The history of Loughrea
Crannogs, de Burgo's town of 1236, Clanricarde, the garrison, the cathedral, the branch line, the mines. 12 moments, in order.
- 6th to 7th century
Crannogs on the lake
Up to fourteen crannogs, artificial island dwellings, have been found in Lough Rea, dating from the sixth and seventh centuries; the remains of one lie just behind the boathouse. The country round about, Trícha Máenmaige, was held by the Uí Fhiachrach Fionn and later the Uí Maine.
- 1236
De Burgo's castle
Richard de Burgo, an Anglo-Norman knight, founded the town in 1236 with a castle on the old route between the Shannon and the west coast. The medieval wall, the priory, the moat and a town gate can still be seen.
- 1543
Earl of Clanricarde
The Burghs took on Irish names and customs, married into the Gaelic nobility and even held the white wand of a clan chief, until Ulick Bourke, alias Mac William, surrendered his lands to Henry VIII in 1543 and had them back as Earl of Clanricarde, to pass by primogeniture.
- 1691
A skirmish in the Williamite war
By the 1700s Loughrea was a market and garrison town. During the Williamite war a Williamite attempt on Galway was beaten off in a short fight at Loughrea.
- 1700s
Stoney Brennan
A stone face on Millennium House at West Bridge remembers Brennan, hanged, the story goes, on Gallows Hill at Mount Carmel for stealing a turnip.
- 1890
The branch line
The station opened on 1 December 1890 on a branch from Attymon Junction. It closed on 3 November 1975, the last rural branch line working in Ireland, outliving the others by ten or twenty years and even seeing diesel trains; the motorway link road took most of the track bed.
- 1897 to 1902
St Brendan's Cathedral
William Byrne designed the cathedral of the diocese of Clonfert on the lakeshore in 1897 and it was finished five years later, with unusual double transepts. It is counted an important collection of Celtic Revival art and architecture, and it dominates the skyline.
- Late 1800s
The Gaelic Revival
Loughrea was at the centre of the revival: Celtic Revival art, the literary revival, Gaelic games and the Irish language all had their part in the town.
- 1916 to 1921
Independence
As in many garrison towns there was little support for the 1916 rising, though a battalion of Irish Volunteers existed here; it fought no major battle and mainly guarded the Sinn Féin club.
- 1960s
The Tynagh mines
A market town from 1920 to 1960, Loughrea got its first industry from the Tynagh mines ten kilometres east. A gas-fired power station stands on the mine site now, and pharmaceutical and data companies have followed.
- 2006 and 2007
Hurling
Loughrea won the Galway and Connacht senior club hurling championships in 2006 and reached the All-Ireland club final in 2007, losing to Ballyhale Shamrocks.
- 2022
6,322 people
The population grew from 4,004 in 2002 to 6,322 in 2022, the fourth-largest settlement in the county, a commuter town for Galway that is still a market town in its own right.
Where this comes from
Every paragraph above summarises a statement in Wikipedia, "Loughrea", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, as it read on 2026-09-19. Follow it for the footnotes. Nothing has been added from memory.