When Guinness heir Garech de Brún died over a year ago, his final will and testament included a “bow gate” bequeathed to the city of Galway. “Garech never mentioned a Galway city gate, and so initially we didn’t know where it was,” Luggala’s project manager Tony Boylan says. Galway city heritage officer Dr Jim Higgins says he believes the “gate” may have been one of several installed as part of “bastions”, designed to withstand artillery, built for Galway from 1647 to 1652. “We think the gate was taken to Luggala from Mayo at some point, with plans for its restoration,” Mr Boylan says. The Galway “gate” is among items valued at more than €4m that were left to the State and to relatives.

Source: Irish Examiner June 08, 2019 04:07 UTC