This photograph was originally taken c.1870, and was given to us by the National Library.  It is probably the earliest photographic image we have of the Weir Fall, and of the Waterside.  You may be able to make out the trees which have just been planted.

To the left of the house on the left, you can just about see the tops of the houses on Bohermore, and to the right of that house, in the distance is the back of the County Infirmary, later the County Buildings.

The house on the left was later occupied by Horgans, and behind it was Dooley?s yard.  The house on the opposite corner belonged to Lallys and later to Cookes.  Right of that was Lydons, and to the right again was Corrib Castle.  This was later occupied by the O?Connor family. Out of picture, on the right, were some large sheds which were at one time a grainstore.  In fact Corrib Castle may also have been used as a grainstore as there was a large furnace there when the O?Connor family moved in.  The castle was at one time owned by James G. Alcorn of Corrundulla.

Most of the buildings in the photograph were at one time part of the Erasmus Smith Estate, which amounted in County Galway to 1400 acres, and included mills, houses and plots in Newtownsmith, Waterside, Francis Street and Eglinton Street.

On the 1651 map of Galway, this area was known as St. Stephens Island ? where the Abbey, the Courthouse, the Convent  and the Town Hall now stand.  It was cut off from the mainland by the Little Bridge River.  On the 1691 map, it is shown as Ship Island.  Both names are now obsolete.

The above information all comes for ?The History of Saint Francis Parish? by Mary Naughton.

A couple of weeks ago, we gave you a literary quiz.  We obviously made it far too difficult judging from the quality of, and the lack of responses we received.  Next time, we will make it easier.  These are the answers to the questions, and the identities of those in the photographs:

1)St. Josephs Avenue  2)W.B. Yeats  3)The Scatterin  4)St. Raphaels Loughera  5)Nora Barnacle, because her young lover had died  6)The Playboy of the Western World  7)Máirtín Ó Direáin  8) Raftery  9)Desmond Hogan  10)Were the Imperial Hotel is today  11)The Queen of Connemara  12)Dick Byrne  13)Tom Murphy & Noel O Donoghue  14)The New Cemetery  15)Liz Sin I Gcathú  16)Ken Bruen  17)?From scenes I roamed a boy?  18) M.J. Molloy  19)Liam & Tom O?Flaherty  20)Renvyle  21)Bank of Ireland, No. 43  22) Pat O?Shea  23)Caitlín Maude  24)Dominick Street  25)28 August 1928  26)Donal Mac Amhlaigh  27)Some Galway Memories  28)The Dark  29)Edward Martyn  30)Athenry  31)Kevin Brophy  32)Buttermilk Lane  33)Jerome Fahey  34)Anne Henning Jocelyn  35) Kevin Faller  36)Roderick O?Flaherty  37)The Mercy Convent  38)Pádraig De Brún  39)Athenry  40)Rain on the Wind  41)The Count De Basterot  42)Publishing  43)Eilis Dillon  44)Rita Ann Higgins  45)Kinvara  46)The Catholic, the Protestant, the Jew, the Presbyterian  47)The Magdalen Laundry  48)Moytura  49)Persse  50)Tomás Ban and Helena Concannon

The photographs were 1A)Eilis Dillon  2A)Gerald Hayes McCoy  3A)Máirtin Ó Direáin  4A)M.J. Molloy