Galway
City
Galway (Irish: Gaillimh) is the only
city in the province of Connacht in Ireland. The city
is located on the west coast of Ireland. In Irish, Galway
is also called Cathair na Gaillimhe: "City of Galway".
The city takes its name from the Gaillimh
river (River Corrib) that formed the western boundary
of the earliest settlement, which was called Dún
Bhun na Gaillimhe, or the fort at the bottom of the
Gaillimh. The word Gaillimh means "stony"
as in "stony river". (the mythical and alternative
derivations are given in History of Galway.) The city
also bears the nickname City of the Tribes / Cathair
na dTreabh, because fourteen[1] “Tribes”
(merchant families) led the city in its Hiberno-Norman
period. The term Tribes was originally a derogatory
phrase from Cromwellian times. The merchants would have
seen themselves as English nobility, and hence were
loyal to the King. Their uncertain reaction to the siege
of Galway by Cromwellian forces earned them this label,
which they subsequently adopted in defiance. It is one
of the constituent cities of the Cork-Limerick-Galway
corridor with a population of 1 million people.
The population of Galway city, as at
the 2006 census, is 72,414. Galway is Ireland’s
fastest growing city.
The population of Galway City and its
environs is 72,729 (based on the 2006 census carried
out by the CSO), of which 72,414 live in the city limits
and 315 live in the city's environs in County Galway,[4].
If the current growth rate continues, the population
of the city will hit 100,000 by 2020.[5]
Galway City (that is, the population
inside the city limits) is the third largest in the
Republic of Ireland, or fifth on the island of Ireland.
However, the population of the wider urban area, is
fourth largest in the Republic of Ireland (sixth on
the island) after Dublin, (Belfast,) Cork, Limerick
(and Derry).
Shop Street, the city's main thoroughfare.
The population of Galway is largely
descended from native Gaelic peoples and Norman settlers.
In recent years Galway has attracted a sizeable immigrant
community, largely from Poland and other Central European
and Baltic States such as Latvia and Lithuania, many
of whom work in the service industry. Small but growing
Nigerian and Filipino communities has also attracted
cultural and religious diversity to this west coast
city.
At the time of the 2002 Census, 16.3%
of the population were aged 0 to 14; 75.5% were aged
15 to 64, and 8.2% were aged 65 and above. Also, 52.9%
of the population were female and 47.1% were male. The
part of the city with the highest population density
was the Claddagh (5,756 people per km²), and the
area with the lowest density was Ballybrit (823 people
per km²)
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