s son, and in turn his son got involved in the business as it grew, passing their knowledge and skill from one generation to the next.